With Office Online you can review and edit Office documents directly from your modern web browser. Realtime co-authoring support for shared documents lets you and your collaborators work on the same document
together and view instant edits from other users. You can create new documents or open them from your OneDrive for Business storage. The online apps are robust enough to handle major document changes and features.
No downloads are needed and you’ll always have the latest features.
Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word are all available online. Excel supports many common formulas and functions, spreadsheet formatting, and features like charts. OneNote syncs all of your
notebooks and notes between the desktop, web, and mobile versions so you’re always up to date. PowerPoint authors presentations with text, themes, images, and animations, all while allowing you run the whole
presentation from your browser. Word can create a fully formatted document with headings, fonts, and page layouts. All of these files automatically save as you work.
Note that Access and Publisher are not available in Office Online.
System Requirements
Office Online’s only major requirement is a modern web browser: Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari are all supported. Because it’s based inside a
browser it helps if you have a fairly new computer as well, since your processor has to do a lot of the work to run the app. Older computers may not be able to process the web pages so you won’t have the
best experience. For best results your computer should be four years old or newer (and newer is better).
Start a New Document
Like most Office 365 apps, you can start any Office Online app from the Office 365 portal. After signing in just click the tile for the app you want and then use the familiar interface to create a new document.
Your changes are saved to OneDrive for Business as you work, but to find the file later you’ll want to formally name it and save it from the File menu. You can save directly into OneDrive with the desired filename
or you can download a copy to your computer. If you save to OneDrive and have sync turned on the file will automatically download to your computer’s OneDrive folder in a few minutes.
Open an Existing Document
The fastest way to open a document is from the Recent list in the Office Online app you want to use. If you haven’t opened the document before then launch the OneDrive app, browse to the file you want, and click on it.
If you try to open a fresh file within an app you’ll be sent back to OneDrive to select it.
Once you’ve opened a document via OneDrive you’ll be in Viewer mode, which is read-only. To edit the document click the Edit button in the upper-right and choose the Office Online option.
If you decide it would be better to edit in Office 2016 you can open it right from there, too. If you start working in Office Online and then realize that the features you need aren’t available, click “Open in” from
the top toolbar to launch the full version of Office.
Share a Document
If you’re working in a document and are ready to share it with others you’ve got a few options. First, you can choose if you want to invite people or get a link. If you invite people they’ll get a message
from you and a notification in Office 365. If you get a link you can send it out on your own or publish it on a website like Canvas. Second, you can choose what people can do with your shared file.
You control if others can edit the document or just view it, and then you choose if those people need to be signed in or if anonymous users can open it. You can mix and match permissions, too.
To share a document just click the Share button in the upper-right corner. Pick how you want to share it and click Share or copy your link (depending on the method you chose). If you want to review or modify
a document’s sharing click the “Shared with” option. You can change or remove access rights at any time.
Got a question? Let us know so that we can fill out this section! Visit the Get Help menu and choose Contact Us.
What all can you do with Office Online? Find out here.