Collaborate on Word documents with real-time co-authoring

Creation date: 4/24/2025 3:48 PM    Updated: 4/24/2025 3:48 PM   collaboration documents onedrive sharepoint
When someone shares a Word document with you, the email you receive includes a link that opens the document in your web browser: in Word for the web. Select Edit Document > Edit in Browser.


If anyone else is working on the document, you'll see their presence and the changes they're making. We call this coauthoring, or real-time collaboration.


From here, if you'd rather work in your Word app, switch from Editing to Open in Desktop App, near the top of the window.


If you're using an older version of Word, or if you're not a ​​​​​​ Microsoft 365​​​​​​​ subscriber, you can still edit the document at the same time others are working in it, but you won't have real-time collaboration. To see others' changes and share yours, you'll have to save the document from time to time.


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