Egnyte for Microsoft Office Desktop enables real-time co-editing on Office Online and Office Desktop applications. The integration allows you to co-edit your Microsoft docs and collaborate with your colleagues across Desktop, Web & Mobile applications with all changes saved automatically to your Egnyte account.
Benefits
- Co-Edit files in the same collaboration session while using either Microsoft Office Online or Office Desktop Apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
- Directly save Microsoft docs on Egnyte through your Office applications. No SharePoint setup is needed.
- Easy access to co-edit on desktop through your web interface or Egnyte Desktop app.
- The integration is an official Microsoft-supported program.
- Increased file size limits for Online and Desktop Co-Editing.
Integration Availability
Office Applications Supported
- Office Apps on Mac (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Office Apps on Windows (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Egnyte Platform Compatibility
- Egnyte Web App (Egnyte WebUI)
- Egnyte Desktop App for Windows
- Egnyte Desktop App for Mac
- Egnyte Desktop App for Mac Core
- Egnyte Android (Coming Soon)
- Egnyte iOS (Coming Soon)
Requirements
Office Subscriptions
- Users require an Office 365 Business license
- Microsoft license must allow for Office Desktop Apps and they should be downloaded onto a user's machine
- Perpetual licenses are not supported (Office 2016, Office 2019, etc.)
Getting Started
Activation must be done on both Office Products (either one of Word, Excel or PowerPoint) and in the Egnyte App Store.
Step1 : Enablement in Egnyte App Store by Admins
Find the integration on the Apps & Integrations page: On the Apps & Integrations page, find the Microsoft Office Desktop tile under the Featured section. You can also search for this integration using the filters search bar.
2. Click on Enable Integration: You can enable the integration in multiple ways:
- Added for all users: Makes it available to all users
- Allowed for all users: Makes it available to all users, but the users need to add the integration if they want to use it
- Added for Groups: Makes it available to specific group of users (who have Microsoft Licenses)
- Allowed for Groups: Makes it available to a selected group of users, but the users need to add the integration if they want to use it
We recommend enabling using the "Added for all" users option.
Set the integration as default app for editing and hit Save.
3. Admins also can set the default option for one-click coediting under the App Control Center tab on the Apps & Integrations page: This is a prioritized list of available co-editing applications whose order can be changed via drag-and-drop. The ranking order sets the one-click default coediting application for users on the Web UI and Egnyte Desktop Apps.
The Admin setup is complete on the Egnyte side.
Enablement in Microsoft by Users
To enable opening, editing, and co-authoring files stored in Egnyte using the Office Desktop applications, before first use, every Egnyte User needs to follow the below steps:
- Open a Microsoft Office application
- Go to "File" -> "Account" -> "Add a Service" -> "Storage" -> "Egnyte"
- Authenticate in window pop-up with Egnyte domain
Disclaimer: Users who are “Allowed” by the admin need to follow some extra steps before they can start using the integration:
1) Go to the Web version of Egnyte
2) Go to Apps & Integrations
3) Find Microsoft Office Desktop, and select "Add"
View this link to learn more
Updating Microsoft Update Channel
Microsoft has multiple update channels for the integration. Currently, the Egnyte options is available on all channels (Current, Monthly Enterprise, and Semi-Annual Channels)
Overview of Microsoft Update Channels
There are multiple ways to update the Office Channels. Here is a comprehensive list provided by Microsoft - Change Update Channels
Here is one method to update your Org Settings to the correct update Channel:
1. Log into O365 Admin
2. "Settings" -> "Org Settings"
3. Click "Microsoft 365 app installation options"
4. Select "Current Channel" or “Monthly Enterprise Channel”
5. Click "Save"
Mass Deployment
Configuring co-editing can be done through mass deployment. The script will automatically add Egnyte as a place on the Microsoft Applications. The end user will still need to click on it and authenticate their Microsoft App to their Egnyte domain. Click here for more information.
Limitations
File Size Limits for Office Online Co-Editing:
- Excel 50 MB
- Word 100 MB
- PowerPoint 2 GB
File Size Limits for Office Desktop Co-Editing:
- Excel 300 MB
- Word 300 MB
- PowerPoint 2 GB
Other Limitations
- File Types supported are docx, pptx, xlsx, and xlsm
- Co-Authoring performance is targeted at “classroom size” less than 50 users
- Launching form Egnyte Desktop Apps is limited to Power Users in Egnyte
- The Microsoft Applications can only be connected to one Egnyte domain at the time. In order to launch a file in another domain the user must log off Egnyte from their Microsoft App and sign into their other domain. Once that is completed they will be able to launch in co-edit mode in their other domain
- @mentions feature is not available with this integration on the Microsoft document
- On Excel linked sheets will only be available to the user that created the link and if that link is also located in the same Egnyte domain.