To work together in Word for the web, you edit a document as you normally would. If others are also editing it, Word for the web alerts you to their presence, and shows you the paragraph they’re working on. There’s no special co-authoring mode and no command to begin co-authoring.
As authors come and go, Word for the web notifies you briefly.
Microsoft office for mac versions compared. If you have Word 2010, Word 2013, or Word for Mac 2011 you can prevent losing your changes by opening the document in the Word desktop application. Click Open in Word, copy your changes from Word for the web, and then paste them in the document in Word. When you save the document in Word, your changes are saved on the server. Automatically start an Office program when you turn on your computer. Excel for Office 365 Word for Office 365 Outlook for Office 365 PowerPoint for Office 365 Publisher for Office 365 Access for Office 365 Visio Plan 2 Visio Professional 2019. Right-click the Office program you want to automatically start, and click Open file location.
You can always see who is currently working in the document by clicking near the top of the window.
A colored indicator shows you where others are editing the document.
Opening the document in your desktop application
If you want to make changes that require features of the Word desktop application, click Open in Word and continue editing. For example, you might want to add a table of contents or a bibliography whose entries update automatically.
Note: Co-authoring in the Word desktop application requires Word 2010, Word 2013, or Microsoft Word for Mac 2011.
In the Word desktop application, be careful not to introduce content or functionality to the document that will prevent other authors from editing the document in Word for the web. For example, don’t use permission features such as editing restrictions or marking the document as final. If you want to restrict access to the document, use the permission features where the document is stored (OneDrive, Office 365, or SharePoint).
If someone does save the document with features that aren’t supported by Word for the web, you can still co-author, just not in Word for the web anymore. If everyone in the group has Word 2010, Word 2013, or Word for Mac 2011, continue working together in Word (click Open in Word and continue editing).
If someone in the group doesn’t have one of those versions of Word, you need to remove the unsupported features from the document so that everyone can continue to work together in Word for the web. Do the following:
In Word for the web, click Open in Word (requires Word 2003, or later, or Word for Mac 2008 12.2.9 or later).
In the Word desktop application, remove the unsupported features. For details about what’s supported, see Differences between using a document in the browser and in Word.
Save the document (press Ctrl+S in Windows, or ⌘+S on the Mac).
If you used Word 2003, Word 2007, or Word for Mac 2008 12.2.9, close Word so that others can continue co-authoring the document in Word for the web.
If another author saves the document with unsupported features before you have saved the document in Word for the web, you might not be able to save your work in Word for the web. If you have Word 2010, Word 2013, or Word for Mac 2011 you can prevent losing your changes by opening the document in the Word desktop application. Click Open in Word, copy your changes from Word for the web, and then paste them in the document in Word. When you save the document in Word, your changes are saved on the server.
If co-authoring in Word for the web isn’t working
If co-authoring isn’t working in Word for the web, it might be because someone has the document open in a version of Word that doesn’t support co-authoring. The document might contain features that are not supported for editing in Word for the web, or some other problem. For help, see Troubleshoot co-authoring Word documents.
Note: In SharePoint 2010, Word for the web does not support co-authoring, but you can work together in Word 2010, Word 2013, and Microsoft Word for Mac 2011.
-->Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Summary
This article describes how to prevent files from automatically opening when you start Microsoft Excel.
More information
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When you start Excel, all the files that are located in the XLStart folder are automatically opened. This behavior occurs regardless of the kind of file. Additionally, if you specified an alternative startup folder for Excel, every file in that folder is also automatically opened.To remove an alternative startup folder:
- Select the File menu and then select Options.
- Select the Advanced tab and then locate the General section.
- Clear the box next to 'At startup, open all files in:'.
Excel might stop responding or take longer to start if either of the following conditions is true:
- The files in either startup folder aren't valid Excel workbooks or worksheets.
- The files are stored on a network drive that has a slow network connection.
How to prevent files from automatically opening in Excel
Use one of the following methods to prevent files from automatically opening when you start Excel.
Remove files from the XLStart folder and the alternative startup folders
To remove files from the XLStart folder and the alternative startup folders, follow these steps:
Select Start, and then select Run.
In the Open box, type one of the following and press Enter:
For Office365 or 2019 32 bit:
C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficerootxxXLSTART
For Office365 or 2019 64 bit:
C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficerootxxXLSTART
Where 'xx' represents the version that you are using (for example, Office15, Office14, etc.).
Also try the following:
- %appdata%MicrosoftexcelXLSTART
- C:UsersUserNameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftexcelXLSTART
Delete any files in the XLStart folder or move them to another folder.
Restart Excel.
Start Excel in safe mode
Note
This is only a temporary solution that will not fix the issue. To use this method, it must be done every time that you start Excel.
Another method for preventing files from automatically opening is to start Excel in safe mode. Starting Excel in safe mode prevents all Excel add-ins, toolbar customizations, and startup folders from loading when the program is started.
There are two ways to start Excel in safe mode: the CTRL key and command-line switches.
Using the CTRL key
To start Excel in safe mode, hold down the CTRL key while you start Excel. You will receive the following message: Excel has detected that you are holding down the CTRL key. Do you want to start Excel in Safe mode? Select Yes to start in safe mode.
You can then delete files from the alternative startup location as described earlier.
Use Command-line switches
In all versions of Excel, you can use a command-line switch to start Excel in safe mode.Both the /safe switch and the /automation switch can be used for this purpose.
Note
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The /safe switch starts Excel in safe mode. The /automation switch disables all automatically opened files and auto-run macros.
To use a command-line switch to start Excel, follow these steps:
Select Start, and then select Run.
In the Open box, type either of the following lines (but not both):
excel.exe /safe
excel.exe /automation
Select OK.
Note
If Microsoft Windows Installer starts when you use one of these command-lines switches, clickCancel to finish starting Excel.
Press the ESCAPE key
Note
This is only a temporary solution that will not fix the issue. To use this method, it must be done every time that you start Excel.
Another method for preventing files from automatically opening is to press the ESCAPE key (but do not press and hold). When you press ESCAPE after the files start to open, Excel is prevented from opening additional files.
Using this method, you may receive one or both of the following messages:
- Would you like to cancel opening all files from your Alternate Startup File Location?
- Would you like to cancel opening all files from your XLStart Location?
If you click Yes in either message, Excel starts without opening any additional files from the startup locations.
Note
Do not hold the ESCAPE key. If you do this, the messages will be closed before you can click Yes.
References
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For more information about Excel startup folders, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles: