Editing MS Office files

The action menu  Edit  action locks the file and opens the appropriate Office application. Applying the “Save” operation in the Office application writes the file directly back to the BSCW server, replacing the existing one, or creates a new version if the document is under version control. Closing the document in the Office application unlocks the document.

Direct editing of MS Office files is based on functionality which has been provided by Micro­soft in more recent versions of MS Windows and MS Office. The requirements are:

•      Windows 2000, XP, or 2003;

•      Internet Explorer 5.5 or up;

•      Office XP or 2003;

•      the BSCW document is a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, or Visio file;

•      the document name on the BSCW server has the correct extension, e.g., .doc for a Word document.

Furthermore, your BSCW server must be configured so that

•      WebDAV is enabled (see 9.8 WebDAV) and

•      cookie authentication is not enabled.

If in doubt, ask your BSCW administrator.