Forum Discussion
excel editng
whywontthiswork365 THis will not work with network files on your system. You can do this with files stored online in OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or Sharepoint online (All part of Office 365.) See this article to get started with all of that if you can store the file in the cloud.
Ed Hansberry I was afraid of that, seems like it should be an easy thing to do, was wanting to avoid using onedrive because its more steps and takes longer, thanks for your answer
The reason is Microsoft servers are doing some of the actual work, not the desktop clients, to coordinate the changes, and it is also securely allowing outsiders you designate to access the file. I cannot imagine the hassle it would be for an IT team to allow outsiders to access specific files on the network (non-employees, short of setting up a VPN then setting very specific permissions for files as opposed to entire shares), and even then, the server component only exists in the cloud services of Office 365/OneDrive.
How it could take more steps with OneDrive? Back to your example, you sent email to persons 1 and 2 with attachment on the file as link, Person 1 click on attachment (that is link), edit and notify person 2 he may continue. Or the could work in co-authoring mode if person 2 doesn't need to wait data from person 1. As a bonus you have automatic version control and always may check who, when and what edited.
