Forum Discussion
Kaushal-Mehta
Microsoft
MicrosoftNow in Teams Public Preview: Default file open setting for office files
Feature description
The Teams desktop and web apps for Windows and Mac now enable users to configure the default app used to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files that have been shared in Microsoft Teams.
Users can configure Teams to open the file directly in Teams (default), open in the web browser, or open in the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint desktop apps.
Prior to this feature rollout, clicking a PowerPoint, Word, or Excel file shared in Teams would open the file in Teams. Users could then select the option to open the file in the browser or Office desktop app.
Alternatively, users could select More options (...) > Open and then select the target app in which they want to view/edit the Office file.
Note: While it was not previously possible to change the default, this menu now offers an entry point for users to change the default app used to open Office files.
Screenshot showing the options for opening an Excel spreadsheet from the Teams desktop app
Screenshot showing the 'Change default' options to configure which app is used to open Office files
Flighting status
Available to all starting now.
How to enable your client for Preview
Step 1: IT admins – read instructions here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/public-preview-doc-updates
Step 2: Users – read instructions here
Feature release notes
Feature should be mentioned here before posting - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/current-channel-preview
How to enable the feature
The ability to change the default app used to open Office files is available to all users by default. There are no admin controls or policies to disable this feature.
Users can navigate to Teams Settings > General and scroll down to the Files section. The dropdown menu can be used to select the default app to open Office files:
- Teams (default)
- Desktop app
- Browser
Screenshot of Teams general settings with the option for setting default Office file app highlighted
Note: The option to choose 'Desktop app' is only available when using the Teams desktop app for Windows or macOS and only applies to that device. The Teams web app only shows options for 'Teams' and 'Browser'.
O365 workload, Microsoft products dependency
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Workload, product etc |
Dependency (Yes/No) |
If yes, please share version requirement and any other dependency requirements |
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Office build |
Yes |
To open a file in the Office desktop apps, users must install and activate version 16 or higher of PowerPoint/Word/Excel. |
Clients supported -
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|
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Known issues
NA
Known limitations
To open a file in the Office desktop apps, users must install and activate version 16 or higher of PowerPoint/Word/Excel.
How to provide feedback
If you run into any issues report them via your Teams client -- Help (bottom left) -- Give feedback
Thank you,
Preview Team @Soumitra Paul
Quality & Customer Obsession, Microsoft Teams
Is it possible to add an item here. For example: open with "NOTHING".
Because I want to force the users to open a document in this phase. Please do not ask why. And I want also a registry key or setting to control this to "NOTHING". And user may NOT CHANGE this setting.
Is it possible? If you ask why, the answer is; because want that feature to secure some settings. And we want also set all the settings via registry or json files. Can you also give instructions/manual about this?
Soumitra PaulMetin Baygül - Thanks for sharing the feedback.
Can you please elaborate more about your requirement.
Are you saying you need an additional option under Files open settings? (like "Teams/Desktop/Browser/"NOTHING")?
- Hi, is being able to set this as an MS Teams admin for the organisation rather than it being for individuals going to be added?
Regards,
Lee Unfortunately all files opened via the search bar still open within Teams, the setting is useless for anyone wanting to utilise the convenience of the search bar. Please fix this ASAP as otherwise the feature is useless to many of us. Cheers!
Seems that it's still missing for some users in my tenant and some users have this setting...
Edit: Did some digging, on their computers the option doesn't show up but if they login to my laptop(which isn't domain connected), this option shows up... We are running the latest Office build aswell as teams 🙂
Are there any additional requriements ?
- Same here, some users (M365 Prem) have and some don't have the option for setting 'Desktop App' as Default. I myself on my main PC (.26376), do not - on other devices, I do get the option - so device dependant.
Richy72I'm running into the same situation. We are not using the preview. Some of have the option and others do not. I had the option on one device and then ran both Office and Teams updates and now I no longer have the option. Would love to figure out how to get it back.
- Hi, I now have this feature. I found the following:
When I open files in Team Channels - it does respect my choice.
When I open files in Chat - it does NOT respect my choice and always opens in Teams.
When I open files in "popped out" Chat - It does respect my choice.
When I open files from Search - it does NOT respect my choice and always opens in Teams.
Is it expected work like this? Or is it a bug that it fails to work in Chat (unless popped out) and search?
Many Thanks.- Soumitra Paul
Kaushal-Mehta I currently have Teams version 1.4.00.26376, but do not have the option to set the default file opening behaviour. I've looked under Settings>General and it is not there as you've got it pictured. It is also not available when clicking the ... beside a file name. Any advice?
- Soumitra Paul
Thanks for sharing the issue!
Based on user feedback recently we have moved this setting under files section.
Can you please confirm if you can see this setting under Settings -> Files as shown below -
- No, I cannot.
Not appearing for me either.
Teams version 1.4.00.22472 (64-bit). It was last updated on 19/08/2021.
Office Version Microsoft 365 MSO (16.0.14228.20216) 64-bit
Tried logging out and in.
Tried fully quitting.
Developer Preview and Public Preview both allowed and on.
I'd say you have a "Known issue" from looking at these comments.
The option to Open in app appears...
but does not appear to be possible to set as default...
- The Desktop App option is missing in my Teams., so this much desired function is useless for me currently I've got Teams and Browser as the only two options to change the default to. I have this version of M365 Apps for Enterprise Installed:
Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (16.0.13929.20406) 64-bit- Hey, I could reproduce this having only Teams and Browser as choice. My "Desktop app" option only appeared when selecting "Quit" from the taskbar, "Sign out" made no difference, which usually is the way to go with updates.
Step 2: Users – read instructions here [Link from Jessica Reading]
There's no link. Please could this be added? Thank you
- How do I get this feature?
I tried updating the app, and also downloading it again. I now have version 1.4.00.19572 (64 bit).You can download a specific Teams version from this link (replace the version number) : https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/production-windows-x64/1.4.00.13872/Teams_windows_x64.exe
Last version seems to be 1.4.00.20451 and that version shows the 'Desktop App' as an option !!
- I upgraded to the newest version, but I still don't see the option to choose how to open files. There's no selection box under General.
- Hi, see the instructions above. Step 1 to start with https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/public-preview-doc-updates
Your Teams / IT admin needs to enable this for you.
