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wkeber's avatar
wkeber
Brass Contributor
Dec 20, 2019

Force Office Files to Open in Desktop App (via link, from web parts.. in all cases)

I want to force Office files stored in SharePoint to open in the desktop app - NEVER in Office Online apps. I have configured the site and the Document Library but opening in the native app only seem...
App
Document Library
files
onedrive
SharePoint Online
DavePFG's avatar
DavePFG
Copper Contributor
Sep 26, 2022

wkeber Thanks much for sharing this. Its quite helpful! In our case, since the problem stems from SharePoint, we opted to turn on the SharePoint "feature," to "Open Documents in Client Applications by Default." We will direct users to the specific library site, and instruct them to select the filename from there. 🙂

  • SJHBham's avatar
    SJHBham
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 28, 2022
    We were trying to get a similar use case to work. We're using a custom forms solution for a list with items that have associated documents. The default Name field for a document library only opens in the browser from the custom form. We ended up creating a new hyperlink column, populating the Url part of the link using Power Automate (in the format of https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/libraryname/documentname.fileextension), and turning on the Open Documents in Client Applications by Default site collection feature. This combination seems to be working for us. We couldn't push the Office Uri Schema because Power Automate flows wouldn't successfully validate it as a safe URL.
    • eroh36's avatar
      eroh36
      Copper Contributor
      Nov 29, 2022
      I think this is the best solution! Well, besides Microsoft Word improving parity between its many versions...

      I also created a separate column that appended the URI scheme to the front of the link, and of course, faced the same issue as you that Teams/SharePoint require links placed in a column of type "hyperlink" to begin with "hhtp://" or "https://".

      My workaround was to have Power Automate send a link via chat/email to the user. I did this using the Approvals application, which has its own field for inputting a dynamic link in Power Automate. This field does accept URI Schemes.

      I realize this isn't a great solution for everyone. In my case, I was unable to mandate the turning on of the "Open Documents in the Client App" setting for all users.

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