Forum Discussion
Links to Sharepoint Document in Excel Opens in Browser
domemsgroup
Really interesting reading - I first though I was alone in this.
I'm trying to open a Word document, saved in a SharePoint site, with Excel.
The "ms-word:ofe|u|" prefix doesn't work and your instruction about setting default browser actions cannot be found in Excel's options.
Is it possible to obtain a little helping push to make it work?
It's Office 2016 products.
You need to copy the file path from the file
then the link would be
"ms-word:ofe|u|" your file path then remove ?web=1 from the end of the pasted text.
msword:ofe|u|https://yourfilepath.docx
remove?web=1
- AthenianRazakSep 26, 2019Brass Contributor
domemsgroupThis doesn't work because there's no app registered by default in Windows to handle this link as you've constructed it, and none are offered by Windows. Beyond that, this is a kluge workaround and not a solution to the real problem. No typical user is going to edit hyperlinks - this platform is for people doing real everyday work, not techheads who are willing to code their way around Microsoft obstacles.
- domemsgroupSep 26, 2019Copper Contributor
AthenianRazak Agreed its ridiculous. Its a basic requirement for a user to link files wherever they maybe.
This was a fix for one case I came across after a SharePoint Migration.
- JentimusJan 22, 2020Copper Contributor
Here is what I do to make links to SharePoint documents open in their client apps:
1. To make the link work from SharePoint, the library settings (advanced) must be set to open in Client (but if in classic view this setting is ignored).
2. When you paste the link you copy from SharePoint, remove all text after the document extension beginning with the ? (so it just ends with the document extension) – otherwise when someone clicks the link in any MS app, the document opens in a browser.
IMO, it would be simpler for SharePoint to simply provide a choice of two versions of link - one that ends in the document extension (call in 'Client link') and one that has the other stuff at the end (call it 'Browser link') but until then this is a fairly easy fix and it works in my world - hope it works for you too!