Editing documents online

You can edit the following Microsoft Office documents online in the Projects app using any supported browser on Windows 7 and higher, and either:

  • Office 2013 (any installed version)
  • Office 2016 version 16.0.9 and higher
Note

Online editing may work on Windows 7, but it is not guaranteed. If online editing is not working for you on Windows 7, try upgrading your Windows OS.

Document Supported file types
Microsoft Excel
  • .xlsx
  • .xlsm
Microsoft Word
  • .docx
  • .docm
Microsoft Visio

.vsdx

Microsoft PowerPoint

.pptx

Permissions

Only Professional Managers and Professional Users can edit documents online. Contributor Testers and Contributor Users have limited privileges, and are only able to edit documents that they have attached themselves.

Locked documents

The lock icon is a security feature that allows Professional Managers, Professional Users, and Contributor Testers and Contributor Users with document requests to access supporting documentation. 

While you are editing a document, other users are restricted from making changes to the document to ensure your changes are not overwritten.

Note

Only Professional Managers are able to manually unlock documents being edited by other users.

Edit a document online

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Navigate to the page where you have an attached file.
  4. Click Edit next to the document.

    Your Diligent One credentials are automatically used to open the file.

  5. If you are prompted with security messages, such as trusting the website source to open the file, click OK and Allow.
  6. Make any modifications to the document.
    Note

    If the document opens in Protected View, select Enable Editing to modify the document, or disable the Protected View security setting within the document. For more information, see the Microsoft help.

  7. Click Save in the Microsoft document.

    Changes are saved automatically in the Projects app.

    Tip

    If you refresh the page in the Projects app, Added by userName - less than a minute ago displays next to the file, verifying that the file has been recently updated.

View attachment history

Note

For archived projects and cloned items, only the latest versions of attachments are retained.

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Navigate to the page where you have an attached file.
  4. Click Version history  beside the attachment.

    A dropdown list of attachment versions displays. Attachments are sorted by the date the file was last modified.

  5. Work with attachments by doing one or more of the following:
    • Download an attachment from the Projects app by clicking the file name.
    • Hover your cursor over the timestamp of an attachment to reveal the date the file was uploaded.
    • Click Delete  to delete an attachment.

      If there are multiple versions of the file available, you can choose to delete a single version or all versions. 

URL addresses for attachments

There are two different URL addresses for an attachment:

  • The URL address in your Microsoft Office document - Accessible by opening the Microsoft Office document and clicking File. The address is located below the name of the file.
  • The attachment link address in the Projects app - Accessible by right-clicking on the attachment link in the Projects app, and copying the link address.

URL address in your Microsoft Office document

The URL address in the Microsoft Office document has your unique session identifier built in.

For security purposes, the link expires 7 days after the last save of the document. All changes made to the document through this link will appear as changes made by the original user.

Caution

The URL address of your Microsoft Office document acts like a password for editing. Ensure that the document remains private by not sharing the URL.

Note

If your session expires or you log out, you may encounter a permissions error and need to sign back in to save your changes. If you are not signed in to the Projects app, and you attempt to save the document, you may receive an upload fail message in the Microsoft Office document. You can either sign in to the Projects app to save the document, or save a local copy and upload it to the Projects app.

Attachment link address in Projects

Use attachment links in the Projects app to reference files in your working papers.

Note

You can access the permanent link to the attachment providing you do not remove the file from the Projects app.

  1. Open the Projects app.

    The Projects homepage opens.

  2. Open a project.

    The project dashboard opens.

  3. Navigate to the page that has an uploaded attachment.
  4. Right-click on the attachment link and copy the link address.

    When you copy a link from a current version a file, the link will always point to the current version of the file.

  5. Navigate to the appropriate page that contains a descriptive field (rich text editor).
  6. Highlight the text you want to include as a reference and click the link icon .

    The Link window opens.

  7. In the URL field, paste the previously copied link, and click OK.

    Result The file is referenced in your working papers using a link. If you click on the referenced file in the rich text editor and select Go to Link, the file downloads directly to your computer. You cannot edit the file online directly from the link.