Ever found yourself juggling edits and revisions on a document with a colleague? It can get messy fast! Luckily, Microsoft Word offers some great collaboration features to make this process smoother. These tools allow you to track changes, accept or reject them, and co-edit in real-time.
To get started, you’ll need a recent version of Word, ideally Microsoft 365, a stable internet connection, and a Microsoft account. Make sure you’ve also got OneDrive enabled on your machine.
Step 1: Saving Your Document to OneDrive
- First things first, fire up Microsoft Word from your Start menu or open the online version through your browser.
- Create a new document, or open an existing one that you want to work on with someone else.
- Next, head over to the ‘File’ menu, select ‘Save’, and then pick OneDrive as your save location.
- Select the specific OneDrive folder where you want to store your document. Give it a name, and save away. Alternatively, you can save it locally first, then upload it later to OneDrive.
Note: If you're on Microsoft 365, your documents usually autosave to OneDrive, so you're one step ahead!
Step 2: Inviting Collaborators
Once your document is nestled in OneDrive, you’re ready to share it with others.
- Access your Word document from OneDrive by giving it a double-click.
- After opening, hit the ‘Share’ button on the top right corner. You’ll find the option to share via email. Just type in the name or email of your collaborator.
- Alternatively, you can use the ‘Copy Link’ option and then share that link directly with your collaborators.
- When sharing via email, you can also fine-tune permissions. Click the gear icon in the ‘Share’ dialog box to adjust these settings.
- You can choose who can access the document—anyone with the link, people with existing access, or specific individuals.
- Under “More Settings,” you can decide whether your collaborators have editing rights or view-only permissions. For genuine teamwork, it’s best to select “Can edit” before clicking “Apply”.
- If you have Microsoft 365 premium, you can even set an expiry date or a password to beef up your document security.
- Once you have all the permissions set up, type in the email or name of the person and add an optional message before sending the invitation using the ‘Send’ button.
Things to know
- Once everything’s set, collaborators can simultaneously work on the document. Changes made by anyone show up in real-time, and color-coded cursors help identify who’s editing what.
- Collaborators can add comments by selecting some text, right-clicking, and choosing ‘New comment’ from the review tab. Others can then reply, creating comment threads.
- A review pane on the side will show all the changes and comments that are being made.
- You can also enable ‘Track Changes’ under the review tab, to keep a thorough track of all insertions, deletions, and other changes. Each collaborator will also have their own flag so you can easily see where each is working.