At Inspire Cloud, we have been asked previously, if you can change the default Office application association within Microsoft Teams and prevent the files opening in Office Online (Office for Web) by default, such as Word and Excel Online.
Whilst we could change a setting in SharePoint Online (where the files are stored) the Teams desktop app would continue using the Online apps by default when opening and creating files, unless you specifically opted to open it in the desktop app.
However, the good news is that from August you will be able to change this setting on a per-user basis currently in your profile settings, so by default you can now use the Office desktop applications to create and edit files in Microsoft Teams.
WHY WOULD YOU NOT USE THE ONLINE APPS, LIKE WORD ONLINE?
At Inspire Cloud, we do recommend that you continue to use the Online Apps as they provide most of the functionality you need, although some areas like tracked changes in documents are not fully supported through the Online App’s and therefore for some, the Online apps are too limited for broad use. You can find a detailed list of what is and is not, supported in Office Online here.
In addition, some clients have concerns about the compliance components of Office Online, in that some analytical data is to send to Microsoft to improve the products, and the detail is a little hazy on what that is used for and therefore some clients will not trust Office Online to edit confidential documents and instead rely on the traditional desktop applications.
Also, it’s worth noting that you may also have some add-ins installed on your computer for additional capability, which are not available and delivered through Office Online and therefore you may need access to the desktop applications to deliver functionality through those traditional add-in’s.
LET’S FIND OUT HOW TO CHANGE YOUR DEFAULT OFFICE EXPERIENCE
Firstly, this change is rolling out from mid-August 2021, and it will be available in most tenants by late September 2021, but for GCC and DOD tenants, this will be released by early October 2021 and therefore if you don’t see the option today, you may see it soon. You also must be running Office desktop version 2016 or higher to enable this change.
To change your default setting, you can follow these simple steps in your Microsoft Teams desktop app:
- Select your profile picture (or three dot menu) and select ‘Settings’
- Head to ‘General’ and scroll down to ‘Files’
- You can now change whether Word, PowerPoint and Excel Files open in Teams (default), Desktop App or Browser
- Save your changes
WHAT IF JUST WANT TO OPEN A SINGLE FILE THROUGH MY DESKTOP APP?
You have the option to manually choose the location of where a specific file is opened, by selecting the three-dot menu next to your files in Teams, and selecting ‘Open in’ and then choosing Teams, desktop app or browser (Office Online)
WHAT IF I AM USING TEAMS FOR WEB AND NOT TEAMS FOR DESKTOP?
Unfortunately, you will have an option to change the default experience but will be limited to only ‘Teams’ or ‘Browser’ to open the file, which is basically using Office Online for either option.
NEED MORE HELP WITH MICROSOFT TEAMS?
If you need help with anything further in Microsoft Teams, feel free to contact us at Inspire Cloud and we will help you with all things, in Microsoft Teams.
