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Shared dropbox links to open directly in Microsoft Office

1) Is it possible to send a link to a shared dropbox file but have it directly open in Windows? E.g. click on dropbox link to user/dropbox/word.docx and it opens up in Microsoft Word directly?

2) Or have it open the folder in Windows (which can be easily opened directly in Word) as opposed to the web version of dropbox.

It just makes our life easier if all we really want to do is to open up the file (I don't want to preview), make a few edits and click save. Right now you have to save to your local folders (or top-level dropbox), open, do the edits then drill through folders to save back where it came from.

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Accepted answers

Daphne

Thanks for getting back to me @yellow_pages!

To see the "Open with" option, you would need to be signed into your account online.

When signed in, opening a link to a file that exists in your account will redirect you to the file in its actual location. This way, it's like you'd opened it from your Files page.

I'm afraid that with this method of using a shared link, opening via the website can't be bypassed.

The only other method I could suggest would be to send the local file path, but this would be complicated if the app is installed in the default location under the User profile.

Each installation would be under a different User profile, which would look like:

C:\Daphne\Dropbox\Folder\File

To work around that, you would need to move the Dropbox folder to a common location to make the path the same (outside of the User profile for example).

Perhaps you could do a web search to see if there are any third-party apps that could assist you by allowing you to create relative paths to use instead.

I hope this helps somewhat!

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Daphne

Hey @yellow_pages, thanks for reaching out to us here on the Community!

It is possible to open a file from a shared link directly in your local Microsoft Office app, but you would need to meet a few requirements for this.

You would need to have the desktop app installed on the device, signed into the same Dropbox account that is signed in on the website.

Also, the file needs to be synced locally on your computer. If you have this set up, then from the shared link you can choose to "Open with" and choose either the File Explorer or the local Microsoft Office app.

If you open a file from the local Dropbox folder to make edits, it should save back to the same location, the same as it would work with any other folder on your computer.

Otherwise, I can suggest checking out the Microsoft Office Online Integration, which allows you to open and edit the files online.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions about this!

yellow_pages

Hi @Daphne, thanks very much for the response. Maybe I am missing something:

1) File links (not links to Dropbox folders) when clicked opens up the actual file on the dropbox website. From there, there is no "open with" option to open directly in Microsoft Word/etc. I can see if it were a dropbox folder link then it would take me to a folder view via the dropbox website where there is the Open button for "show in file explorer". I should add MS Online doesnt meet our requirements.

2) Can I confirm then, even with the above, there is no way to bypass opening of the dropbox website? Ideally clicking on the link should just open it directly in Office though I understand there are probably technical limitations.

3) Does the Dropbox desktop app change any of this for me? It doesnt seem to help though I haven't really used it all that much (I get shared links through Outlook/chat etc which just takes me to the online portal).

Thanks once again

Daphne

Thanks for getting back to me @yellow_pages!

To see the "Open with" option, you would need to be signed into your account online.

When signed in, opening a link to a file that exists in your account will redirect you to the file in its actual location. This way, it's like you'd opened it from your Files page.

I'm afraid that with this method of using a shared link, opening via the website can't be bypassed.

The only other method I could suggest would be to send the local file path, but this would be complicated if the app is installed in the default location under the User profile.

Each installation would be under a different User profile, which would look like:

C:\Daphne\Dropbox\Folder\File

To work around that, you would need to move the Dropbox folder to a common location to make the path the same (outside of the User profile for example).

Perhaps you could do a web search to see if there are any third-party apps that could assist you by allowing you to create relative paths to use instead.

I hope this helps somewhat!

yellow_pages

Hi @Daphne, thanks very much for the answers again. Not quite what I was hoping for but at least that firmly answers the questions I've always had.

I suppose the follow-up question is are any of these things likely to change in the not-to-distant future?

Daphne

You're more than welcome @yellow_pages!

I wish I had something else that I could offer you for this.

At the moment, I don't have any info to share on this. I can suggest though to share your request for this feature in our dedicated area of the forum here.

Others can also back you up by upvoting the idea to show their support, and this helps us to effectively gather feedback.

I'm always here if you need anything else though.

I hope you have a great day!