How to Edit a Document with Your Team

Open an existing compatible file in the same real-time collaborative editor used for new documents, instead of just downloading it.

Before you start

The file must be one of: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .doc, .xls, .ppt, or .odg. Other file types (PDFs, images, plain text, zips, and so on) can't be opened this way — the button described below is disabled for them.

Steps

1. Click Docs in the top nav, then Manage My Docs (or go directly to the Document Manager).
2. Find the document in any of the document tabs (Original Docs, Edited Docs, System Docs, Shared With Me, etc.).
3. In the Actions column, hover the first icon (a pencil-with-lines). If the tooltip reads "Open in Docs," click it — if it instead reads "Not editable in Docs," the file type isn't supported (see Prerequisites).
4. A new tab opens and loads the file into the real-time editor.

What you'll see

The document opens for editing in the same collaborative editor used when creating a new file. Changes save back to the original document.