Co-author Documents in Real-Time

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About this lesson

Harness the power of Teams in Microsoft 365 to work with multiple people on documents in real-time.

Quick reference

Co-author Documents in Real-Time

Collaborate on documents with other team members. 

When to use

We use co-authoring whenever we want to collaborate with team members on a document and see those changes update in real-time. 

Instructions

Teams make the process of seamlessly collaborating on documents with other team members easy. If we share a link to a document in Teams with others or open a Teams file in a browser, everyone in the channel can open and make changes to the document. Those changes can be seen in real-time by everyone. 

The Files tab in a team channel will show all files shared in that channel. If we click on the Files button in the main navigation menu, this will show all files shared in the teams we have access to. 

We can also see any downloads in here and files stored in our connected file storage like OneDrive. If we want to connect additional cloud storage, e.g. Google Drive we can click the Add cloud storage button. 

Co-authoring

Let's take a look at how co-authoring works. In this example, we are going to upload a file and then work on it with other team members in real-time. 

  • Go to a channel. 
  • Click the Files tab. 
  • Click Upload. 
  • Select Files. 
  • Click Upload. 

Once the file has been uploaded, open it in a browser. 

  • Click the three dots next to the file. 
  • Click Open in browser. 

It might be, that my colleague has also opened this file in a browser. We can both work on this document together. I can see where my colleague is clicked in the document by their initials and I can see what they are currently editing. 

The paragraph each of us is working on is locked until we have finished making changes to prevent conflicts as much as possible. On the rare occasion multiple people start editing a paragraph at the same time, the person who started editing first takes precedence. 

Co-authoring is a more efficient way of working as we aren't sending documents back and forth, saving as a new version each time. 

Share Files with People Outside our Organization

The best way to share files with people outside of our organization is to do it from the native application. For example, if I want to share an Excel file with my friend at another company, I should open the file in Excel, click the Share button and use their email address.

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  • 00:04 Teams makes it super easy to collaborate on files in real time.
  • 00:09 For example, as we've seen, if you share a Word document with your team,
  • 00:14 all team members can open that document, make changes.
  • 00:18 And the changes will update in real time, making collaboration a complete whizz.
  • 00:24 And as we already know, each channel in Teams has its own Files tab,
  • 00:29 where you can share specific files for that channel.
  • 00:33 Now, aside from that Files tab, if you cast your eyes over to the left-hand
  • 00:38 side where we have our menu, we also have a Files button over here.
  • 00:43 So if I click this, this is going to show me basically everything
  • 00:48 that's been shared via Teams that I either own or have access to.
  • 00:53 So you can see here, I'm currently clicked on Recent, and
  • 00:56 this is showing me all of the recent files.
  • 00:58 And the location column is quite handy because this shows me which team and
  • 01:02 which channel is come from.
  • 01:04 And in some cases, it might just be that I've uploaded it from OneDrive.
  • 01:08 If I want to get more specific, I can click on Microsoft Teams, and
  • 01:12 that's going to show me all of the files that I've shared in my Teams only.
  • 01:17 If I want to see what I've downloaded from a channel, I can click on Download.
  • 01:21 So if I've downloaded something that somebody else has posted,
  • 01:25 I can see that in here.
  • 01:26 And then I can also access my OneDrive cloud storage in here as well.
  • 01:31 So I can have access to all of the files that I have stored in here.
  • 01:36 Now notice at the bottom, we have Add cloud storage.
  • 01:39 So if you're not a OneDrive user, maybe you have files stored in Dropbox, you
  • 01:44 can add your cloud storage through here, so that it appears in this left hand area.
  • 01:50 And that just makes it a lot easier for you to access all of your files.
  • 01:53 Now, I'm going to go back to Recent, and
  • 01:55 we're just going to take a bit of a closer look at co-authoring documents.
  • 01:59 Now, I'm going to jump back to my Teams and into the marketing channel.
  • 02:04 And if I go to the Files tab, I'm going to upload a file to this channel.
  • 02:11 So let's click on Upload, I'm going to say let's upload a file.
  • 02:14 In fact, I'm going to upload a few files.
  • 02:16 Let's upload the approved copy for brochure.
  • 02:19 We're going to upload a couple of images and also the marketing plan.
  • 02:24 This can sometimes take a few seconds, and there they are.
  • 02:28 So now, maybe I want to work on the approved copy for brochure Word document.
  • 02:34 So I can click the three dots, I'm going to say Open, and
  • 02:39 we're going to open in Browser.
  • 02:41 Now, it might be that whilst I'm working on this document,
  • 02:45 Jane also opens up this file and starts working in here as well.
  • 02:49 So lets take a look at what that actually look like, so you know what to expect.
  • 02:54 Because I know the first time that I got into co-authoring files,
  • 02:58 I was a bit perturbed to see somebody else moving around and
  • 03:01 making changes in the file whilst I was in there.
  • 03:04 So I've got this document open, and I'm now going to go ahead and
  • 03:09 start to make some changes.
  • 03:11 Now, whilst I'm making my changes,
  • 03:13 Jane is also about to go into this document and make her changes as well.
  • 03:19 So both of us can work together in this document, and I can see what Jane is
  • 03:24 doing in real time and she can see what I'm doing in real time.
  • 03:28 Now, if you are wondering what happens when there is some kind of conflict,
  • 03:33 for example, maybe both Jane and I try to edit the same piece of text,
  • 03:38 the same paragraph.
  • 03:39 Basically, the first person there wins.
  • 03:43 So if I'm editing a particular sentence or paragraph,
  • 03:47 that's basically locked to me until I move away.
  • 03:50 So co-authoring documents via Teams in this way is a lot more efficient
  • 03:55 than sending documents backwards and forwards and
  • 03:58 having to resave them or save them as new versions.
  • 04:02 It just makes the whole process a lot quicker and easier.
  • 04:05 Now, the only thing that's really left to say on this topic is how do we share
  • 04:10 files with people outside of our organization?
  • 04:13 Well, if we take a look at some of the options we have, for example with this
  • 04:18 approved copy of the brochure, maybe I want to share this with a client.
  • 04:23 Notice in that menu, I don't actually have a way to share it.
  • 04:28 So the way that I generally would do this would be from within the native app.
  • 04:33 So I would go to Word and I would share it that way.
  • 04:37 Now, this is going to open the document in the desktop version of Word.
  • 04:42 And then what I have here in the top right-hand corner is a Share button,
  • 04:46 which allows me to share this document with others.
  • 04:49 And I can share it simply by typing in their email address.
  • 04:52 So this is going to work for people outside of your organization.
  • 04:58 So just bear that in mind when you're working in Teams.

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