Editing documents

Mainsoft Document Collaboration offers you different methods of editing shared documents, depending on the type of document and on the authentication method you are using to connect to the Document Site.

Editing Office documents

To edit a Microsoft Office document from Document Collaboration, double-click it in the Documents View to open it. When you open an Office document from Document Collaboration you can edit it directly, and any changes you make are immediately saved to the server. You can also use the collaboration features for SharePoint (built-in) and Quickr (available as an add-on) in Microsoft Office applications.

Note: If the Document Site is configured with Forms authentication, you will not be able to edit the Office documents directly. In this case, a temporary copy of the document opens, and you must save it locally and then upload it to the server after editing it. To learn how, read Editing local copies of documents.

Editing non-Office documents

You can force non-Office documents to open the Document Site server copy by using the Edit item in the document list's context menu.

When you open a non-Office document, a temporary copy of the file opens. Changes to this file are not saved on the server. To force applications to open the document directly on the server, right-click it and select Edit.

Note: The Edit menu option is not available for Microsoft Office documents.
Note: The Edit menu option is not available when connected to a Document Site using custom credentials. In this case, you should edit a local copy of the document as explained below.

Editing local copies of documents

You cannot edit a document directly on the Document Site server in the following scenarios:

  • If the Document Site is configured with Forms authentication and you want to edit a Microsoft Office document.
  • If you are connected to the Document Site using custom credentials, and you want to edit a non-Office document.
  • If the application associated with the document you want to edit does not support UNC paths.

In these cases you should edit a local copy of the document. Download the document to your computer. When you are ready to commit your changes, upload the document back to the server by dragging it to the sidebar or by selecting the Upload toolbar button. Since an earlier version of the document already exists on the server, you are prompted to replace the document or to add a new version of the document to the document library (depending on your library versioning settings).

When uploading a document that already exists in the document library, you are asked if you want to replace the existing document.