Co-editing in OneDrive & Sharepoint

Anchor now supports collaborative editing of files shared on OneDrive and Sharepoint. This new feature enables you to work together with colleagues while maintaining the security of your files. Enjoy both flexibility and control.

How to co-edit anchored files on OneDrive & Sharepoint

The co-editing feature works when multiple members of your team have access to anchored files on Sharepoint or OneDrive. Team members can then open those files and make changes at the same time. In Office Suite Applications, you can add comments and Anchor will save these as well.

To co-edit a document in SharePoint, follow these steps. 

1) Navigate to the desired file, right-click>Anchor>Open with Anchor. 

2) Anchor will then open the document in edit mode. You can make your changes to the document here. 

3) You can see a list of people currently editing the file by looking at the list of co-editors on the right-hand side of the page. If someone else is already editing the document, you will see their changes in real time as they make them. 

4) You can communicate with other co-editors through the built-in chat feature located on the left side of the page. 

5) If you want to exit co-editing mode, simply close the page.   

Note that co-editing is only available for certain types of documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Text documents.

Copy/Pasting or Cut/Pasting in co-edit mode

There are a few things you need to keep in mind if you want to perform a copy/paste with anchored files on OneDrive & Sharepoint. Firstly, Copy/Paste and Cut/Paste only work within the same browser tab.

For example, you open the files memo.docx and contract.docx in different tabs. You will be able to copy/paste content from one section of memo.docx to another. The same is true for contract.docx. However, you cannot copy/paste from memo.docx to contract.docx. The reverse, from contract.docx to memo.docx won’t work as well. You also cannot copy/paste from the anchored file to Microsoft Word or any other application.

Second, copy, cut and paste actions using the editor toolbar buttons and context menu actions will be performed within the same editor tab only. 

Editor toolbar buttons for copy/cut/paste

Finally, take note of the keys and mouse clicks you need to use to accomplish each copy/paste action.

Saving changes

Once you and your team members are done making changes, you want to ensure that your changes are saved. In order for changes made during co-editing to be saved, all team members must close the file. If one or more users still have the file open, Anchor will not save the changes.

Co-editing File Lock

When a user is editing a file on Sharepoint web, Anchor locks the file on Sharepoint drive on Windows. When a file is locked, you cannot make changes to it. You will be able to view the file, but any changes you attempt to make will not be saved. Anchor does this to prevent conflicting changes between Sharepoint on the web and Sharepoint drive on Windows. Anchor unlocks the file only when everyone finishes editing and closes the file. Co-edit mode is a global configuration. As an admin, you cannot enable/disable it for specific files.

If you enable co-edit mode for a specific user role, all users with that role will have co-edit mode enabled. You cannot enable it for some and disable it for others within the same user role. Co-edit mode is a global configuration. As an admin, you can either enable or disable it for all files. You cannot enable/disable it for specific files.

If you enable co-edit mode for a specific user role, all users with that role will have co-edit mode enabled. You cannot enable it for some and disable it for others within the same user role. on the web.

View file access logs

As a file owner on OneDrive or Sharepoint, you can view records of who accessed your files. You are able to see who accessed the file, when, and their actions. You can view the logs by:

1. Hover over the desired file and click on the three vertical dots icon.
2. Go to Actions > Anchor > Show File Access Logs.

Anchor File Access Logs show all the actions done on the file. The information includes a timestamp and geolocation.

Things to keep in mind

Co-edit mode is a global configuration. As an admin, you cannot enable/disable it for specific files.

If you enable co-edit mode for a specific user role, all users with that role will have co-edit mode enabled. You cannot enable it for some and disable it for others within the same user role. 

Rarely changes made in edit mode to a file in SharePoint are not automatically synced back to the local OneDrive folder. If you have any issues with the sync, restart the OneDrive app and click on the "Sync" button in the toolbar of the OneDrive app.