Collaborative authoring connects Vault to Microsoft 365 to allow multiple users to edit a document at the same time using the Microsoft 365 desktop software or mobile apps. Collaborative Authoring can be used with Microsoft Word (*.docx), Excel (*.xlsx and *.xlsm), and PowerPoint (*.pptx) documents.
Lifecycle and Workflow Actions for Collaborative Authoring
Starting a Collaboration Session
Important: Vault UI refers to Microsoft 365 as Microsoft Office, Office Online, and Office 365
If a document is compatible with collaborative authoring and you have the appropriate permissions, you will see an Edit button above the document. Click Edit to start a collaboration session. You can also select Edit in Microsoft Office from the document’s Actions menu.
Your browser may prompt you to confirm that you want to open the document. The document opens in Microsoft 365 on your desktop. Keep your Vault browser window open while you edit.
Other users with correct permissions can also join your collaboration session to edit the document at the same time. When another user opens the document, you will see an icon appear in the Microsoft Word menu bar. Click the icon to see where in the document the user is currently editing or to contact that user. If you don’t see other users’ edits, make sure you’re viewing the document in Print view.
You can also invite other users to a Collaborative Authoring session using the @mention functionality in Microsoft 365. When you @mention a user (for example, @john.smith), they receive an email with a link to the document and can begin editing. A user cannot receive @mentions until they access the latest version of the document via Collaborative Authoring.
Joining a Collaboration Session
When another user starts a collaboration session on a document, you can join the session and edit the document in Microsoft 365. When you open the document in Vault, a banner at the top of the page stating that another user started Collaborative Authoring and a message on the document that it is being edited. Click the Edit button in the Collaborative Authoring banner to join the session and see the latest updates.
Collaborative Authoring in Quality Demo
Using Collaborative Authoring in Quality Vaults
Editing a Microsoft 365 file in your browser
If you don’t have Microsoft 365 installed on your computer, you can edit a document with Microsoft 365 in your web browser. Click the question mark icon in the Collaborative Authoring banner and click open in browser. In the dialog, click Continue. This will set your preference for Microsoft 365 in the browser so that each time you start or join a collaboration session, the document will open in your browser automatically.
Saving a Collaboration Document
When you start a collaboration session to edit a Vault document, the file is stored in an Microsoft 365 shared drive. Changes made by any user who joins the collaboration session are saved to the Microsoft 365 file and are only shown in Vault when you perform either Save to Vault or Check In. Both options create a new minor version of the document in Vault. Save to Vault allows the collaboration session to continue, whereas Check In ends the collaboration session and allows the document to progress in its lifecycle.
When multiple users are editing a document, only the user who started the collaboration session or the document owner can use Check In, but any user with Edit Document permission can use the Save to Vault action.
To Save to Vault or Check In a document:
- Save your changes in Microsoft.
- Return to your Vault browser window and click Save to Vault or Check In from the drop-down in the Collaborative Authoring banner. The drop-down option is only available to the document Owner and the user who started the collaboration session. Vault Owners and users with the All Document Actions permission can also check in documents.
- Optional: In the pop-up dialog, enter a Version Description.
- Click either Save to Vault or Check In to create a new minor version in Vault.
When you Check In the document, the collaboration session ends for everyone, so be sure to first check whether other users have finished editing the document. Any additional changes made in Microsoft 365 after the Check In are not synced with the Microsoft 365 file. If you made further changes to the document after you checked it in, we recommend saving a copy of the file to your desktop.
Canceling a Collaboration Session
Once you have started a collaboration session, you may cancel it to end the session for all users without saving any changes to the document in Vault. Only the document owner, the user who started the collaboration session, or a user with both the Edit Document role-based permission and the Application: Document: Cancel Checkout permission can cancel it. None of the changes that you made to the document during the session will be saved in Vault.
- Close Microsoft 365.
- Return to your Vault browser window and click Cancel.
- In the Cancel Editing dialog, click Continue.
Checking Out/In a Document from a Workflow
Your Admin may configure a collaborative authoring session to automatically start (check out) or end (check in or cancel) via workflow actions and lifecycle states. If so, there’s no need to manually check out or check in a document as the collaborative authoring session will begin or end as soon as the document moves to the configured state or action step.
Note: If these actions are configured, they will execute asynchronously. You may need to refresh your browser to see when a document is checked in or checked out. When a check-in occurs via a workflow or lifecycle action, the user who triggered the check-in action must navigate to the checked-in version.
Troubleshooting Collaborative Authoring Errors
Users with the Admin: Logs: Collab Auth Error Logs permission can navigate to Admin > Logs > Collaborative Authoring Error Log to view the Microsoft Graph API errors generated while using collaborative authoring. This permission is enabled automatically for System Administrators, Business Administrators, and Vault Owners.
Collaborative Authoring Limitations
Microsoft Word (*.docx) documents checked out for collaborative authoring do not display annotations made in Vault.
Related Permissions
You must have Edit and Download document permissions to edit the document with collaborative authoring. If you do not see the Edit button, you may not have the necessary permissions.
Vault Owners and users with the All Document Actions permission can also check in and save documents to Vault. If a document was manually checked out from a collaborative authoring workflow by a user other than the Workflow Owner, the Workflow Owner can check the document back in if they have the Edit Document permission and are the Document Owner or have the Document All Actions permission.
You must have the Admin: Logs: Collab Auth Error Logs permission to view the Collaborative Authoring Error Log. This permission is enabled automatically for System Administrators, Business Administrators, and Vault Owners.