Implement real-time co-authoring for Word/Excel/PowerPoint in Confluence
Asked by Andreas Hillebrand:

Dear Atlassian Community,

we would like to implement pretty much the same functionality that Microsoft 365 has, but when editing files in Confluence. So basically, we would like users to be able to edit a document online or locally and have one Single Source of Truth (SSOT). The app should also show when two users are working on the same file and show changes in real-time and inform about conflicting data (exactly like Microsoft 365 does).

We have already found this app here:   
<https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1216862/team-files-office-365-google-docs>

but unfortunately, it doesn?t support local editing.

Does anyone happen to know a similar app that works on Confluence Server and has already implemented this functionality?

Thank you very much in advance for your help :)

Andreas


Answers:
author: Bill Bailey
body: I am a bit confused as to why you would want to try to use Confluence like a SharePoint replacement. That is not really a good use model for the tool

For Word, I would just place the document content as one or more Confluence pages. All users will see the latest version, and it also support simultaneous editing.

As far as local editing for Excel and PowerPoint, just not a workable model with Confluence. You can store the files as attachements and allow users to edit the attached files, but there is no mechanism for detecting conflicts that I am aware of. I am not sure what happens when two users try to edit the same file in Confluence (maybe it blocks?), but certainly no way to reconcile local edits.

comments: author: Andreas Hillebrand
body: I totally agree with you that regarding Word-files, it does not make much sense to use Word instead of Confluence, but when working together on Excel or PowerPoint-files I think it makes sense to have such a functionality included in Confluence and also the client is asking us for this. Currently, we are evaluating this app here:   
[https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1216862/team-files-office-365-google-docs?hosting=cloud\&tab=overview](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1216862/team-files-office-365-google-docs?hosting=cloud&tab=overview)


author: Bill Bailey
body: How many times do they truly have more than one person working on a file at the same time?

At any rate, there is this page that talks about editing in place:

<https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/edit-an-attached-file/>

It does not talk about what happens when a second users tries to edit (and I could not find info). My suggestion would be to set up a test bed to see what happens. It might work well enough for your client.


author: Andreas Hillebrand
body: Since it?s 40 people working on the same project, they say it might happen quite frequently.

Thank you for the link. However, we have already evaluated this app and it does not really have the co-authoring functionality we are looking for.

This one seems like a better option: [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211160/goedit-simply-edit-attachments?tab=overview\&hosting=cloud](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211160/goedit-simply-edit-attachments?tab=overview&hosting=cloud)

but still lakes the real-time co-authoring ability.


author: Bill Bailey
body: I have worked in companies that are heavy PowerPoint and Excel users, and it always seems that any work get passed serially, and few ever try to edit at the same time.

The other model is that when they want to collaborate that one editor opens the file while having a Teams meeting with the others.

The problem is that what you want is a file-oreinted approach, while Confluence is a page-oreinted solution. It was never really intended to act like a Perforce or Sharepoint. In other words, there may need to be a relook of what the end goal is, and see how to solve it with Confluence. For example, it can be hard to get people to stop sending Word files around via email, and just put the content on a Confluence page. ;-)


author: Hardik Chawhan
body: Office 365 does have a Collaborate functionality in the paid version. I think it is called Co-Authoring in MS. Your team of 40 can edit docs just like a Google Sheet or Slide.

So instead of uploading the PPT itself you might explore embedding it's Co-authoring weblink. That ways you may be able to use the inbuilt powers of both the platforms.


Tags: collaboration

confluence-server

edit

ms-excel

ms-powerpoint

ms-word

server