by Ryan Johnson, I-Tech

Penn State Box users have access to Office Online apps (for Word, Excel and PowerPoint) through Box. This integration lets you create Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files in Box, edit them using the Office Online web applications, then save them directly back to Box without downloading additional programs or applications. In addition, the Office Online integration supports concurrent editing, so you and your coworkers can collaborate on documents in real-time.

There are slight feature differences between the Office programs installed on your PC and their Online counterparts.  This guide from Microsoft’s Knowledge Base outlines those differences.

Note: Because documents are automatically saved to Box, all of our data categorization rules (Data Categorization Table for Box) apply, so you can be assured that your data is safely stored on Box.

 Creating Microsoft Files through Box and Office Online

To create a new Microsoft file in Box using Office Online:

1. Navigate to the Box folder you want to contain the new file.
2. Click New from the Box menu and select the type of Microsoft file you want to create.
3. When prompted, name your file and click “Okay”.
4. If you do not have Box Edit installed, Box will create your file and automatically open it in Microsoft Office Online. If you do have Box Edit, your file will open in your default desktop application.