How to edit Excel and Word documents residing on the NAS

Synology
1

I have stored several spreadsheets and Word documents in shared folders on my NAS, so that (a few) others in my organization can edit them.

However, when I left-click on a document to open it, a Windows Explorer window opens up, assuming I want to download the file to a location on my computer.

When I right-click on a document, it asks me if I want to view it in Excel, or the Synology equivalent, but it is for viewing only.

How can I enable editing directly on the server, so that the few people that update these documents aren’t constantly downloading, editing, and then having to remember to upload their completed document (which also risks having multiple downloads and subsequent uploads that don’t include everything)?

2

There are multiple options here to make this possible/easier:

  1. You could install and use Synology Office directly from your NAS, this will convert the file to proprietary file format (last time I checked), but will allow you and the others in your organisation to edit the file directly on the server (similar to how you would collaborate with others in e.g. Google Docs).
  2. You could install and use Synology Drive on your NAS and on the computers of the other members of your organisation can synchronize the files with your computers, edit them locally with your Office application of choice and then let Drive synchronize the files again with the NAS (and thereby the other members of your organization).
  3. You could use webdav to create a network share on all of the computers in your organisation, basically creating a similar experience to Synology Drive, but then even more direct. With the downside of not being able to work on the document/spreadsheet if you or the NAS are temporarily offline.

I may even be forgetting things here, but these are the options that came to mind and which I’ve used, in some form or other over the years.
Does this help you?

3

When you left-click, where are you? I use Windows Explorer to traverse my NAS files. Double-clicking an XLSX file, opens the spreadsheet application just as it would if the file lived on the PC’s drive.

It sounds as though you may be using File Station … and there is no need to do that. Use Windows Explorer just as you would to open a file from your PC drive.

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