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Using Office with a Web Server

Collaborating on Documents Stored on a Web Server

Microsoft Office Server Extensions (OSE) provide powerful collaboration capabilities. Users can participate in discussions in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint documents, as well as any HTML or Rich Text Format (RTF) file. The threaded discussions are maintained on either the Web server that has OSE installed or a remote SQL Server computer.

To participate in a discussion, users configure their computers to point to the OSE-extended web. All user discussion items are displayed in a shared document that users can view either in the original Microsoft Office 2000 application or in most Web browsers.

Because discussion items are stored separately from the shared document, users can modify the document without affecting the collaborative discussion. This separation also allows multiple users to create and edit discussion items simultaneously. Users can also add discussion items to read-only documents.

By using the Collaboration toolbar, users can view, search, or filter discussions by author, or date and time. Discussions print on a separate page when the document is printed. Users can view discussions offline, but they cannot add to them offline. Users can participate in discussions about documents that are stored on a server remote from the Web server that contains the OSE-extended web.

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Adding discussion items to Office documents

Office 2000 applications support different levels of functionality for the OSE Web Discussions feature.

Discussions in Word

In Word, users can add general discussion items that refer to the entire document. General discussion items appear in a separate pane. Users can add inline discussions anywhere within a Word document.

When a user adds an inline discussion item to a Word document, a bookmark at the end of the paragraph attaches that discussion item to the relevant text in the document. A user can also add discussion items to tables in Word.

Note If a table cell contains more than 40 characters, the discussion item is anchored with a bookmark at the end of the cell. If the table cell contains less than 40 characters, the discussion item is attached to the table. Discussion items cannot be attached to endnotes, footnotes, or comments.

Discussions in HTML and RTF

Both HTML and RTF documents support inline discussions. Users can:

Attach discussion items to the end of any paragraph.

Create general discussion items that refer to the entire document.

Discussions in Excel and PowerPoint

Excel workbooks and PowerPoint presentations have general discussion areas only. If a user is in Excel or PowerPoint, and then opens an HTML or RTF document containing inline discussions, Excel and PowerPoint display the inline discussions in the general discussion pane.

Discussions in Access

Microsoft Access does not support discussions from within the application. However, if a user creates a data access page in Access and then saves the page as an HTML file, the user can open the file in a Web browser and then create discussion threads.

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Editing discussion items

The logon authentication account identifies a user, and only the user who adds a discussion item can edit or delete that item. However, if you allow anonymous authentication, users who log on anonymously can create discussion items that any other users can edit or delete.

If your OSE-extended web is located on a disk formatted with the NTFS file system, the OSE Configuration Wizard creates the Admins Windows NT group. The users who you add to this group can edit and delete discussion items in any document.

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Modifying documents that contain discussion threads

Because discussion items are not stored in the document itself, users can modify the document independently from any discussions they create.

The following table explains how a modification to a document can affect the threaded discussion of the document.

When a document is modified in this way	The discussion data is affected this way
The change is made in an area without a discussion item attached.	Inline and general discussions are not affected.
The change is made in an area with a discussion item attached.	Inline discussions attached to modified text are deleted. General discussions are not affected.
The entire document is moved, renamed, or deleted.	All inline and general discussions are lost.

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