Edit Remote Documents Using Microsoft Word
In a previous article we explained how to map a Windows drive to a WebDAV server. Mapping a drive makes remote content look like it is part of the same file system on your local computer. One can drag and drop files, retrieve and modify file properties, and complete many file-system tasks including using existing applications across the Web and sharing files through firewalls and proxy servers.
With the drive mapped, one can easily edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc. on the remote server's file system.
Direct Access Using Microsoft Office
Note: LibreOffice also supports WebDAV. See the LibreOffice WebDAV tutorial for more information.
Many applications, including Microsoft Office, support WebDAV natively. This means you can use Microsoft Word to directly edit a document on your remote home/office computer.
To open a remote Microsoft Word document, click File -> Open and simply type in the URL to your remote document.
How to find your documents
A quick and easy way to locate your documents is to use the built in Web File Manager in your FuguHub server: open a browser window, enter the URL to your home/office computer, login, and start the Web File Manager. Navigate to the directory where you have your Office documents and click the document to open the Context Menu.
Clicking on "Copy URL" and copy the WebDAV session URL to your computer's clipboard.
After you have copied the URL to your computer's clipboard, start Microsoft Word, click File -> Open, and paste in the URL you have stored in your computer's clipboard (CTRL-V). Note: you follow the same procedures for opening documents in LibreOffice.
Microsoft Word now connects to your FuguHub WebDAV server and loads the document directly from the server. The document is saved directly to FuguHub when you click the Microsoft Word's save button.
Posted in Tips and Tricks Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 by Ingrid