Once upon a time, editing a Word document – or any text file for that matter – online was quite the painstaking process, that often led to using a subscription-based platform.

Collaborate for free with an online version of Microsoft Word. Save documents in OneDrive. Share them with others and work together at the same time. Word Online (Business) connector lets you work with Word files in document libraries supported by Microsoft Graph (OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Sites, and Office 365 Groups). As part of the Microsoft Office 2013 software suite, Microsoft Word 2013 is an advanced word processor that is highly adept at producing documents of professional quality, and it is intuitive enough to meet the needs of beginners and students as well. Collaborate for free with online versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Save documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online, in OneDrive.

Now though – or for the last few years, to be precise -, a wide range of practical free options are available, some of which have been developed by major tech companies. In this tutorial, we are going to be taking a look at three of the best online doc editors.

Option #1: Word Online

The most suitable platform for editing a Word document is obviously Microsoft Word. Besides the computer application, the company has made the platform available online, under the umbrella of its OneDrive cloud platform.

To be able to upload end edit a Word document on Word Online simply:

1. Go to OneDrive.com and sign in to your Microsoft account. If you don’t have an account, you can create one for free in a matter of minutes.
2. Make sure you are in the Files tab, and from there select the ‘Upload’ option
3. Locate the doc you wish to edit and double-click on it
4. Wait for a few seconds for the file to be uploaded
5. Once the upload is completed, the file will appear on your OneDrive dashboard. Click on it.
6. You will be automatically redirected to Word Online

The user interface of Word Online is almost identical to the actual Word program. It should be noted here that while the online version does support a slew of Word features, some of the more special ones, such as embedding objects or chart data, are not available. If you wish to open a blank word document, just click on ‘New’ and from the options available select ‘Word document’.

So, if you are planning on editing a research paper, or anything that goes beyond some basic document editing, you should consider purchasing the program itself.

Method #2: Google Docs

Another equally effective option, with a rich variety of editing options, is Google Docs.

1. Go to docs.google.com and log in using your Google account
2. In the ‘Start new document’ menu located on the top of the page, click on the ‘Blank’ option
3. Click on ‘File’ and then ‘Open’. Alternatively, press Ctrl+O.
4. Locate the doc you wish to edit and double-click on it
5. Start editing away

Docs can easily qualify as a competitor to Word Online, as it offers all the tricks and treats that the latter has, as well as some of the ones that are only available on the paid version of Word.

Another great feature that Google Docs comes with is offline saving. In the unlucky, yet likely, event that your connection is lost, you can keep typing away, as your progress will be stored on the web. A copy of the document will also be synced down to the Google Drive folder on your computer, smartphone or tablet – provided that they are connected to that particular Google account and you have enabled Syncing.

Furthermore, you can also check out the Add-ons option, where users can download and integrate into Docs a bunch of extra tools (i.e. voice commands, translation etc.).

Method #3: Zoho Writer

Finally, if you don’t wish to have an account with either of the two companies, you can always use Zoho’s document processing platform.

1. Visit Zoho.com/writer
2. Sign up via your email or any of your social media accounts, if you are using any
3. Click on ‘New Blank Document’
4. Click on the ‘File’ located in the top left-hand corner
5. Select ‘Import Document’
6. Find and upload the doc file you wish to edit

Zoho Writer accommodates all the features that one can find on both Docs and Word Online. Simply click on the hamburger menu, located in the top left-hand corner, for the editing menu to emerge. This is where all the editing tools are available.

Much like Docs and Word Online, you can have other friends or colleagues that use the platform view, edit or comment on the document. Another cool addition not available on the other platforms is the ‘Distribution’ option. From there, you can instantly upload the document to your WordPress blog.

If you encounter any problems while trying out the above or have a recommendation to make, feel free to shoot a comment down below.

Filed in . Read more about Google Docs, Microsoft, Microsoft Word and Productivity.

Word Online (Business) connector lets you work with Word files in document libraries supported by Microsoft Graph (OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Sites, and Office 365 Groups).

This connector is available in the following products and regions:

How to create Microsoft Word templates

You can build Microsoft Word templates on either Windows or your Mac by enabling the Developer tab. Once you have enabled that tab, under the Controls section you can add any content controls into your document (see below what is the list of currently supported controls). Use the control Properties to give the control a friendly name that you will use in the Power Automate. Once you are done creating your Word document, save it to one of the document libraries supported by Microsoft Graph: OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Sites, and Office 365 Groups.

Now, you can start building the flow. Add the Populate a Microsoft Word template action to your flow, and when you select that file you should see a list of all the controls that you added. Populate these fields with values you'll want to insert in the new Microsoft Word Document. Finally, you can then use the outputs of the action and send an email, save the document to another location, or any number of other actions.

Currently Supported Content Controls

Microsoft Word Online Templates

• Plain Text Content Control
• Combo Box Content Control
• Drop-Down List Content Control
• Image Content Control
• Repeating Section Content Control

Known issues and limitations

1. The Microsoft Word (Business) connector doesn't currently support the following content controls:
   • Rich Text Content Control
   • Building Block Gallery Content Control
   • Date Picker Content Control
   • Check Box Content Control
   • Legacy form controls
2. The generated document has a size limit of 10 MB.
3. Nested image content controllers are not supported.
4. New line characters will be rendered when 'Allow carriage returns (multiple paragraphs)' setting is turned on in the content controller properties.
5. Developer tab is not available on Word online.
6. Template creation in Word for Mac is not supported.
7. DisplayBarcode field codes are not supported for the Convert to PDF action.

Guide for using Repeating Section Content Control in the Word Online connector.

We're enabling repeating tables in the Word Online connector. When creating a template in Word, you need to add the Repeating Section Content Control. This is the control in the developer tab that helps us create a repeating table. Repeating Section Content Control enables users to repeat rows in a table and plain text. Here is a guide to work with the Repeating Section Content Control:

1. To make a template with repeating text: First add a Repeating Section Content Control from the developer tab. Then add Plain Text Content Controllers within the parent repeat content controller. Any text that is outside a nested content controller would be static. While adding the nested content controllers, make sure to go to properties and add a unique title for them. For example, if the template looks like I would like to a and b Then the user can dynamically change the values of a and b.

2. To add a repeating row to the template, simply add a table, select the full row (which you want to repeat) and select the repeat content controller from the developer tab. Now you can add nested plain text content controllers in the columns that you want to be dynamic. While adding the nested content controllers, make sure to go to properties and add a unique title for them.

3. Once you have added a Repeating Section Content Control, the nested content controllers would show up in the Word connector action. You can click on the 'Add new item' button to add a new row. If the number of rows you want is dynamic, then user should make a array of values and pass it into the repeat field. For example, a valid array for the above example would look like:[{'a': 'value for row 1', 'b': 'value for row 1'}, {'a': 'value for row 2', 'b': 'value for row 2'}]Here the keys of the objects are the titles of the nested content controllers. Hence, adding a unique title is necessary. This array can be easily constructed using the 'Select' data operation by mapping the values of an array with data to the input array.

Additional notes:

Microsoft Word online, free Version

• To format the table simply format the text and table in the template and the formatting would persist in the generated document.
• If there is no title for a nested content controller in repeat, it would be get a random title.
• If there is a duplicate title, both the content controllers will be replaced with the same content

Guide for using Images in the Word Online connector.

1. Add an Image content controller in your template. Don’t delete the placeholder image. You can re-size and re-position it.
2. Add a title property to the image content controller so that you can easily identify it in the Power Automate designer.
3. When the image field shows up in the designer, add file contents of a JPG or PNG image as the value. The value should look like this:{'$content-type': 'image/png','$content': 'iVBORw0KG...i/DhQmCC'}where the content is the base64 encoded image.

Guide for formatting the generated Word document in the Word Online connector.

Any formatting done on text, image or table in the template would persist in the generated document. To add formatting to an empty content controller, you can go to properties of the content controller and check the 'Use a style to format text typed into the empty control'. Then you can add new styling.

Throttling Limits

Actions

Convert Word Document to PDF

Gets a PDF version of the selected file

Parameters

Returns

Populate a Microsoft Word template

Reads a Microsoft Word template to then fill the template fields with selected dynamic values to generate a Word Document.

Parameters

Returns

Definitions

Microsoft Word Online Resume Templates

binary

Microsoft Word Online Email Login

This is the basic data type 'binary'.