If the Open command doesn’t work, download your document

If the Open (in Word, Excel or PowerPoint) command in Office Web Apps doesn’t work, download the document to your computer and work on it there. When you are ready, upload it back to the website.

Normally, Office Web Apps uses an add-on in your browser to open documents in your desktop program. There are a few reasons the add-on might not be working. Let’s fix the problem so you won’t have to download and upload documents manually.

Use another browser

If you want to use the Open command, switch to a supported browser.

The add-on works only in 32-bit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari (Mac). If you’re using some other browser—for example, if you’re using 64-bit IE or Chrome—you’ll have to download and upload the document manually. If you saw a message about the Office Web Apps Browser Plugin, go ahead and download and install the plugin.

Time to upgrade

If you want to use the Open command, use a recent version of Office.

Depending on which browser you have, the add-on is installed with Office as far back as Office 2003 (Windows) and Office for Mac 2008 12.2.9. So if your version of Office is older than that, the only way to get the add-on is to get the most recent version of Office. You can try the new version of Office for free.

Let the add-on run

If you have the right kind of browser and a recent version of Office, your security settings in Internet Explorer might be too strong. Or, the add-on got turned off. Here are instructions for correcting both problems:

Set security in Internet Explorer

1. Go to Tools > Internet Options, and then on the Security tab click Trusted Sites.
2. If the security slider is at High, move it down to Medium-High.

Turn the add-on back on

In Internet Explorer:

1. Go to Tools > Manage Add-ons.
2. There’s a drop-down labeled Show. Open that, and click All add-ons.
3. Scroll through the add-ons until you see the ones from Microsoft, and click SharePoint OpenDocuments Class.
4. Towards the bottom of the dialog box, click Enable, and then close the dialog box.

In Firefox:

1. Go to the Firefox dropdown, click Add-ons, and then go to Plugins.
2. Look for the Microsoft Office 2010 plugin. It says (disabled) after its name.
3. Click Enable.

Run OS X Lion in 32-bit mode

If you use Safari or Firefox and your Mac is running OS X Lion, switch to 32-bit mode:

1. Close the browser.
2. Go to the Finder, go to Applications, and select the Safari or Firefox icon.
3. In the browser, go to File > Get Info, and check Open in 32-bit mode.
4. Close the browser and open it again.

If you still need help getting documents to open on your Mac, visit the Office for Mac forum at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

Still stuck?

Here are two more things to try:

You might need to repair Office. In Control Panel, go to Programs. Find Office in the list of programs, and click Repair or Change. Be sure to install Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Support, within Office Tools, as shown:

If the Open command is still not working, read this quick answer that explains how to reinstall Office 2010.