SharePoint Online document libraries required fields not prompting in online version of Word

Question

I think I know the answer is no, but here's what I'm trying to do.

We are migrating from a shared network drive to a SharePoint Online environment.

The network drive was full of folders, and we'd like to encourage tagging files with metadata.

When you open a document in the desktop version of Word, when you save a document and there are required fields, Word pops up with a message box asking you to select the required fields.

With the online version of Word, the same scenario leaves the file checked out, but you aren't immediately prompted the same way and the user could walk away without ever tagging a file.

Are there settings in the library that I'm missing?

Answer 1

As mentioned, the answer is No.

However, there is a workaround which change the default behavior of documents to open in the client application Word instead of Word Online. Head over to Site Settings > Site Collection Features and look for the feature Open Documents in Client Applications by Default. Activate it, and users clicking document links would see them opened in Word instead of Word Online.

Users can still open documents in Word Online using the more menu [...], but the default is Word on the client.