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I need to have some word documents for the rest of my business to only be able to "view" and not downloaded or saved on their desktops. I have NOT activated the Open Documents in Client Applications by Default under site settings. In advanced settings > Opening Documents in the Browser I have chosen both Open in Browser and use the server default (open in the browser).

The user I am asking to test for me has "view only" permission for that document library.

Am i missing something? Why does the word document continually open in word and not online?

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  • Is it happening for just this user? I believe you have office web apps installed and some of the users are able to open it in the browser.
    – Deepu Nair
    Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 5:40
  • Hi Deepu, Thanks for your suggestion, i have granted another user View Only access and they he can also open in microsoft word. Any other ideas?
    – Margaret Perdreau
    Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 6:11
  • Just to be sure again, do you have office web apps installed and activated in the farm? Does anyone have the capability to open word documents in browser?
    – Deepu Nair
    Commented Jul 27, 2018 at 6:56
  • Hi Deepu, "do you have office web apps installed and activated in the farm" i am not sure what this means? Noone in my site can open documents in the browser. This is what I am trying to do.
    – Margaret Perdreau
    Commented Jul 29, 2018 at 22:20

2 Answers 2

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Please check your permissions - if you struggle just test it on a test site once!

Retract all permissions for that user and be sure just to give "View Only" permission.

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If you do so the user will just have this options when opening a document in Word Online or Word Web App.

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As you see there is no option to download document any more. If there are any problems please double check the permissions of that user and also check whether he/she is site collection administrator.

If this helps please mark as answer/vote. Thank you.

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  • Hi PhilFancy, I have done this exercise and just cannot get anyone on my site to open a word document in the Browser. Any other ideas?
    – Margaret Perdreau
    Commented Jul 29, 2018 at 22:22
  • Then I am stumped. This is how it works in our farm on several places without problems.
    – PhilFancy
    Commented Jul 30, 2018 at 5:14
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You need to have Office web apps to open office documents in a browser for SharePoint 2013.

Office Web Apps Server is an Office server product that provides browser-based file viewing and editing services for Office files like Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.

Here are some links to help you understand the technology and documentation on configuring it with SharePoint:

Office Web Apps Server overview - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/webappsserver/office-web-apps-server-overview

How Office Web Apps work on-premises with SharePoint 2013 - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/webappsserver/how-office-web-apps-work-on-premises-with-sharepoint-2013

Configure Office Web Apps for SharePoint 2013 - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/webappsserver/configure-office-web-apps-for-sharepoint-2013

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