Issue with editing an online Word document

Hello Nadeem S, Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community. My name is Gunasekar and I'm happy to help. I understand that you are having trouble editing a Word document online on office.com. Yes, as said, many educational Microsoft 365 licenses cover only the online version of Office programs. The desktop version is not included. Your school IT department should know what type of license they have. If its online-only, you would have to buy your own copy or get your own subscription to Microsoft 365 to be able to use the desktop software. 1. Are you experiencing the same issue with all the documents? If the issue is on Particular document, your school's system might restrict editing for certain file types or for documents uploaded through email. 2. If you create a new document in Word Online, then can you continue editing it online? 3. Reupload the document again and check if you can edit that. 4. Try clearing your browsing history, cache and cookies. Also enable incognito mode (private browsing mode) and go to office.com to edit the documents. Check if it helps. 5. Do you get any error code or message when opening the document? If you have any questions, please let me know and I will be happy to help you further. Best regards, Gunasekar N

Hi,

Thanks for the reply

Yes this is the only document I'm having issues with (as well as any duplicates or copies I have), however I assumed I would be able to edit it because I'm the owner of the document, when I look into accessibility it says I'm the owner of the document. So I'm confused as to how I'm unable to edit it. I'm also unable to reupload the document at the moment since it was uploaded from my School's desktop app.

First, I advise against editing any important documents in Word's online program. However, that is only my opinion. For me, it messes up carefully formatted documents.

If you save the document to your OneDrive sync file on your hard drive, you should be able to edit it using the Online program without emailing it to yourself.

First, I advise against editing any important documents in Word's online program. However, that is only my opinion. For me, it messes up carefully formatted documents.

I agree with Charles's warning here. Certain aspects of formatting (multilevel numbering in particular) are poorly supported in the web browser version(s) of Word.