Enable Real-time Presence in Microsoft Office

Learn how to turn on real-time presence in Microsoft Office. This feature, included in Google Drive, will help you avoid version conflicts when editing Microsoft Office files in Google Drive. The real-time presence will let users know if another user is editing a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file stored in Google Drive - all in real-time.

Instructions

1. Be sure Google Drive is running. Click on the symbol in the bottom right of the windows screen. You should find the Google Drive icon: .

Note: If you do not see the Google File Stream icon, click the windows icon. Type in “Drive File Stream” and hit enter. Refer back to Step 1. If you still do not see it running, Google File Stream may not be installed on your computer. Install Google File Stream here.

2. Click on the Google Drive icon: . A window will appear.

3. Click the 3 vertical dots in the top right of the window. A drop-down menu will pop up, click on Preferences…

4. On the window that appears, check the checkbox next to Show who is editing Office files, and share with other editors if I am editing, and click OK.

5. Now, when you have a file opened, it will automatically check if a file is safe to edit in the bottom right of the application. When a file is unsafe to edit, it will warn you that a newer version of the file has been saved by: ______ as long as that other person also has this setting checked.

Note: If you still do not see this checkmark in the bottom right, click the Google File Stream icon. Then on the 3 vertical dots . Click on Quit. Click the windows icon. Type in Google Drive and hit enter. Check again if that checkbox is checked, and re-run your office application.