Word Web App Cannot Open This Document For Editing

Concurrent updates can be a problem when two users try to edit the same document at the same time. If two users each change the same piece of text to different alternatives, how does the editing program know which change to make? Office Word 2010 handles the concurrent use of a document very well by providing you with alerts whenever anyone else opens up the document you are editing. Further safeguards are put in place when Word actually locks the paragraph that your colleague is currently changing and highlights it for you. Similarly, they will not be able to change the paragraph that you are in the process of updating.

The Word Web App, on the other hand, is not so sophisticated. The way it handles concurrent updates is to simply prevent two users from editing the same document at the same time. This means that if your collegue opens a document first, you will have to wait until they have saved their changes and closed that document before you can open it yourself.

If you do try to open a document that is being edited by someone else, you will see the following message:

Although you will not be able to open the document for editing yourself, you will be able to view the document by clicking on it. It’s only the Edit In Browser option that is unavailable.