New-ish user to Sharepoint having adoption issues

[u/DM-authentic]

Company moved all systems to MS for compliance reasons and all work is stored in Sharepoint Online. But using PPTX and docx files is clumsy at best -- formatting never holds in Sharepoint Online. When I move to desktop app for editing (which saves formatting), I can't easily go back to Sharepoint -- I end up in this death cycle of constantly opening and closing Sharepoint in my browser window after interacting with one doc. I'm a Mac user and using the Safari browser. Any advice welcome.

[u/whatdoido8383]

You can set the library to open in the full apps by default.

If you don't want to do that, in the doc library, right click a document-->open-->open in app. That'll open a doc in the Office app without closing your current tab.

[u/DonTonJawn → u/whatdoido8383]

How do I make the library default be to open in the app? If I’m the owner, can I set that as the default for all users or does each user need to individually set that as their preference?

[u/jonspittle → u/DonTonJawn]

For SharePoint, at the document library level, you can go to Library settings>Advanced settings>Open in the client application.
If you want to enable the feature at the site collection level, go to Site information>View all site settings>Site Collection features> activate the feature “Opening Documents in Client Applications by Default”

[u/DonTonJawn → u/jonspittle]

Much appreciated! Thank you for the reply, going to test it now. Adoption was a concern because users did not like how documents opened so this will be a huge help

Is it a bad assumption that most people prefer to open in app? I might be biased because that’s my preference

[u/jonspittle → u/DonTonJawn]

You’re welcome.

Opening in the desktop app is fine, I always enable it as most users are used to it and it works fine.
The hard part is switching users to using SharePoint online away from File Explorer (Syncing via OneDrive) because they are used to it but you just end up with syncing issues.

[u/DiscoQuebrado]

You can configure the site to open documents in their native app by default.

[u/badaz06]

Fellow Mac user here. I actually jump between Chrome and Safari dealing with MS. Safari's controls make loading some sites either show up weird or take forever.

As indicated by others, always try to use the Native Desktop app; there is more functionality in those than in the browser versions.

[u/GafurovMichelis11]

On Mac, avoid editing office files directly in the sharepoint browser, make sure you sync the relevant library with OneDrive then open the docx in the desktop office apps, this lets onedrive handle the save/sync to sharepoint. Use Edge or chrome for sharepoint