Using Office with a Web Server

Working with Office Web Features Offline

Microsoft Office 2000 users can continue to work on shared documents even when they log off the network. When the Web Publishing feature is installed, a replication mechanism automatically maintains a list of recently opened Web server documents, and stores copies of them in a cache on the local hard disk.

To add files to the cache, users select a file in Windows Explorer, and then on the File menu, click Make Available Offline.

Note   Only Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later supports offline caching and replication.

A user can open and edit replicated files while offline. Then, the next time the user logs on to the network, all changes the user has made while offline are automatically replicated to the server. Also any changes that have occurred on the server while the user has been offline are replicated locally. A user can select a file in Windows Explorer, and then on the File menu, click Synchronize to manually update the local copy of a file with the server copy.

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Working with cached documents

When a user logs off from the network, all necessary caching is performed to ensure that the entire set of documents is available offline.

While offline, users can continue working on documents as if they are still connected to the Web server. While offline users can:

• View, edit, and save new or cached documents — using HTTP URLs.
• View cached folders in Web Folders.
• Create new Web folders within Web folder shortcuts.
• View and filter Web Discussions.

Note   When users work offline, they cannot edit discussion items or add new discussion items.

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Reconciling differences on the Web server

When users reconnect to the network, any changes made locally are replicated back to the Web server. At the same time, any changes made by someone else in the shared versions of documents are replicated back to the local computer. And everyone is in sync once again.

But, if user A logs off and then changes a document locally, while user B is changing the document online, user A can resolve the conflict in one of two ways:

• In the Conflict dialog box, click Resolve Conflict, and then select either the local or the published copy.

  – or –

  Save the document with a different name, make changes to the local copy, and then merge the changes manually with the published document on the Web server.