Microsoft Office on Windows and macOS now supports co-authoring encrypted documents

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People can now work together on an encrypted Microsoft Office document in real-time.

Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office (Image credit: Future)

What you need to know

  • It's now possible to co-author encrypted Microsoft Office documents.
  • The option is now generally available on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on both Windows and macOS.
  • The same functionality was already available for Office on the web

A Tech Community post explains Microsoft Information Protection (MIP):

Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) is an intelligent, unified, and extensible solution to protect sensitive data across your enterprise – in Microsoft 365 cloud services, on-premises, third-party SaaS applications, and more. MIP provides a unified set of capabilities to know your data, protect your data, and help prevent data loss across Microsoft 365 apps (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) and services (e.g., Teams, SharePoint, and Exchange).

Now, multiple people can work on these types of documents in real-time with AutoSave.

Microsoft outlines the requirements to use the new functionality:

  • Deploy the 2107 update of Office (or higher) using the Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel. We highly recommend using Configuration Manager and Servicing Profiles to ease this transition
  • If your organization uses Azure Information Protection to apply labels in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows, make sure to also update to the latest version
  • Navigate to the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center settings page as a global admin to enable the feature

To use the feature, all clients need to be updated to support the metadata changes for sensitivity labels.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott is a news writer and apps editor for Windows Central with 11+ years of experience. A Nottingham Trent journalism graduate, Sean has covered the industry’s arc from the Lumia era to the launch of Windows 11 and generative AI. Having started at Thrifter, he uses his expertise in price tracking to help readers find genuine hardware value.

Beyond tech news, Sean is a UK sports media pioneer. In 2017, he became one of the first to stream via smartphone and is an expert in AP Capture systems. A tech-forward coach, he was named 2024 BAFA Youth Coach of the Year. He is focused on using technology—from AI to Clipchamp—to gain a practical edge.