Put a document, spreadsheet or deck on a desk

A document, spreadsheet or deck often belongs with a piece of work: the brief beside the research, the budget beside the plan. Put it on that work's desk and it sits there as a widget, with its full editor inside.

The widget points at the file in Office. It is not a copy, so editing it on the desk and editing it in Office change the same file.

Before you start

• Plans. Putting Office files on desks works on every plan.
• A desk. You need at least one desk. See Create a desk.
• Which files. Every kind of Office file, including diagrams, designs and artwork, can be dragged or sent to a desk from the strip of tabs above the footer. Choosing a file from Add widget on the desk works for documents, spreadsheets and decks.

Drag a file onto a desk's tab

The strip of tabs just above the footer shows the desks and files you have open. You can drag a file onto a desk there without opening the desk.

1. Make sure the desk has a tab in the strip. If it does not, open the desk once, then go back to Office.
2. In Office, find the file: in Recent on Office Home, or on the Recent or Starred page, or under Pinned.
3. Drag the file onto the desk's tab. The tab is highlighted while the file is over it.
4. Let go. A message says the file was added to the desk, with Open to go there.

You can also drag the file's own tab in the strip onto the desk's tab. See The open-items strip.

Send a file to any desk by name

For a desk that has no tab in the strip:

1. Open the file, so it has a tab in the strip.
2. Right-click the file's tab.
3. Under Send to desk, click the desk. Every desk is listed.

A message confirms it, with Open to go to the desk. If you have no desks yet, the menu says No desks to send it to yet.

Choose the file from the desk

1. Open the desk.
2. Click Add widget, then Document, Spreadsheet or Slides.
3. Under Place an existing one, type part of the name in the search box if the list is long.
4. Click the file. It is placed on the desk.

The same window can also make a new file with Create new, or bring in a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file with Import a file. See Document widget, Spreadsheet widget and Slides widget.

What you will see

The file appears on the desk as a widget of its own kind, named after the file, with the same editor you use in Office. Your changes save as you type, wherever you make them.

You can put the same file on as many desks as you like. Each widget shows the one file.

Take a file off a desk

Click × in the widget's title bar. This removes the widget from the desk only. The file stays in Office.

Common questions

I dragged a file onto the desk itself and nothing happened. Drop it on the desk's tab in the strip above the footer, not on the open desk. Or use Add widget on the desk and Place an existing one.

How do I share the file itself with someone? See Share a widget, document or file.

Can I show a file inside another document instead? Yes. In PlexiDocs, type / and choose Insert office file. See Embed desk widgets and other files in a document.

Related tasks

• The open-items strip
• Document widget
• Spreadsheet widget
• Slides widget
• Embed desk widgets and other files in a document