A real document, spreadsheet or slide deck, without another app to open

Full-page documents, spreadsheets and presentations built like Microsoft Office, not a text box bolted onto a file preview: a real formula engine, pivot tables, tracked changes and live cursors. Save as you go, and the file still leaves as a genuine Word, Excel or PowerPoint document whenever you need it to.

Included from Pro upwards

Why this exists

  • A document lives in Word, the numbers live in Excel, and neither is anywhere near the project they are actually about.
  • Real-time collaboration on a shared file usually means paying for Google Workspace on top of whatever already runs the business.
  • Sending a file back and forth as an email attachment turns "final version" into a standing joke.

What it does

Write on real pages

Documents lay out on A4, Letter or Legal with headers, footers and page numbers built from {PAGE}, {PAGES} and {TITLE} fields, a table of contents that refreshes itself, footnotes, citations and a References tab, and a Navigation Pane you can drag whole sections around from.

Track every suggested edit

Review > Track Changes underlines an edit in your colour and strikes through a deletion rather than removing it, with a Reviewing Pane listing every suggestion by author and a Word download that carries them as real Word tracked changes.

Build spreadsheets with a real formula engine

Over a hundred Excel functions, autocomplete as you type a formula, conditional formatting, charts, Goal Seek, an Insert > PivotTable that summarises a range by dragging fields into Rows, Columns and Values, and Trace Precedents and Dependents to see what feeds what.

Design presentations that leave as PowerPoint

Slides with tables, charts, and entrance, emphasis and exit animations you can reorder in the Animation Pane, a Present mode with your notes and a timer, and Rehearse Timings to record your own pace and then replay it.

Co-edit with your team, live

Autosave a moment after you stop typing, coloured cursors and presence avatars for everyone editing at once, and Viewer, Commenter or Editor access that matches the rest of Drive. Open a file as a popup, a full page with its own address, or popped out into its own window.

Move files in and out without losing them

Import a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file to keep editing it here, and export your document, sheet or deck back to the same format whenever somebody who is not on WorkBOS needs a copy.

What it does not do

The part you would otherwise find out in week three. If one of these is central to how you work, raise it before you buy rather than after.

  • Full-page editing is Pro and above. On the Free plan a document, spreadsheet or presentation still opens, previews and downloads from Drive; it does not open the editor.
  • Track Changes, footnotes, citations and the References tab exist for documents only. Spreadsheets and presentations do not have a suggested-edit mode.
  • Real-time co-editing on any one file caps at 50 people at once, the same limit as every other file in Drive.
  • Import and export cover Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. There is no direct import from Google Docs, Sheets or Slides.

Questions, answered

Is this a real editor or just a preview?+

A real editor. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations are full editing surfaces built like Microsoft Office, with a ribbon, real pages, a real formula engine and slide animations, not a viewer with a text box stuck on top.

Can several people edit the same file at once?+

Yes. Everyone editing a document, spreadsheet or deck sees the others’ cursors as they type, autosave keeps it all in sync, and up to 50 people can be in the same file together.

Can I get my file into Word, Excel or PowerPoint?+

Yes. Every document, spreadsheet and presentation exports to the matching Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, and you can import one of those files to keep working on it here.

Is this included on the Free plan?+

No. Full-page editing is Pro and above. On Free, Drive still stores, shares, previews and downloads every document, spreadsheet or presentation, so nothing already there is locked away.

The full product documentation for this module is at /docs/office-suite.

Try it on your own data

Free for up to 5 seats, no card required. Every module is in the same workspace, so nothing needs connecting to anything.