Edit in Word Online

Enable Edit in Word for Users (Admins)

We recommend using a service or integration that provides admin rights for this setup, and configuring permissions to grant access to collaborators in Word Online.

To enable the Word Online integration:

1. In Ironclad, click your profile in the top right corner and select Company Settings.
2. Click Integrations in the left sidebar menu.
3. Under the Document Editing section, click Word Online.

4. Click Sign in. 

   

5. Follow the prompts to connect Ironclad with your Microsoft account.

Your Ironclad instance should now be connected. You’ll be sent to your Integrations page in Ironclad.

Additional Requirements for SSO-Only Organizations

For SSO-only organizations, we strongly recommend using a dedicated service or system account in Microsoft 365, rather than an individual user's account, to set up Edit in Word Online. This ensures the integration stays stable if the original admin leaves or loses permissions.

Prerequisites

1. Use a service/system account (not an individual user) in Microsoft 365. Connect the service account to a OneDrive for Business license to host the Drafts folder.
   • Note: OneDrive for Business files show sharepoint.com in the URL because OneDrive is built on SharePoint — this is expected.
2. Grant the service account admin rights to the OneDrive instance where drafts will live, so Ironclad can create and manage the Drafts folder used by Word Online.
   • Note: Many customers scope this by using a dedicated OneDrive area just for Ironclad Drafts and giving the service account admin rights only there.
3. Create an Ironclad user with the same email as the service account and add it to the Administrators group. 
4. Link the Word Online integration.
   • Sign in to Ironclad as that admin user, then go to Company Settings > Integrations > Word Online and authenticate with the service account via your normal SSO flow. 

If the rights and license were set up correctly, Microsoft grants consent and Ironclad:

• Creates a Drafts folder in the dedicated OneDrive.
• Uses that Drafts folder to store and clean up in-flight Word Online drafts.

Open and Edit Ironclad Documents in Word Online

To open an Ironclad document in Word Online:

1. In Ironclad, create a new workflow or click an existing one in your Dashboard.
2. In the summary panel, click the workflow name to open the overview page.
   • Note: You can also open the overview page by clicking the Open overview page icon located in the top left corner of the summary panel.
3. Click the Manage drafts icon (pencil) in the Documents panel.

4. Under Create New Draft, select Word Online from the dropdown menu.

   

5. Select access permissions for your draft:
   • Only me: You’ll be the only one editing to start. Others can request to join.

   • Anyone with edit access: You and others with permission can edit together in Word Online.

     

6. Click Open in One Drive.

Once your Ironclad document is open in Word Online, you must continue editing the draft in the platform where it was created. You can’t save unpublished drafts in Ironclad Editor or upload unpublished drafts from the workflow’s page.

Edit and Publish in Word Online

While the draft is open, Ironclad shows you:

• Who’s editing
• When they opened the draft
• Where they’re editing
• Which version of the document they’re editing

You and anyone you invite can collaborate on drafts in real-time with comments and suggestions. They can also opt to independently edit the draft in Ironclad Editor before syncing their final edits into the document.

Once you’re done editing, you can save your Word Online draft and it will automatically sync your updates in Ironclad.

To see who’s editing, click the button that displays the number of people editing:

To publish the Word Online draft as a new version:

1. In the summary panel, click the workflow name to open the overview page.
2. Click the Manage drafts icon (pencil) in the Documents panel.
3. Click Publish as new version from the dropdown menu.
4. Add a comment, and select from the following options to decide what should happen after publishing:
   • Change turn to [Example Counterparty]
   • Allow approvals to reset
5. Click Publish now.

To view the version history, you can return to the Documents panel for your workflow and click the button displaying the number of document versions:

Known Issues