Sharepoint 2010 open documents in browser if no office on machine

Hello,

you can set up a SharePoint library to open documents in the browser if you have the Office web apps installed, but as far as I know that's not configurable as depending on whether or not the client machine has specific software installed. It's a server-side setting and the decision to open in the browser gets made without involving the client.

cheers, teylyn

Hi,
You need to set this setting in the document library settings. Go to Advanced Settings, under section "Opening documents in Browser", choose "Use the server default" option. By this if in case the client machine has application installed, it will open using the same or else it will open in browser.
Hope this helps.

@sp_admin,

sorry, but what you posted is not quite correct. The browser default has nothing to do with whether or not the client has Office installed.

Quoting from this Technet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee837425.aspx

Configure the default open behavior for documents

In SharePoint, you can configure whether browser-enabled documents are opened in a client application or in the browser. By default, when Office Web Apps is installed, Office documents will open in the browser. You can override this setting using the SharePoint OpenInClient feature. The OpenInClient feature can be configured in site collection administration or by using the SPFeature cmdlet in Windows PowerShell.

How documents open in SharePoint varies depending on whether the OpenInClient feature is present, and either enabled or disabled:

If the OpenInClient feature is not present and Office Web Apps is not installed, documents will open in the client application (SharePoint default).

If the OpenInClient feature is not present, Office Web Apps is installed and Office Web Apps service applications are activated, documents will open in the browser (Office Web Apps default).

If the OpenInClient Feature is present and enabled, and Office Web Apps service applications are activated, documents will open in the client application.

If the OpenInClient Feature is present and disabled, and Office Web Apps service applications are activated, documents in will open in the browser.

This is not about whether the client's computer has Office or not. It's all about what's set up on the server.

cheers, teylyn

ok so from this it seems it is not possible for Sharepoint to auto detect if the user has office or not. Its set on the server and is either one or the other?
Is office web apps installed by default in sharepoint 2010 or is it an extra install.

Am I correct in thinking this?

thanks