By default, Foldr Bureau lets one person into a file at a time. Whoever gets there first can edit; everyone else gets it read-only until they’re done. That’s the safe behaviour and it suits most files.
Co-editing changes that: several people in the same file at once, changes landing live, everyone in their own colour. It’s off until you turn it on, and it depends on two switches that people regularly forget are separate.
The two switches
One: the format. On Foldr Settings > Integrations > Foldr Bureau, each tab has an Allow co-editing (multiple people at once) switch beneath its editor. This says “documents of this kind may be co-edited at all.”
Two: the share. In the settings for each share, under Co-authoring, there’s Allow co-authoring (multiple people at once). This says “files on this share may be co-edited.”
Both have to be on. That’s deliberate: the format switch is a statement about what Foldr is capable of, and the share switch is a decision about a particular set of files. It means the finance team can share a workbook without every document in your organisation quietly becoming collaborative.
If only one of the two is on, the file opens the way it always did, with one editor at a time and everyone else read-only. There’s no error, which is exactly why this is the first thing to check when somebody reports that co-editing “isn’t working”.
Desktop Word in the same session
Word documents go one step further. If Allow co-authoring in desktop Office (Word documents) is on under Foldr Settings > Integrations > Microsoft Office, somebody working in desktop Word can join the same session as the people in the browser, and the two edit the document together.
Two things to note. It’s Word documents only, by design: other file types fall back to ordinary one-at-a-time editing. And it’s a third switch, independent of the two above, so a document can be co-editable in the browser without desktop Word being invited in.
What this changes about checkout
Whilst people are co-authoring, the document is no longer checked out exclusively to one person. That’s the whole point, but it’s worth saying out loud if you rely on the Checkout permission as a control rather than a convenience. See checkout permissions for how that behaves normally.
How many people fit
Spreadsheets, presentations and text files hold up to ten people at once. Anyone arriving after that is told the file is full and can open it read-only instead. Documents don’t have that limit.
Ten is a working ceiling rather than a design goal. If you find yourself wanting more people in a spreadsheet than that, the spreadsheet is usually the problem.
When a file opens read-only anyway
Working through it in order:
- Is the editor on for that format? Without an editor there’s nothing to co-edit.
- Are both co-editing switches on, the one on the format and the one on the share?
- Is the file full? Ten people is the ceiling on spreadsheets, presentations and text.
- Can the person edit the file at all? Co-editing doesn’t grant permissions. Somebody with read access reads, the same as always.
- Is somebody in it from desktop Word, on a share where desktop co-authoring is off? In that case the desktop editor holds it and the browser waits.
Is this a good idea for every share?
Probably not, and it’s worth thinking about before you switch it on estate-wide. Co-editing is a genuine improvement on a working document that several people own together: a budget, a plan, a rota. It’s a poorer fit for a document with one author and a formal review, where one person holding the file is a feature rather than an obstacle.
Turn it on per share, on the shares where people are already emailing each other versions of the same file. That’s the tell.