SharePoint (on-premises) Links behave inconsistent in terms of Open/Download Office Documents

Question

We are struggling since a very long time with these SharePoint links to office documents like Excel, Word, PowerPoint. It is not about to click on a document within a Library in the browser, this to open in the Office App instead of Office Online. But it's about how to send links for a document to someone else, and this one, once he/she clicks it, it should preferably open the document it the preferred app like MS Word, Excel....

Now I thought I finally got a solution while appending ?web=0 to the URL path. This works for Word Dokuments (opens MS Word and the document then from the server), but it just downloads Excel and PowerPoint from the very same library, so library settings are identical. Why is that like this, respectively can anyone confirm this behavior? Be aware, yet we are talking about SharePoint 2019 on-premises, not SharePoint Online.

Does anyone know a method which always work sin order to provide links so that the Office document (of any kind) opens in the respective Office app instead of Office online or even worth, download the document locally?

We are dealing with this issue since ever, quite anyoing.
kind regards,
Dieter

Answer 1

Hello @Anonymous ,

Open/Download Documents in a Client Application in SharePoint 2019:

1) Open the Library, click Library settings

2) On the Settings page, click Advanced settings

3) On the Advanced Settings page, scroll to "Opening Documents in the Browser" section. Please select the “Open in the client application" option

4) So, when you open an office file, it will open in the respective Office App.

Thanks,
Echo Du

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Answer 2

Thanks Echo,
I am aware of this setting. But my problem is not opening Office documents by clicking the object in the browser. My issue is rather how can I send a link to the document so someone else, by mail or chat (Slack, Teams etc.) in such a way that I make sure he/she will really get this document opened in the Office app, instead of opening it in Office Online, or even worth, by instantly downloading it locally. And this to work in each type of browser, IE, Chrome/Edge and Firefox, especially Chrome works bad.

kind regards,
Dieter

Answer 3

Well, I cannot confirm this. To me it rather looks like random behavior. And beside, as I stated in my initial post, a Word document opens fine in the Word App if I click the link, an Excel and PowerPoint document from the exact same library (so settings are the same) just downloads.
Especially this instant download (might also be influenced by the fact that our SharePoint site is added to Trusted Sites etc.) is quite a problem. People don't realize that they are working on a downloaded, locally saved document.

Anyhow, there is almost nothing we can do about it, the behavior is determined by the type of the document, library settings, probably some browser security settings and also it behaves differently, depending on the browser used. so in conclusion, it's a mess we need to live with.

Answer 4

Yes, I know that and this is the only way which works reliable over all browsers. The downsize of this is that it does not work in chat programs like Teams or Slack. We can only use ti within Emails where we can add a link with this control. But it's the only solution which comes to my mine too, quite disappointing though