Last week, Dropbox and Microsoft updated their iOS apps to work together, and the result is really nice. With the updated versions of the apps, it is easier than ever to take a file from Dropbox to Word and back again.
In the Dropbox app, you can now select any Word file in your Dropbox. Then tap the edit icon, which is four over at the bottom of the screen. In fact, when you open your first Word file after the app is updated, the Dropbox app will even give you a friendly reminder of the new feature, as shown in the picture below. After you tap the edit icon, the Dropbox app lets you select a helper app, and for now Microsoft Word is your only option.
This will cause the Microsoft Word app to launch, and once it launches your document will be opened in the Word app. Why would you want to do this? Two reasons. First, while the Dropbox app will show you a preview of your Word files, the document will virtually always look better in the Word app. The Microsoft Word app is the best way to read a Word document on an iPhone or iPad. Second, this is useful if you want to edit the document.
When you are done viewing or editing a document, tap the Back button — the one at the top left with an arrow inside of a circle:
This will close the document in Word. Next, if you made changes it will save the revised document back to Dropbox. Finally, it will return you to the Dropbox app where you started.
I have a few additional notes on the new feature. First, I focus in this post on Microsoft Word because it is the Office app that attorneys use the most often, but this same integration also works with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint files in your Dropbox folder.
Second, note that you don’t need to use the Dropbox app to work with Word files in the Word app. As I explained last month in my review of the the Word app, you can also browse a list of files in your Dropbox folder from within the Word app itself. The update last week just makes it easier if you are starting from in the Dropbox app.
Third, I did encounter one hiccup during just one of the times that I was testing this feature — a time that I edited a document in Word and Word had trouble saving it back to my Dropbox. Fortunately, Word recognized the failure and gave me the chance to try to upload again, save a duplicate version of the document, or discard my latest edits. This error only occurred once, and every other time it saved the file correctly.
Fourth, if you use a Dropbox for Business account, I see that Lance Whitney of CNet reported that the integration only works if you are using an Office 365 account with your Microsoft Word app. But as I have noted in the past (1, 2), if you are using the Word app for commercial purposes then you should already have an Office 365 subscription.
This is a great update. It is nice to have apps work so well together that they can pass off documents and close themselves and open the other app — especially when the two apps in question are both already so useful. I wish that we saw even more apps working together this way.
Click here to get Dropbox (free): 
Click here to get Microsoft Word (free):
There is no restriction on the number of iOS devices on which the Word app is installed or access to premium advanced editing features like “Track Changes” if one is an Office 365 subscriber. Impacting enterprise accounts (e.g., schools, law firms, corporations) is the fact that access to OneDrive for Business, Dropbox for Business and SharePoint for commercial purposes requires a subscription, else the Word app opens such documents as read-only and displays a paywall for access to premium features.
The Word app may only be installed and used on one iOS device to edit Word documents without a subscription for non-commercial purposes. For files saved not just to Dropbox, but to OneDrive, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Box, Google Drive, Office 365 Sharepoint or FTP servers, there existed the AirFile app before the Word iOS Nov. 2014 update.
Word for iPad only opens Word docs within Dropbox. Text files won’t open from inside your Dropbox. And while Word does open Word docs (only) within Dropbox, it does not follow the Apple UI for this. In fact, Word is still missing from ANY “open in” menu, inside or outside of Dropbox. This constant stumbling when trying to use apps on iPhone or iPad slows workflow and is a constant irritation.
nice
I’m frustrated. I downloaded excel on iphone 5 to edit excel files from my dropbox on my phone. Once I did it seems that now that file is read only. I can’t even open it on my laptop from dropbox. I’ve uninstalled excel on all my devices trying to unlink the two, and deleted it from dropbox as an allowed app, but I still can’t get my excel file to open where I can edit it. I’m at a loss.
How to do I transfer a completed document in Word to Dropbox?
i have a Word file I’ve been editing in Dropbox. great interface, love it and my editor and designer can see my work and edit as well. wonderful. but yesterday when i was building my book’s manuscript file (all the pieces into one file) my file was bumped out of Dropbox with a message from MS Word Online that I had reached the size limit on a Word Online file in Dropbox. It’s not that big, a few dozen thumbnail pictures and 80 pages of text. How can I continue using Word Online in Dropbox? Is there someplace to subscribe to have unlimited MS Word file size in Dropbox?
I haven’t seen this error message before. Don’t know what to suggest.
-Jeff