Embedded Microsoft Word Not Working

[JCutJacob]

Hi - I am trying to learn if Canvas and Office 365 (Microsoft Word, specifically) are still incompatible when you embed a Word Document onto a Canvas page. I've been reading some threads on this, but they are from 2015 or 2016, so I'm hoping the issue has been resolved. When I embed a Microsoft Word document onto my Canvas page the students cannot see the embedded document (I've attached what their Canvas looks like when they open up the page with the embedded document.) Is there any easy fix to this? I don't want to include a link (although I know that's an option.) I don't want some crazy workaround like saving all my documents to "sharepoint" and embedding it from there. I want an embedded document - from Microsoft Word to Canvas. 

Thank you!!!

[TrishaMeyer1]

Hi @JCutJacob ,

I'm not very familiar with the Canvas/Microsoft interface, but I THINK you might have to use the Publish to the Web option in order to have it open "inline" in Canvas. Otherwise it is posted as a link that must be clicked on and opened outside of Canvas. Intuitively this makes sense because you are "sharing" the document via Canvas, and so you would need the shared version of the file, not one that is in your private files.

I have done some experimenting with PowerPoint, and it needs to be the Published version, so I'm assuming it is similar for Word.

[JCutJacob]

Thanks - how do I do the "publish to the web" in docs? I read some threads about doing it in Power BI, but not docs...

[TrishaMeyer1]

@JCutJacob 

Okay, sorry, I've never done this (we use Google Docs), and I've only helped someone with PowerPoint. I was poking around in Word, and when I click on File->Share->Share with People, a side frame opens with the option to "Get a sharing link" (really small at the bottom of the window). I was able to set it to "Anyone with a view link" and then there was a "Copy" button for the link that got generated. It says "Anyone with this link can see the documents you share but not edit them," which I assume is what you need.

I did not try doing this in Canvas, so no promises. Let us know if it works.

[JCutJacob]

Thanks - that does allow me to "share" the doc, but I'm trying to embed the doc. It's a different process. Thank you though! I'm thinking it's just not doable and I'll have to accept that. 

[TrishaMeyer1]

Yeah, I guess you can't embed a Word doc; using the Share link allows them to view it, but it opens in a new tab. So it's like putting in a link, which you said you didn't want to do.

Even with PowerPoint, the embedded file is not "active," and things like animations don't work (at least in my limited experience).

Could you use a PDF file instead? They can be embedded and set to open "inline" in Canvas. I'm not sure about your desire to make it "live," though. I think you would have to update the link any time you edited the source file.

[Chris_Hofer]

@JCutJacob ...

If I am understanding your question correctly, you have a document (specifically a Microsoft Word document) located in your O365 account that you'd like to embed into your Canvas course, correct?  If this is the case, why not just download a copy of this file, upload it to your course "Files", and then embed it on your page instead of using a third-party platform like O365?  That way, your file is saved within the course, and your students should have easy access to it by either making a link to the course or embedding it in-line on a content page in your course.  You may have reasons for wanting to use O365 (or not wanting to upload the file as I've suggested), but I wanted to throw this option out there for you.

Hoping to hear more from you on your use case so that we can further assist...take care!

[JCutJacob]

Thank you! Unfortunately, uploading it as a file takes away the "live" feature and anytime I edit the document I'd have to re-upload. I think my only option at this point is to link the document to my Canvas page. It's just a shame that the embed option isn't an option. 

[SamanthaHomer]

Hello, 

I am operating in a HigherEd space with an institutionally-managed Microsoft365 account account - an important note as I think business accounts operate differently.

I was just working on embedding a PowerPoint into a Canvas page, and this is what I've found in the process:

I first tried setting the permissions to "anyone with the link can view" and copy/pasting the embed code into the HTML editor.  This did not work*. 
Usually users (not role-specific) get an error that says "[insitution.sharepoint.com refused to connect". Initially, I thought this error was because of the sharing setting: The file sharing setting needs to be "anyone at [institution] can view" rather than "anyone with the link can view". (This seems counterintuitive to me, but from what I've seen online and my limited understanding of cybersecurity, I believe this to be a way of making your personal OneDrive more secure.) After changing that setting, users would be prompted to log in to Office365, but the page just sat blank.
*I admit that this may not work because of some kind of institutional setting, so perhaps this will work for you? It seems to work for Penn State based on their blog updated only 4 months ago.

Then I tried embedding with the Office365 integration external tool. This kind of works.
When going to a module and adding an external tool, what's added ends up operating like an external URL - it's just a link that opens in a new tab. This does maintain the "live" functionality that you are looking for, but from a presentation standpoint, it is not the same as embedding. 

Then I tried embedding onto a page with Office365 from the RCE. This works with one additional step.
This article from the Instructor Guide shows how to add a OneDrive file into a page. As shown on the article images, it just puts in a hyperlink. To embed, follow these steps: 

1. Open the HTML editor. You will see the code for the file you just added. It will look something like this:
   
   <p><a title="Document.doc" href="/courses/####/external_tools/retrieve?display=borderless&amp;url=https%##%##%##office365-pdx-prod.instructure.com%#####%##linked-share-item%%#######%##rce_content_item_selection" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Document.doc</a></p>
   
   
2. Copy the href portion of this code (in red above) and put it into any iFrame generator (or if you know HTML, you can add the respective portions to take this URL and make it display in an iFrame). I used this iFrame generator. 
   
   
3. Copy the code that the iFrame generator gives you and replace the code that the RCE gave you. You can see below that it uses and adds to that href portion of the code that you copied:
   
   <p><iframe style-border: 0px #ffffff none;" src="https://yourcanvas.instructure.com/courses/####/external_tools/retrieve?display=borderless&amp;url=https%##%##%##office365-pdx-prod.instructure.com%#####%##linked-share-item%%#######%##rce_content_item_selection" width="100%" height="700px" name=myiFrame" allowfullscreen=allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
   
   
4. Save the page. Users will see the login screen embedded into the page, and after logging in, will see the live and functional document.