Open Microsoft Office documents from Blackboard?

Username and password prompt

If you are using Internet Explorer 8, you may find that you are prompted to enter a username and password when trying to open a Microsoft Office document from Blackboard.  If this happens, you need to add Blackboard as a trusted Internet site:

1. Choose Tools > Internet Options from the menu
2. Go to the Security tab
3. Select Trusted sites and then click the Sites button
4. You should see the web address for Blackboard in the box:  https://blackboard.le.ac.uk 
   
   
   
   Click the Add button to move this address into the Websites box then click Close
5. Click OK

Older versions of Microsoft Office

You will probably find that documents in your course sites are in Office 2007 or 2010 file formats, which are different to those used in earlier versions of Microsoft Office. These documents can be identified by the x or m at the end of their filename (e.g. .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .docm, .xlsm rather than .doc, .xls, .ppt).

If your computer has Microsoft Office 2003 or earlier, you can install the Office Compatibility Pack to open these documents.

You may also be able to open Office 2007 or 2010 documents using software such as Apache OpenOffice, or online services including Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365.