Microsoft Office Online Bridge for macOS

Open and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Visio files in Microsoft Office Online — directly from your Mac.

Office Online Bridge is a lightweight macOS suite that uploads your Office documents to OneDrive and opens them in the official Microsoft 365 web apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Visio). It is ideal if you want full Office Online editing without installing the Microsoft 365 desktop suite.

Download

Latest installer (unsigned macOS package):

➡️ Download Office Online Bridge for macOS

All releases: github.com/bewithdhanu/office-online-bridge-macos/releases

What’s in the installer

App	Opens
Word Online Bridge	.docx, .doc, .dotx, .rtf
Excel Online Bridge	.xlsx, .xls, .xlsb, .xlsm, …
PowerPoint Online Bridge	.pptx, .ppt, .potx, …
OneNote Online Bridge	.one
Visio Online Bridge	.vsdx, .vsd

Features

• Native macOS apps for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Visio Online
• OneDrive sync — open local files, edit in the browser, sync changes back
• Microsoft account sign-in inside Office Online (shared session helpers across apps)
• Unsigned distribution — no Apple Developer account required to build or install
• Simple installer — one zip installs all five apps into /Applications

Install (macOS)

These builds are unsigned. macOS will show a Gatekeeper warning the first time. That is expected.

1. Download OfficeOnlineBridge-2026.08.04.zip
2. Unzip the archive
3. Open the OfficeOnlineBridge folder
4. Right-click Install Office Online Bridge.command → Open → Open
5. Enter your Mac password if prompted
6. When asked “Set these as your default apps now?”, choose:
   • Y — double-clicking .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .one, .vsdx, etc. opens the matching bridge app
   • N — install only; leave current default apps unchanged
7. First launch each app from /Applications with right-click → Open (once)

You can change defaults later with Set as Default Apps.command in the same folder, or via Finder: right-click a file → Get Info → Open with → Change All…

Alternatively, use OfficeOnlineBridge.pkg (right-click → Open), then optionally run Set as Default Apps.command.

Full steps are also in HOW-TO-INSTALL.txt inside the zip.

Uninstall

Open /Applications → Uninstall Office Online Bridge (installed with the suite).
It removes Word / Excel / PowerPoint / OneNote / Visio Online Bridge and itself.
You can choose whether to also delete saved sign-in / cache data.

Alternatively, from the installer zip: right-click Uninstall Office Online Bridge.command → Open.

OneDrive files under OfficeOnlineBridge/ are left alone.

Requirements

• macOS 13 or later (Apple Silicon or Intel)
• A Microsoft account (personal or work/school) with access to Office on the web
• An Azure app registration (public client) with Files.ReadWrite + offline_access for OneDrive upload/sync — entered once in the in-app setup

First-run setup

1. Launch any bridge app (for example Word Online Bridge)
2. Enter your Azure Application (client) ID when prompted
3. Complete Microsoft sign-in in the browser
4. Open a document or the app home page to start editing in Office Online

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/bewithdhanu/office-online-bridge-macos.git
cd office-online-bridge-macos
./build.sh

Build the shareable installer zip:

./create-installer.sh
# Output: dist/OfficeOnlineBridge-<date>.zip

Project layout

Path	Purpose
main.swift	Shared AppKit + WKWebView application
uninstall-launcher.sh	Suite uninstaller (osascript + admin password)
Info-*.plist	Per-app bundle IDs, URL schemes, document types
logos/	Product icons
build.sh	Compiles and assembles all .app bundles
create-installer.sh	Creates the unsigned installer zip + .pkg
SetDefaultApps.swift	Optional helper to set default document handlers

How it works

1. The bridge authenticates to Microsoft Graph and stores a refresh token locally
2. Opening a file uploads or syncs it under OneDrive OfficeOnlineBridge/
3. The document opens in the official Office Online / Microsoft 365 web editor inside a native window
4. On close, changes can be synced back to the local file

Privacy & security notes

• Apps are distributed without Apple Developer ID notarization
• OAuth tokens are stored in ~/.office_online_bridge.json on your Mac
• Office Online session cookies may be shared across bridge apps via a local helper file for convenience
• Only use builds you trust; prefer downloading from this GitHub repository’s Releases page

Keywords

microsoft office online mac, word online mac app, excel online macos, powerpoint online bridge, onenote online mac, visio online macos, office 365 web wrapper, onedrive document editor mac, office online bridge

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please describe macOS version and which bridge app you used when reporting bugs.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.