Free Office URI Link Generator

An Office URI link is a special address, such as ms-word:ofv|u|https://intranet.example.com/report.docx, that launches a Microsoft Office desktop application and tells it to open a document from a URL. The format comes from Microsoft's Office URI Schemes specification: a scheme name for the app, a command for what to do, and the document address separated by vertical bars. When Office is installed, each scheme name is registered with the operating system, so clicking the link hands it to the matching app.

Microsoft's specification registers nine scheme names: ms-word, ms-powerpoint, ms-excel, ms-visio, ms-access, ms-project, ms-publisher, ms-spd for SharePoint Designer, and ms-infopath. This generator covers the four document apps people actually link to from intranets and wikis: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio. All four support every command in the spec, whereas SharePoint Designer and InfoPath do not support the new-from-template command.

They are the two open commands in the spec. ofv is "View Document" and opens the file in read-only or view mode, which is the safe default for anything you distribute widely. ofe is "Edit Document" and opens the same file in editing mode, which suits a working document your team is expected to change. Both take the same single argument, the document URL, after the |u| descriptor.

nft is "New Document from Template". The app creates and opens a brand new document based on the template stored at the URL you give it, and the template file itself is never modified. You can add an optional second argument, |s| followed by a folder URL, which sets the default location offered when the person first saves, and Microsoft requires that folder to be on the same host name as the template. The person can still choose a different save location.

Microsoft's specification says the scheme is supported in Office 2010 Service Pack 2 and later, including Office 2013 for Windows and SharePoint 2013, and also in Office for iPhone, Office for iPad, and Office for Mac 2011. In practice that means any reasonably current Office desktop installation handles them. SharePoint itself uses these URIs as the links to documents stored in its document libraries, which is why they feel native there.

The scheme names are registered with the operating system by the Office installation, so on a machine without the matching app there is nothing registered to receive the link. What the person sees then varies by browser and OS: often a prompt that finds no app, sometimes nothing at all. That is why these links belong in places where you know the audience runs Office desktop, such as a company intranet, and why pairing each one with a plain https link to the same document is good practice.

Office URI links are external protocol links, the same mechanism as mailto: or zoom links, and most browsers ask permission before handing a page's link to a desktop application. The person typically sees something like "Open Microsoft Word?" with an option to allow it, and many browsers offer to remember the choice for the site. This is standard browser behaviour for every custom scheme and not something the link itself can suppress.

Yes, and this is the most common reason a link "does not work". The URI only tells the app which address to fetch; the app then requests that URL as the signed-in person. A SharePoint or OneDrive document opens only for people with permission to it, and an intranet address only resolves inside the network or VPN. Before shipping a link, check the document URL opens for someone other than you.

Behaviour differs from the desktop and between platforms, so test on the devices your audience carries. Microsoft's specification lists Office for iPhone and Office for iPad among the supporting applications, but what happens on a phone depends on which apps are installed and how the mobile browser handles custom schemes. For an audience on mixed devices, a plain https link to the document is the more predictable companion.

The spec defines a compact variant: the scheme name followed directly by the document URL, for example ms-word:https://intranet.example.com/report.docx. It implies the ofv view command and the u descriptor, and no further commands or arguments are allowed in that form. Use it when you want a shorter read-only link; use the full form for edit mode or templates.

Microsoft's implementation notes for Office 2013 cap URI command arguments at a maximum path length of 256 characters for all apps except Excel, where the limit is 216. The same notes say longer paths may be supported on an app-by-app basis and recommend testing before relying on it. This tool warns you when a URL crosses the documented limit for the app you picked.

No, and the spec is explicit about it: within command arguments the reserved characters : and / are part of the argument data, not delimiters, and are included unescaped. URLs must conform to RFC 3987, and characters identified as reserved should not be percent encoded. The one character to avoid entirely is the vertical bar, because it is the scheme's own delimiter, and Microsoft also lists \ / : ? < > | " and * as forbidden in filenames.

The auto-detect here only infers the app from native Office document and template extensions, because Microsoft's Office URI documentation defines the schemes per application and never maps file extensions at all. A .csv is a plain text format rather than an Office document format, so we do not guess an app for it. If you have a file type you know your audience opens in a specific Office app, pick that app in the manual dropdown and the link is built the same way.

It is free, there is no sign-up, and the tool is entirely client-side JavaScript: the link is assembled in your browser and your document URL never reaches our servers. Pressing Build fires one product analytics event containing the tool name and the options you picked, with no URL in it. Each generated link is also saved to a history list in your browser localStorage, capped at twenty entries, which you can clear from the panel.

Not through the link itself. An Office URI launches an application rather than loading a web page, so there is no page view, no referrer, and nothing reported back to you. If you also publish a plain https link to the same document, shorten that one with Flyn and you get a click count for it, which is usually the better measure of interest across an audience that is not all on Office desktop anyway.