What is the Dropbox badge?

Updated May 15, 2025

This article only applies to users who are using the Dropbox badge, and haven’t enabled Microsoft co-authoring. If you’ve enabled co-authoring, the badge will no longer appear. Learn more about co-authoring.

The Dropbox badge appears to the right of your screen when you open any Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file saved in your Dropbox.

When you first open a Microsoft file that supports the Dropbox badge, a greeting notification will appear. To dismiss this notification, you can click Close. Clicking Manage Visibility will bring you to the preference page where you can change settings related to the badge.

By default, the badge will only appear if there is a file conflict, or if multiple people are editing a file at the same time.

Learn more about changing when you see the Dropbox badge.

What can you do with the Dropbox badge?

See who is viewing or editing a file

The badge will show the picture or initials of other members of your team when they’re viewing or making edits to the file you have open. That way you can avoid creating separate versions of the file.

Note: The information shown by the badge will relate to the file you currently have in focus, even if you have multiple Microsoft Office files open at once.

Update to the latest version of a file

If someone saves a new version of a file while you're working on it, you can click ☑ (download) to instantly update to their version.

Instantly share the file you're working on

Click Share a link and a link to the file will be copied to your clipboard. Paste that link in an email, chat, or elsewhere to send the file securely to anyone.

Manage shared folder settings

To manage shared folder settings using the Dropbox badge:

Click the Dropbox badge.
Click Shared Folder Settings...

You'll be taken to the Dropbox website, where you can manage user permissions on an individual basis.

Ask for feedback or contributions on a file

Click Comment to make a note on a file from the Dropbox website.

View version history to find content you changed or deleted

Click Version history to undo changes and restore an older version of the file.

Move the badge

You can click and drag the badge anywhere on your screen.

Work better on Microsoft Office files

The badge currently supports Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel on Mac and Windows devices. For Windows, the badge supports 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 Office files. For Mac, the badge supports 2011 and 2016 Office files.

Note: For files saved in Compatibility Mode (.xls, .ppt, .doc), the Dropbox badge will not show when another person is viewing the file and it won't prompt you to update to the latest version of the file. To ensure the badge is reporting accurately, please use Save As to save files in a non-Compatibility Mode file format (.xlsx, .pptx, .docx).

If you aren’t seeing the Dropbox badge in your Microsoft Office files but would like to, learn how to troubleshoot badge issues.

The timing and exact functionality of these features may change, and Dropbox doesn't provide warranties on the performance of these features.

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