Updating Files

I am relatively new to the game. I have a question. I am designing a web page and most of the links are to Word Doc's or Excel files. I have it so when the person clicks on those links it opens in Word or Excel is it possible for those people to update the file and then save it, will it update the original file? If so, then I would protect them with passwords so the only people who could make those changes are the ones who will have the password to do so. If not, how would be an easy way for updating these files if they are frequently updated by different users. PLEASE HELP!!!

Easiest way is to have users download the file, save it locally, make changes, and then re-upload it to your server. You could do this via a public or private FTP account, if you're unfamiliar w/ programming techniques to do it.

If you do that, anytime two people are editing at the same time, one person's changes will be overwritten and lost when the second person uploads their changed file.

Right - unless you employ a check-in/check-out system, such as CVS or use an FTP client which has that kind of functionality built-in, such as Dreamweaver.

Another solution might be webdav. I think some of the newer versions of office understand it, and I know that IE has a webdav client built-in. Worst case scenario they have to drag the file to their desktop, edit it, then drag it back to the server.