Microsoft word and excel only opens online version, I want to open normal excel and word

Jay,

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll try to answer your questions accurately. Forgive my non-technical knowledge. :)

This happens when I click on a link that's copied from a shared Dropbox folder. In fact, I'm the owner of one of the folders and have edit access on the others. As recently as last week, I was able to click on that link which opened the file preview in Dropbox, and had the option to click the Open/down arrow button, which opened up a dropdown menu that allowed me to "Open in Word" for example - depending on file type.  

More recently, when I followed that process, I only get the Open button and when I click that, it prompts me to use Microsoft Online (for Word files).  I have the option (...) to download the file. When I do that, it saves to my Downloads folder so then I have to save as to the original Dropbox shared folder. (See screenshot below)

I'm accessing these files on a Macbook where the files are also located and the Dropbox app is installed. I believe the application is installed and running properly. Is there a way to double check that? 

The files are synced locally. I am able to navigate to those folders on my computer and double click to open the files. 

I'm using my business account to access these files.