Office Web Apps – Edit Office Documents From Your Web Browser

Microsoft has launched a new exciting service called Office Web Apps that you will surely love.

Microsoft Office Web Apps are convenient online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that give you the freedom to work with your Office documents from virtually anywhere with a supported browser.

Currently, the Office Web Apps are in Technical Preview and are available to all Office 2010 beta users only. If you want to try it, you can still download the Office 2010 beta for free. You also need a Windows Live SkyDrive account to use it.

Office Web Apps includes basic version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Take a look at these screenshots:

Word Web App

As you can see from the screenshot above, the Word Web App is almost the same as the Microsoft Word that we’re using on our desktop. You can quickly open the online document in your Microsoft Word by clicking the button “Open in Word”. You can do the basic things like creating a table, adding pictures, clip-art, and links.

Excel Web App

PowerPoint Web App

With PowerPoint Web App, you can do simple things like adding/deleting a slide, insert a picture and apply picture styles. And with SmartArt graphics, you can even build a diagram or organizational chart on the go, as easily as typing a bulleted list. However, you can not add animations on your presentation.

Note: Excel and PowerPoint Web App do not have a save button because your work is being saved automatically.

OneNote Web App

It includes same features available in OneNote on your desktop, including tags, text styles, spell-checking as you type, and AutoCorrect. And because OneNote Web App lets you see who made the last change, and even view previous versions of notebook pages, it’s easy to stay on top of your important information.

You can also upload your documents from your hard drive to your SkyDrive account so you can edit it from any PC.

You can also save a document directly to your SkyDrive account from Office 2010. Here’s how:

1. When you save a document, choose “Save to Web”.

2. Click Sign In, enter your Windows Live ID and password, and click OK. If you use Hotmail, Messenger, or Xbox LIVE, you already have a Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one, click Sign up for Windows Live SkyDrive to create a new Windows Live ID.

3. Select a folder in SkyDrive and click Save As. Type a name for your file and click Save. The document is now saved on SkyDrive.

With Office Web Apps, it will be easier for us to edit our documents from almost anywhere as long as there’s an internet connection, PC, and a web browser! It also works with other mobile devices such as iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Nokia 560, Windows Mobile phones and phones with Japanese features.

* Office Web Apps will be available to anyone with a free Windows Live ID at a later date.

Also see: Try Google Docs Even Without A Google Account

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