Use MS Office for Free with Office Web Apps
Posted on June 10, 2010 at 5:39 am
In an exciting move this week, Microsoft has announced the addition of a new service that allows everyone with a Web browser to use Microsoft Office’s applications. Finally, MS Word can be used from our smartphones, netbooks and any computer anywhere…all for free.
The new service is called Office Web Apps, and includes basic versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Not every feature we have come to expect in the full versions of MS Office are available in the Web version, but there are still many good features available for each product. Microsoft has designed Web Apps for light editing.
With the addition of an online version of office comes a new way to collaborate with other people while using the same file, much like how we use Google Docs.
Businesses can purchase a license to use Office Web Apps with SharePoint. The license adds features, such as broadcast capability with PowerPoint slideshows.
As for mobile devices, Microsoft lists the iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Nokia 560, Windows Mobile phones and phones with Japanese features as currently supported. Microsoft claims the iPhone users can only (during the technical trial) View documents with Office Web Apps, but we were able to edit documents too by clicking the Switch to PC Version link. This should also work on the iPad.
We are excited by the idea of using Microsoft Office’s products for free, but we will hold our judgment of how well it works until the product emerges from Beta testing. Right now, the server appears bombarded, so our test of the program ran quite slowly. Hopefully this will improve soon.
For now, only Microsoft Customers who have purchased Office 2010 can use Office Web Apps. You can download the Beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 for free from Microsoft.com. Learn more about Office Web Apps for business use at Office.Microsoft.com.
» Filed Under MS Office Tips
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Have you ever considered SSuite Office as a free alternative to MS Office?
Their software also doesn’t need to run on Java or .NET, like MS Office and so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small, efficient, and easy to use.
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