Office Web Apps:Free Microsoft Office 2010 on SkyDrive

It has taken Microsoft a long time to bring its flagship Office suite to the Web and now it finally has with Office 2010.Microsoft Office 2010 is taking on Google Docs with Office 2010 Web Apps,lightweight and browser-based online versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint that are all accessible via desktop, mobile devices, and Web browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.

 Overview of Office 2010 Web Apps

Microsoft Office Web Apps is a new service, with which you can share, read, edit and create documents through your browser. This will allow easy collaboration with other friends and colleagues to get important project results much quicker. It’s similar to the way Zoho or Google Docs allows collaboration, but Office 2010 Web Apps will let you keep the same look of the desktop document and lets you edit using the familiar Office tools.

Among the features of Office 2010 Web Apps:

• Users who have Silverlight can upload more files concurrently, by dragging and dropping them all in the browser.
• Users can edit a document in the browser.
• Users can work in the Web Apps without having to install any special software.
• With co-authoring in Excel and OneNote Web Apps, users can work with others at the same time and never be locked out of a document
• while someone else is working on it.
• Users can read documents on smartphones.
• When users combine Office Web Apps with Office 2010 it enables them to edit offline, and to co-author documents using revision marks,
• comments, and other features in Word and PowerPoint.

Let’s get started with Office 2010 Web Apps:

Office Web Apps on SkyDrive are available free Here

1,Create Files on SkyDrive

On SkyDrive ,you will be able to create a new word document,excel workbook, powerpoint presentation or OneNote notebook using the Office Web Apps. The UI looks like this…

When you create a new file using this UI on SkyDrive,the file will open in the appropriate Office Web App. SkyDrive uses a simple blank template to create these new files.

2,Upload your files to SkyDrive

With the same ui ,just click “Add files”,and upload a doc (or lots of docs). If you have Silverlight (install it Here), you’ll get an extra ability to upload many more files at once, simply by dragging and dropping them all in your  browser.

 

 And if you have Office 2010, you will be able to save files from applications such as Word and PowerPoint directly to SkyDrive.Upload size is limited to 50 MB per file.

3,Edit a file with Office Web Apps

On Office.live.com, you’ll easy to find all the files —or your friends have shared with you—show up right in the “Recent documents” section you will easy to find you’ve recently viewed or edited.Click the file name,you will see a “Edit in browesr” Button.

Click Edit in browser, and start working away in the Web Apps without having to install any special software.

One thing to note is you’ll need to use Office 2007 format (.xlsx .pptx .docx) or higher. If you want to edit a document in an older format, the site will convert it for you.

4,Work together in real time.

Two heads are better than one.This will allow easy collaboration with other friends and colleagues to get important project results much quicker. It’s similar to the way Zoho or Google Docs allows collaboration, but this will let you keep the exact look of the desktop document and lets you edit using the familiar Office tools.

However,Google Docs has a feature that can notify me when someone updates the my files. I have not seen anything like that in office web apps yet. Are there any notifications for edits?

5,Read your docs on your smartphone.

Browse to Office.live.com  on your phone and you’ll be able to view Word and PowerPoint documents without any extra software (work with most smartphones).

There’s more to come in Office Web Apps

There’s more – but you probably want to just try it yourself.Get going!  

Google just refreshed their Apps for better import/export capabilities after the initial release of MS Office live web apps were announced. Had office web apps been ready then they could have been a real competitor…