Welcome To Office Web Apps – First Look

Was feeling a little left behind by not getting access to the Office Web Apps beta program but then I got a mail and I got access. I is happy. Here are some pointers:

  • This is more like an extension to Skydrive than Office Live Workspaces (for now).
  • Office Live Workspaces users will be moved to Office Web Apps in 2010 (acc. to Mary Jo Foley)
  • Online Word (read-only possible)  & One Note aren’t available as of now.
  • This isn’t out to kill Google Docs but to ensure that more people don’t migrate to it. With Office 2010 & Web Apps together, Redmond’s got a chance.
  • You have the ability to Edit & Create documents with some level formatting.
  • On Windows, Office Web Apps worked on Chrome 4 (dev channel), IE 8, Safari 4, & Firefox 3.5
  • Does not work on Opera 10 Beta 3 (that’s all the love Opera gets from me.)
  • To get access you might wanna try uploading a document (Word, Excel or PPT) to your Skydrive & hope that Steve Ballmer smiles on you.

Here is Office Web Apps for you:

To begin:

  1. Go to your Skydrive’s Public (or security enabled) folder. Make sure you’re not in the ‘Pictures’ folder.
  2. At the top you’ll find ‘New’ as an option. Screenshot:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps

PowerPoint Web App:

The beauty about PowerPoint+Silverlight+Office Web Apps is that you can view your presentations with the same animations that you created them – as is. Unfortunately no animation editing can be done via Web Apps. Here are some PowerPoint Web screenshots:

New PowerPoint Document:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint

Options available in PowerPoint:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint

Add New Slide Menu:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint

PowerPoint in SlideShow View:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint Slideshow

Powerpoint in Full Screen Mode:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint Full screen mode

Once you’ve created a document in Skydrive and navigate back to the folder you’re greeted with a nice big icon with options to View or Edit it:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Powerpoint

Excel:

Not a heavy Excel user but there seem to be good amount editing options in the Web version. Screenshot:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Excel

Excel Document:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Excel

Here’s what I get for Word & One Note:

Word:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps Word

But you can view existing Word documents. Screenshot:

Microsoft Office Web Apps Word Read Only

Well that’s the only word document worth sharing I had.

One Note:

Microsoft Skydrive Office Web Apps One Note

Here’s a video by Microsoft on Office Web Apps.

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