In the coming months, Microsoft will unveil a Google Docs like product that will let users create and edit Office documents in the browser itself without requiring a copy of Microsoft Office software.
The product, known as "Office Web Apps", will include online versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. Like Google Docs, Office Web Apps will be available for free and you can use it from all popular browsers on Mac or Windows PC even without the Silverlight plug-in.
How to get Microsoft Office Web Apps
Microsoft is expected to ship Office Web Apps alongside Microsoft Office 2010 sometime next year but here’s a simple hack that will help you access the preview version of Office Web Apps right now.
Go to skydrive.live.com and sign in with your Windows Live ID. Click the Documents folder and upload a dummy Word file to this folder though "Add Files".
Once the document is uploaded, you’ll see an invitation to join the Office Web Apps preview program. Accept the EULA and you’re all set to use Office Web Apps.
Here are some screenshot images of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint running in the browser. In the current version of Office Web Apps, you can view Excel workbooks, PowerPoint presentations and Word documents in the browser but the editing feature is only available for Excel and PowerPoint files.
Hat tip Abhishek Kant.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/access-web-based-microsoft-office/9884/
Tags: Archives, google docs, hacks, microsoft office, Office Online, skydrive, Internet
Reader Comments
Hmm, I just tried this out and did not come across an invite for the program at all. If you don’t mind, can you share where the invitation popped up at on the page? It appears that perhaps MS saw your article or was otherwise notified of users’ ability to do this, and may have removed the invite – or I’m just simply unlucky.
Written by _Who on 09.21.09
I just followed your instructions and I did not see an invitation to join the Office Web Apps preview program anywhere.
Written by Sarah on 09.21.09
I really hope that Microsoft does a revamp of the interface for the SkyDrive if this is the place that they want to publish the Web Apps, I personally would like to see the Web Apps moved to something like the Office Live Workspace, it just has a better feel for working with documents.
Written by Sean Cantellay on 09.21.09
I have gone about the way it has been explained in the post, but I didn’t get the invite. I think the glitch has been plugged now.
Written by Virtual Web Symphony on 09.21.09
This didnt work for me at all!
Written by Steven Finch on 09.21.09
I got that option. On my way to try it out. Thanks amit for that tip :D
Written by DJSays! on 09.21.09
Hey I have few docs in my skydrive and I also uploaded one 2day.. but I’m unable to see any invite link. :( Is there any other way to try Office Live
Written by avinashsonee on 09.21.09
this is not working for me. What can i being doing wrong??
Written by Robert on 09.21.09
I’ve uploaded a dummy word doc, and nothing new happens… :(
Written by Daniel Alvarez on 09.21.09
Did’nt work for me!
Written by Dnyanesh Mankar on 09.21.09
Didn’t work for me. Perhaps because I haven’t been actively using my win live! account or that I’m using an older browser? Will give it a shot on IE8
Written by Harshit Sekhon on 09.21.09
this trick won’t worked for me . is there any other way also to use Microsoft Office Web?
Written by Ajay on 09.21.09
Doesn’t work, Amit. Maybe they’ve reached the limit, or maybe it’s a geographical restriction.
Written by Milind on 09.21.09
Interesting. I am on a Mac. And this is not working for me. It might be limited for Windows users right now!!
Written by Renganathan Ramamoorthy on 09.21.09
Nick Simons of the Office Web Apps team says that they “will be rolling the technical preview out to users gradually.”
If you don’t see the invitation link in your SkyDrive account yet, maybe you should put your name in the queue via bit.ly/Pxu3o
Written by Amit on 09.22.09
Too much bother.
Besides who wants to hooked on to the net just to read a file?
I prefer working on documents off line.
If you don’t need all the fancy frills, why not simply use free versions like Open office?
I have not used MS Word for the past five years.
I don’t miss it at all.
Yes, sometimes I receive MS word docx files.
If I can’t read them I convert them to plain readable formats using Zamzar
Anyway thanks for this tip
Written by G Vishwanath on 09.22.09
Worked for me, but only after I uploaded a .docx file. Needs to be the new Office 2007 format, I think.
Written by Jan Van Belle on 09.22.09
@Amit : This will not work for all the accounts. There are some factors not sure what. I had tried with 10 different accounts, all India based and it did not work.
IMO it should be mentioned that there is a probability that you would get the access but not sureshot.
Written by Ashish on 09.22.09
Many thanks – worked for me, but only when using IE8. Didn’t like Firefox for some reason.
Regards,
White
Written by Whitefiver on 09.22.09
If you have questions about the Office Web Apps, check out the team’s blog here: link
For more helpful tips, tricks, and resources, check out the Office page on Facebook: link .
Cheers,
Kate
MSFT Office Outreach Team
Written by Kate on 09.23.09
Not working even on using IE8 and using UK as location. It seems their Beta is filled or closed right now.
Written by Navjot Singh on 09.25.09
In true MS fashion, for those of us using Linux, they have blocked access. You have to run Windows XP, 2000, or Vista. Just one more reason to dislike MS. I’ll stick with Google Docs that works for everyone.
Written by Elmer on 09.26.09