Free Office Web Apps Updated

The free Office Web Apps, which are offered through Windows Live SkyDrive and Hotmail, received a feature update in Aug. 2010. The update adds lets users insert and edit charts within Excel Web App (charts were previously read-only) and print from the Word Web App editor (previously, printing was only possible from the viewer), as well as adding clip art and more themes for PowerPoint Web App. The updates are not available for Office Web Apps in on-premises SharePoint 2010 installations, although Microsoft says that some updates will be delivered later through an as-yet-unannounced vehicle—probably a patch or service pack. Separately, Microsoft updated Facebook Docs, a slightly different version of Office Web Apps offered through Facebook, with the ability to tag documents, search by more criteria, and filter results.

The Office Web Apps update is described at blogs.msdn.com/b/officewebapps/archive/2010/08/23/10053373.aspx.

Office Web Apps are described in “Document Sharing with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010” on page 3 of the Jan. 2010 Update; the free versions are mentioned in “Windows Live Services Get ‘Wave 4’ Updates” on page 20 of the June 2010 Update.