Office Web Apps Updated

The Office Web Apps have been updated to improve browser support and enhance handling of Word and Excel documents. The Office Web Apps deliver viewing and limited editing functionality for Office documents from a Web browser. Although limited in editing features from their full desktop application counterparts, the Office Web Apps are useful for kiosk-based workers who do not need an entire Office suite or desktop workers working remotely. The updates suggest that the Web Apps will continue to get improvements between major releases of Office and SharePoint.

Office Web Apps Overview

The Office Web Apps, first announced in 2008, have been available for consumers since 2010. “Office Web Apps” is generally used to refer to the suite of Web Apps that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. The Web Apps are hosted on SharePoint technology and work with documents stored on SharePoint servers. Business can get the Office Web Apps for on-premises deployment as add-ons for the SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 software. The Office Web Apps are also features of the Office 365 suite of Microsoft-hosted services. Consumer versions are available from Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive online storage service, and Docs.com, a beta project that delivers Office document editing integration with Facebook conversations (and does not include the OneNote Web App).