Office Web Apps are free web-based version of Microsoft's Office productivity suite. It includes the web-based versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote. The web apps allow users to access their documents directly from anywhere within a web browser as well as share files and collaborate with other users online. Supported web browsers include Internet Explorer 7 and later, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and later, Google Chrome and Safari 4.
Office Web Apps is available to its customers via three channels:
- Consumers are able to access Office Web Apps through Windows Live SkyDrive
- Microsoft Software Assurance customers are able to host Office Web Apps on-premise as part of their SharePoint Server
- Businesses and corporations are also able to host Office Web Apps using a subscription-based Microsoft Online Services
Office Web Apps was released to the public via Windows Live Office on June 7, 2010, and Office Live Workspace users are expected to be migrated to Windows Live Office within the next months.
Office Web Apps was first revealed on 28 October 2008 at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2008 in Los Angeles. [3] Microsoft originally announced that Office Web Apps will be available through its Office Live Workspace offering. During PDC 2008, Office Web Apps was announced to be powered by AJAX as well as Silverlight, however the latter is optional and its availability will only "enhance the user experience, resulting in sharper images and improved rendering." [4] Microsoft's Business Division President Stephen Elop stated during PDC 2008 that "a technology preview of Office Web Apps would become available later in 2008", [5] however, the Technical Preview of Office Web Apps was not released until 2009.
On 13 July 2009, Microsoft announced at its Worldwide Partners Conference 2009 in New Orleans that Microsoft Office 2010 has reached its "Technical Preview" development milestone and features of Office Web Apps was demonstrated to the public for the first time.[6] Additionally, Microsoft also announced that Office Web Apps will be available to users in three ways: via Windows Live for consumers (instead of the previously announced Office Live Workspace), or via Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft Online Services for business users. However, Office 2010 beta testers were not given access to Office Web Apps at this date, and it was announced that it will be available for testers during August 2009.[7] However, in August 2009, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that there has been a delay in the release of Office Web Apps Technical Preview and will not be available by the end of August.[8]
Microsoft officially released the Technical Preview of Office Web Apps on 17 September, 2009.[9] Office Web Apps was made available to selected testers via its Windows Live SkyDrive service. The final version of Office Web Apps was made available to the public via Windows Live Office on June 7, 2010. [10]
No comments:
Post a Comment