About a month ago I wrote about the Technical Preview on Windows Live. Since then we’ve seen a lot of interest in Office Web Apps and received numerous requests from people wanting to try them out. To make this possible, we are opening up the Technical Preview and inviting more people to try out the Office Web Apps. For a limited time, you can sign-up for a Technical Preview account here (if you are already a part of the technical preview, this link will generate an error): http://skydrive...

It seems too good to be true, but you can use the Office Web Apps with just about any version of Office, or none at all. And to add to the goodness, the Web Apps don't cost a dime. Like peanut butter and jelly, though, the Office Web Apps are better with Office, in particular Office 2010, so you'll have a better experience when you combine the two. Web Apps integration is built right into Office 2010, you can save your documents directly to SkyDrive from Office and you can access documents stored...

If you've been using Office Web Apps for a while, you know that we continually make improvements to them, even since our big update last October. And now that you don't have to sign in, you can try out the 4 latest updates right here, right now.

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Today is an exciting day for us! We are making available Excel, Word and PowerPoint Web Apps for a select group of Windows Live users as part of the Office Web Apps Technical Preview. While the initial functionality is modest it will expand over time. As we get closer to the release of Office 2010 we will make the Office Web Apps available to more Windows Live users. This early peek at the Office Web Apps will include high-fidelity viewing of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the browser. Invitees...

One of my core responsibilities during the development of Office Web Apps has been to ensure that the apps are accessible to people with disabilities. Given that the Office Web Apps are web versions of productivity tools our primary focus is on supporting people who are blind, people with reduced vision, and people with limited mobility. There are a lot of regulations (such as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act) and guidelines that pertain to making both software and web sites accessible. These...

Office Web Apps can be installed as part of a SharePoint deployment. Also, Office Web Apps will be available on Windows Live SkyDrive. One difference between Office Web Apps in these two environments is how you create new files. Creating Files on SkyDrive On SkyDrive you will be able to create a new document, workbook, presentation or OneNote notebook using the Office Web Apps. The UI looks like this… When you create a new file using this UI the file will open in the appropriate Office Web...

The Office Web Apps continue to provide access to your documents anywhere in a variety of popular browsers.

Today, we are excited to introduce you to viewing and editing documents in the Office Web Apps on tablets using "Touch".

In this blog post, Program Manage Renu Devi, describes the "touch" experience; the design framework that guided development of making the Office Web Apps touchable and responsive to touch; and the technical details that made the editing and viewing tools available in touch-supported browsers.

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With the new Office, we are making document viewing more touch-friendly in browsers on many popular smartphones. We prioritized such touch-enabled viewing so you can easily access and read Office documents on SkyDrive or Office 365 whether you're using a desktop, tablet, or smartphone browser.

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I'm writing this blog post on SkyDrive. I'm not just doing this because I started at home and I'm finishing in the office. I'm doing this because the people on my team have strong opinions and I'm encouraged to listen. So I want to send this post to a group of people to get their feedback on what I've said here. Years ago I would have written this and sent it as an attachment in an email. But doing that now makes my life unnecessarily unpleasant. To start with, everyone may not be able to open the...

Do you have Office documents on your website or blog that you want your readers to view even if they don't have Office installed?  Would you rather view a document before downloading it?  To give your audience a better experience, try the Office Web Viewer.

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