Google Docs doesn't require a closed, proprietary vendor lock-in plugin and Chrome 3.0 annihilates IE8 in standards support and speed.

What a joke this is, don't allow yourself to be locked in.

http://docs.google.com/

googlechromereleases.blogspot.com

Google Docs doesn't specify Opera either **sniff**

docs.google.com/.../answer.py

"This site doesn't work in Opera because Opera has a small market share. To fix this, you can mask as Firefox. Now Opera has an even smaller market share."

I think that's exactly the right decision; if I'm using Web Word, I care much more about the functions of Word than the functions of the browser. But I'd also like a way to get at the most useful of those browser functions - if I have a phrase selected, will there be a simpler way to search on it than copy and paste to the search bar?

Also, what about custom dictionaries and custom Autocorrect entries? These make a huge difference to my productivity and I wish there was an easy way to move these between the different machines I use rich-client Word on; I bet I'm going to wish for a way to sync those up into Web Word even more - and perhaps that could be the way I get them from machine to machine? Now that we have export for the custom ribbon, I want a good way to move that from machine to machine and have that appear on the Web. It's my experience - I want to take it everywhere with me.

wouldn't it be more natural to provide spellchecking as part of a browser? Firefox have this, so why not add specllchecking to IE?

How to integrate custom proofing langauge into the office word web apps?

Please give me some idea on this. Its an high priority work for me.

How do I turn the damn thing off? The spell-check keeps marking lots of words as misspelled, even when they're not -- when I use German names in a Norwegian text, for instance. I try to click "Do not check spelling", but it doesn't work -- the squiggles are still there. If I can't turn the spell check off, I'll stop using the web app before I even started.

@Geir Hit Ctrl+A to select all the text, and then hit the little down arrow below the "Spelling" button in the home tab of the ribbon.  This will open a pop-out menu and choose "Select Proofing Language".  You should then be able to either set the proofing language to something that isn't spell checked (like Latin) or check the box saying "Do not check spelling" (assuming you are in a Web App with that checkbox.)

Thank you for this offer and demo interview.  Perhaps now I can get closer to the curve rather than always being far behind it.  I look forward to exploring Office Web Apps' abilities in my Sky Drive.

Peace, Doc

Is there any way to make this video bigger? Trying to watch on a Mac with Firefox 3.5 and the latest Silverlight does not show any controls.

Interesting, I found this while looking for sharepoint webparts!! The video looks promising for collaborative work on documents and further sharing with people that may not have had access before. I have used Google Docs quite a bit and it is good to see Microsoft realising the potential of these applications. I look forwad to giving it a Burl with my staff and classes!!

FYI - you can download the original video in various formats from TechNet Edge here:

edge.technet.com/.../Office-Web-Applications-Demo-First-Look-and-Announcement

Guys, search is over - Check out http://demo.i-technosoft.co.uk for Office Web Apps with SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Brilliant Demo

For the non-SL version, can't you just use some ellipse that may even be blurry around edges, instead of a rectangle? The rectangle requires much more precision which you hadn't been able to achieve anyway so why not use something that is less precise by default?

Thanks for this cool blog posting! Technical content and background information on how you developed and decided things are highly appreciated! Indeed, information about how a problem has been solved is much more interesting for me, too.

Regards, Ooh

I hadn't thought to try Ctrl-F - must check that out instead of clicking in the field. The thing I immediately missed was being able to set whether case mattered and whether to look for a whole word or part of a word. Are the Find Options too hard to do even with Silverlight or might this come as part of the editable Word Web app?