Today some Windows Live users will be able to try Office web apps.
Today some Windows Live users will be able to try Office web apps.
What Microsoft calls a ‘select group’ of SkyDrive users will be able to try the web application versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
SkyDrive, sorry the “Windows Live SkyDrive experience” (I kid you not), is the online storage component of the Windows Live suite of online services.
The Office web application documents will be stored and shared on the Skydrive service which currently offers 25GB of space.
There’s no mention of the Onenote web application for this part of the trial.
Office web applications have already started testing in-house at Microsoft and also with a group of students. This announcement is yet another step in the process to a public release.
All the talk of Skydrive and Office web application only highlights the continued omission of Live Mesh from any of this.
Like Google Docs, Skydrive requires you to upload/download files between your computer and the online storage. Microsoft has Live Mesh which can synchronize a local folder with cloud storage – but that 5GB online is entirely separate from the Skydrive storage, at least for now.
When we ask about Live Mesh all Microsoft staff can do is make the usual noises about being fully committed to Live Mesh. Let’s hope that there’s some action, and soon, to back up that platitude.
See Also
- Boost Skydrive 7GB storage to 25GB
- Office 365 – is it anything new?
- Additions to Office Web Apps
- Avoid Windows Live confusion
- A preview of Office Web Application demos
- The new OWA
- Windows Live login – get one now
- Office Web Applications – half measures for now
- Office 2010 and web apps: apply for the beta
- Office Web Applications preview
- Using Live Mesh to workaround an Outlook limitation
- Live Mesh; the near and far future
- Live Mesh; it’s here now, it’s useful and it’s free
