Microsoft Launches Free Version of Office Web Apps

Microsoft recently launched the free version of Office Web Apps after nine months of allowing select users test the Technical Preview. The service is initially available via Windows Lie SkyDrive (integration with Hotmail is currently not yet ready) at office.live.com to users in the U.S, Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland with support for English, Spanish (USA), and French (Canada) languages. For the users who don't live in those regions, you will still have access, but you won't be able to choose your language. Rest assured though, Microsoft says "more languages and locales will be added over the coming months."

Office Web Apps allow uesrs to view, edit, and share Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote documents directly in their browsers. OWAs requires Internet Explorer 7+, Chrome on Windows and Mac, Firefox 3.5+ on Windows, Mac, and Linux, or Safari 4+ on Mac. Microsoft has also revealed which mobile browsers are supported for Office Web Apps: "You can view the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files that you save to SkyDrive via Office Web Apps on supported mobile browsers, including Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile 5 or later, Safari 4 on iPhone 3G or 3GS, BlackBerry 4.x and later, Nokia S60, NetFront 3.4, 3.5 and later, Opera Mobile 8.65 and later, and Openwave 6.2, 7.0 and later," mentioned by a Microsoft spokesperson.

The apps work better with Microsoft Office 2003 and later, and when Office 2010 is released to consumers net week, Microsoft will further explain how the two will work together. This could include features such as editing files offline, co-authorizing documents using revision marks, comments, and other rich features in Word and PowerPoint.) You can go ahead and mark your calendars if you are excited about this: June 15 is when a beta of Hotmail Wave4 (with OWA integration) should start rolling out as well as when Office 2010 will hit retail and start getting preloaded on new PCs.