Office 2010: The Missing Manual

Chapter 31. Office Web Apps

In 2010, Microsoft introduced a new way of working with Office—on the Web. Office Web Apps let you create, edit, and store files online. It’s free, and you don’t have to install Office 2010 on your computer to use it. All you need is an Internet connection, a web browser, and a Windows Live account (that’s free, too).

Office Web Apps consists of mini-versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can use these apps independently of your full-fledged Office 2010 programs, or you can make them work together, easily transferring files back and forth, for example.

This chapter shows you how to get up to speed with Office Web Apps: setting up and getting started, creating and organizing folders, and filling those folders with files. Sharing folders with others is one of the main reasons to use Office Web Apps, so you’ll see how to share folders to let others view or work on your files.

In the Department of Related News, this chapter wraps up with an introduction to Docs.com, an online Office program built to work with Facebook. This tool lets you create and share files with your Facebook friends. No word yet on whether Microsoft is planning a Twitter version of Office.

Introducing Office on the Web

Office Web Apps is a group of web-based applications. And what are those? Simply put, they’re programs you access over the Internet. You point your web browser to the program’s online home, sign in, and then work in more or less the same way you would with the ...