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Microsoft Office Web Documents, but they fall a long way short when it comes to creating and editing files !

Microsoft has spent the past five years reminding people that web apps can't possibly match the power of dedicated desktop software. Now it finds itself in the awkward position of launching its own Office Web Apps, in a belated attempt to counter the threat of Google Docs and others.

On the face of it, the Microsoft and Google approaches seem similar. Both offer completely free access to online word processors, spreadsheets and presentation software from any web browser- in Microsoft's case, via its SkyDrive storage service and also to companies running SharePoint 2010 servers. Microsoft even goes the extra yard by throwing in the advanced note-taking abilities of OneNote.

Yet it soon becomes clear that Microsoft has taken a very different tack. While the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote are powerful, the majority of that power is reserved for people who've already created documents with the desktop versions. Attempt to build a presentation from scratch using the Power Point Web App, for example, and you'll have only a handful of fonts to work with and you can't even change the background colour of the slides. And although the Office Web Apps look like their desktop brethren, the ribbons are stripped of all but the most basic features.

Even Excel has only two tabs to choose from, one of those sporting only two buttons. Lt would be pure folly to attempt to create anything other than basic documents using the free web software. Import a document from one of the desktop apps, however, and the Web Apps suddenly spring to life.

Documents are immaculately preserved; advanced features such as pivot tables, contextual formatting and slide animations aren't callously jettisoned, as is often the case with Google Docs. Everything from complex formulae to Excel's new sparklines are retained and react almost instantly to changes. What's more, features start to magically reappear. Click on a photo embedded in an uploaded presentation and a Picture tools tab suddenly appears on the ribbon. Likewise, fonts that were hitherto missing are made available if you've already used them within an uploaded document.

The Office Web Apps also cope admirably with huge documents. We've uploaded a 200-page Word document- replete with tables, graphics and dozens of images- and hugely complex Excel spreadsheets, and had few problems. But the Web Apps are a long way short of full desktop power and full of bizarre inconsistencies.

In PowerPoint, for example, you can give a picture a 3D photo frame with reflection effect, but you can't resize it. Similarly, there's no way to change a chart style in Excel. It feels like a work in progress, and hopefully features like these will be added in the coming months. Also missing is one of Google Docs' chief attractions: the ability to collaborate simultaneously on Word documents. In the PC Pro office, Google Docs has become the default brainstorming application, where members of the team enter ideas for features in the same document. But in the Web Apps, Microsoft has restricted concurrent editing to Excel and OneNote.
What is impressive is how Microsoft has weaved the Web Apps into the desktop software. Among the Save options in Office 2010 is an option to "Save to Web", where you simply plug in your Windows Live login and save the file directly to the chosen folder on your SkyDrive.  The SkyDrive service offers both private and public folders, making it easy to use the Web Apps as both a backup folder and document share. In conclusion, while Google Docs and alternatives such as the excellent Zoho. com feel like fully fledged applications, Microsoft's Office Web Apps currently feel more like glorified document viewers. That doesn't mean they won't be useful. Being able to access and make tweaks to full fidelity Office documents from any PC with a web browser will certainly have its uses, and might save some companies from paying for extra licences for home workers. Microsoft has, however, worked on the side of caution, perhaps fearful that making its Web Apps too powerful could result in the Office cash cow being prematurely sent to the abattoir.

The onus is now back on Google to up its game and force Microsoft to offer more features for free.

About the Author

Steve Barker, owner of DTec Comptuers Penrith & Carlisle, specialist in computer sales, support and repair. over 15 years in the it sector.

Computer Repair Penrith

How to Hack Microsoft Office Professional 2007

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