
Microsoft's Web-based Office goes live - Chirag
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20007080-56.html
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snprbob86
To try them: <http://office.live.com/?docsf=1>

They are pretty impressive. A bit slow and far from feature complete, but
definitely in the same league as Google's suite. If Microsoft keeps their foot
on the gas, they may be able to block Google's assault on Office.

EDIT: I heard that they would have support for _rendering_ 100% of offline
Office's documents/features. Is that still true? Would those parts of the
documents simply be read-only online?

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robryan
I'm getting a "Complex Document: Optimise editing in Word" type message,
suggesting they might not be completely confident in 100% of the offline
features yet?

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robryan
And on a large document it is a lot less usable currently, not just within the
document but the interface to, seemed quiet snappy on a short document, IE and
FF seem about the same, bit faster in chrome (about the usual amount).

I'm surprised their not using this to push silverlight actually, seems like a
good way to prove it's worth.

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endtime
(Disclaimer: I worked on the Word Viewer Web App last summer)

One of the things I think differentiates this from Google Docs, albeit for a
small subset of users, is that equations created in the rich client's equation
editor are rendered in the viewer (it just so happened the only Word doc I
have on Sky drive is a problem set). Most people won't care, but it's pretty
nice if you do use it. My pet use case: If you keep your stuff on Skydrive (I
don't...yet) and need to print from a non-Windows machine, it's nice not to
have to have emailed oneself a PDF generated by the rich client.

Being able to edit the equations would be great, but perhaps unsurprisingly,
that's beyond the scope of the 1.0 release.

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ErrantX
This was my take at the time it was first announced:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=703627>

It's a shame they went with Sharepoint as host for the business version, but
meh.

I have to say the interface is pretty nice; it would have creamed the last
version of Google Docs, but I think the recent docs updates levels the field a
lot (to be honest, they really feel like two different offerings anyway - I
like the current version of Word for "fancy" documents and docs.google for
hardcore writing).

Having Powerpoint in the cloud is brilliant, on the other hand the lack of
word count in Word is annoying.

All in all mixed results; I am guessing things will expand rapidly.

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thunk
They're cannibalizing their biggest cash cow just to compete. They must be
terrified.

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clark-kent
I think you need Word installed on your computer to use this. And it probably
requires I.E.

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mkuhn
It is almost ironic that you spread FUD[1] to discredit a Microsoft Product.
Your statement is plain and simple wrong.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt>

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clark-kent
Its not out of fear its just that Microsoft Docs with Facebook required Office
installed when I tried it. MS Adcenter(<https://adcenter.microsoft.com>) still
requires requires Windows. Try adcenter from linux you get a non-supported
pop-up. Its good news if they support all browsers with this product.

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jasonkester
In Chrome, it's somewhat less impressive than Google Docs. Here is the entire
user experience for me:

 _Browser not supported To sign in to Windows Live Account, try upgrading your
browser. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, please install the
latest version. If you are using another browser, try upgrading to the latest
version of the browser._

~~~
Jencha
Chrome 5.0.375.55 and it works for me. But it is not as snappy as google docs
are.

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jessor
Well, interesting. Less features than Google Docs has, but I'm afraid people
will like it simply because it looks more like their Office 2007/2010 :(

They'll have much less work than Google Docs in convincing users to use it.
meh.

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rodh257
What are the main features that are missing? for me its the collaboration
(docs.com has a 'wall' feature on each document, but not quite as good) but
certainly the formatting seems better (or am I missing something on Google
Docs? no styles etc)

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Jencha
Do they permit using this office live version in business?

