Free Microsoft Office Web Apps Available

Microsoft launched its free Windows Live versions of Office Web Apps.

The new service is currently available in English for Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Canadians can access a French version too; a Spanish version is also available for the United States. Microsoft plans to expand the service to other locales and languages in "the coming months," according to the PowerPoint team blog.

Office Web Apps are simplified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that run in supported Web browsers. These applications use the "Ribbon" user interface menu system that was first introduced in Office 2007, although the menu is far less extensive. For Windows systems, supported browsers include Internet Explorer 7 and 8 and Firefox 3.5. On the Mac operating system, Safari 4 is supported.

Users need to sign up for a Windows Live password to access the service, but it's all free. The service can be accessed anywhere using a supported browser and an Internet connection at http://www.office.live.com. Smartphone users can view Word and PowerPoint files without additional software on most devices, according to Microsoft's announcement. Printing files in Word and PowerPoint Web Apps can be done right from the browser.

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