If you depend on other applications, like Microsoft Access, you’re out of luck. Microsoft provides Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online, and OneNote Online. Office Online is more limited than Microsoft Office. Word Online offers real-time editing that allows multiple people to edit the same paragraph at a time. For example, when you collaborate with other people in the desktop version of Word 2013, only one person can edit the same paragraph at a time. The web-based version of Office also offers better collaboration features than the desktop-based version of Office does.

Your documents may already be available in OneDrive. Office 2013 saves your documents to OneDrive by default, so Office Online works well as a companion web application. You can use the OneDrive integration in Windows 8.1 or the OneDrive desktop application on previous versions of Windows to sync the documents you create to your computer, getting local copies in Microsoft Office format. Office Online saves your documents to your Microsoft OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive) storage online. RELATED: How to Collaborate on Documents Over the Internet It doesn’t require any special plug-in and works in any popular browser, including Firefox, Chrome, and Safari - not just Internet Explorer. You can use it on all the PCs you want without paying for additional boxed copies or subscribing to Office 365, Microsoft’s subscription service for Office.īecausee it’s a web application that runs in your browser, Office Online will run on everything, from Linux PCs and Chromebooks to iPads and Android tablets. This is Office Online’s biggest advantage over desktop versions of Microsoft Office. Unlike all of Microsoft’s other Office products, Office Online at is completely free. RELATED: What's the Difference Between Office 365 and Office 2016?

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