Microsoft Office Web Apps Technical Preview Started Today

We already know that Microsoft Office 2010 will have web based apps for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, today finally Microsoft announced and started the technical preview program for MS Office Web Apps. The private beta saw a huge demand and immediately closed for now, but you can add your email to waiting list at Office 2010 site.

The limited beta program started with few beta testers, the web versions are available in English and Japanese for the moment but other languages will be added later this fall according to Microsoft. The web application suite is called as “Office Web Apps” an individual programs are called as Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App, and OneNote Web App.

In this beta program all the applications are not ready fully, Word is missing editing functionality, excel and PowerPoint are missing several features and OneNote is not yet released for Preview.

The Office Web Apps are made available through Windows SkyDrive, you will use the SkyDrive to store the documents you upload.

According to Michael Schultz, director of marketing, Microsoft Office, Excel web app will have the co-authoring capabilities, which allow users to work together on an Excel sheet or a PowerPoint presentation even if Office is installed on their PCs.

Excerpts from the press release.

….The Office 2010 release is designed to deliver a great productivity experience across the PC, mobile phone and browser. Office Web Apps work with Microsoft Office, so there’s no need to learn another program or service….

….The great integration with Office gives people the ability to quickly and easily save and open documents from the Web, directly from Microsoft Office 2010. Seamless integration with Windows Live lets people access, edit and share with friends, family and co-workers anywhere. ….

The full feature set for Office Web Apps will be available in the first half of 2010, and offered in three ways. First, Windows Live customers will have access to Office Web Apps on Windows Live SkyDrive. Second, Office Web Apps will be available to Office 2010 volume licensing business customers, hosted with Microsoft SharePoint Server on-premises. Third, businesses will also have access to Office Web Apps through Microsoft Online Services.

Sign up for the beta version of Office Web Apps from http://www.microsoft.com/Office2010.