Screenshot Tour: Take a Look at the New Office Web Apps

One of the most talked about new features of Office 2010 is Web Apps.

Here we bring you a tour of the Web Apps service and what you might expect.

We cover the highlights and some areas that could use improving.

Office Web Apps are a great counterpart to the Office desktop apps.

They render docs very well, and let you quickly edit and collaborate on important documents with familiar tools.

Office Web Apps can also be used internally by corporations via SharePoint 2010 or hosted Microsoft Online Services.

Or, you could start by quickly adding files from your rig.

When they’re all finished uploading, click Continue.

Your new files will now be usable directly from the cloud.

Hover over the file you want and choose from available options.

In our tests we have found the feature set sufficient for most quick editing needs.

Documents render nicely online, including fonts, styles, text boxes and footers, even complex script languages.

It also includes a wide variety of fonts to use.

But that’s not to say that you might’t create a complex document in the Word Web App.

If you’ve inserted an image, a Picture tab will appear.

It’s included in the reading mode and works like the desktop version.

It only includes basic tools and does not let you insert graphs or other advanced graphics.

It can render graphs, including the new Sparklines feature in Excel 2010.

If you edit data in the spreadsheet, it will automatically recalculate the graph and update it accordingly.

The Excel Web App is still a pro with numbers and formulas.

When entering in a formula, you’re free to click to select cells as usual.

you’re free to also can sort, filter, and format data easily.

As with OneNote, you might also chat directly to other users with Messenger.

It includes a variety of templates from PowerPoint 2010, and lets you create and edit SmartArt diagrams.

You cannot add transitions to new presentations you create online.

you might preview your presentation in the default viewer.

This will open a full-window presentation.

And once the presentation is cached, it renders the slides very quickly.

you’re able to edit existing presentations or create new ones online.

When you create a new presentation, you might pick from a variety of templates for the presentation.

Once you’ve selected a theme, you could’t change it.

it’s possible for you to now add and edit text in your slide.

Additionally, the Font color tool will show the colors included in your theme, which is nice.

it’s possible for you to insert a new slide from the Home toolbar as well.

you’re free to select from dozens of SmartArt diagrams and insert them directly into your presentation.

A new SmartArt tab will appear on the ribbon while you’re editing it.

It’s extremely nice for collaboration, and allows simultaneous editing by multiple users.

The ribbon tabs have similar features to that of Word, with the addition of the Tag button.

This will mark each part of your Notebook with the that section’s editor.

Save the document as a new file with a new name from Office, and try uploading it again.

Some features are not supported in the web apps, such as 3d graphs in Excel.

While the OneNote and Excel Web Apps support co-authoring, the Word and PowerPoint Web Apps do not.

But just like in the desktop versions, you’ve got the option to minimize the ribbon.

ConclusionAlthough there are other online Office suites such asGoogle DocsandZoho, MS Office Web Apps are worth a look.

We found it very competitive with features offered by competing services.

It’s a useful substitute for standard Office when using a machine that doesn’t have it installed.