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Over the last few months, we've gotten incredible feedback from the hundreds of thousands of users in our Office Web Apps Technical Preview. We’ve been busy incorporating much of that feedback, and today, Office Web Apps on SkyDrive are now available to everyone in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. We’ll have more to share next week when Office 2010 is released to consumers, including how Office 2010 + SkyDrive + Office Web Apps give you the best productivity experience across the PC, phone, and browser.
In the meantime, if you live in the US, UK, Canada, or Ireland, you can head over to Office.live.com today to start viewing and editing Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote documents right in your web browser – and share them with your friends.
If you don’t live in one of those regions, you can still get access – just click here. You might not get the Web Apps in your favorite language yet, as we are still rolling out updates to different regions. Note that people you share documents with may also need to visit the link above before they can access the documents you share with them.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about what our team has been working on, and since then, we’ve been busy adding a little more polish, so we could present them to you today.
There are so many new things for you to explore that trying to cover them all in a single blog post would be like trying to gift wrap the Space Needle. Still, there are quite a few great features for you to try out right away.
There's more – but you probably want to just try it yourself. Get going!
You might be asking, when do I get access to all the cool Office features in Hotmail that were announced recently? We’ll have more to share on the new Hotmail updates very soon.
And of course, you get even more cool features when you combine Office Web Apps with Office 2010, for example, enabling you to edit offline, and to co-author documents using revision marks, comments, and other rich features in Word and PowerPoint. You can learn more about Office 2010 here.
That’s it for now!
Jason Moore Principal Lead Program Manager, Windows Live SkyDrive
this is GREAT news. i have a few google docs which i share with my wife for keeping household stuff in order.
Google Docs has a feature that can notify me when she updates the spreadsheet. I have not seen anything like that in office web apps yet. Are there any notifications for edits?
OneNote Web App looks pretty cool. Is there a browser bookmarklet that can push content to the OneNote Web App?
Well, what I want to say is, I was looking for this service for quite bit of time. I have some questions Jason.
1. What if I have slow internet connection?
2. Is there any basic version?
3. Can I save the files in 97-2003 format, ie, .xls, .doc, ppt?
Well, how about that...Office is now in Skydrive. Of course, I have no use for Office which is an intrusive program that does nothing well (which is why the first thing I do when buying a new computer is get any and all office trial software off my hard drive and out of my system registry. Like almost everything else Microsoft has been coming up with lately it's a resources hog.
Like Windows Vista and Windows 7 .
Why don't you give us the option to remove the Office Web Apps AND your Messenger Social garbage?
They're useless to anyone over the mental age of 13.
Mansoor, I am using it on GPRS connection Motorola C350 World at 3 Kb's per sec. Its not the best, but it does work. This is great, I plan to upload all my Office docs now to Skydrive. Jason, the SkyDrive Team needs to include direct access to Skydrive as a virtual network drive in Computer Explorer in Windows 7/Vista/XP. So users can directly access their personal files without having to go through the web browser. Support for Windows Backup would be great too with removal of the file size cap.
Hi Guys,
I am pleased to create my 1st office live document.
cid-eb92759e0f2a3a43.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx!1464&Bpub=SDX.Docs&Bsrc=GetSharingLink&authkey=gzVAgjsfat0%24
Thank god now i can open office docs at home as well. (I don't have office installed on my home computer :) )
Thank you Microsoft for making this amazing service online. Good bye google docs you have given me a lot pain while editing my excel bug sheet online. google docs are very very slow.......
Thank you
Cassandra, its quite obvious you are telling lies and don't use Windows. First of all Office Web Apps is still in beta and is available as a web application which means its not installed on your PC. So how it could be using up resources? If you meant bandwidth, that's different, you need to speak with your Service Provider about upgrading your Internet connection. Then again, I am using it on a really slow connection, GPRS and it works quite fine. As for Windows 7 being a resource hog, again, I don't think you know what you are talking about. Performance is one of the major hallmarks of the new OS, parallel loading of services, unbundling of programs now part of Windows Live such as Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger that you can download if you want them. Also, both Windows Vista/7 include a low priority defragger to keep your system optimized, the OS uses less resources by turning off components that are not in use such as Network, DVD drives, improved memory management. Persons including I had Windows 7 running on 512 MBs of RAM during the beta, although this not recommended for production setups, it does show that Microsoft did make some significant improvements to performance. If Office Trial does come on your computer, this is at the discretion of the OEM, not Microsoft because it so happens the majority people use the apps and might need such functionality out of the box. If you don't want the trial on your computer, click Start, type Programs and Features. Press Enter on your keyboard, scroll down, select Microsoft Office, click Change/Uninstall on the command bar and Office will be uninstalled.
@adacosta: Well, ok slow internet connection works fine, what about the .xls, .doc and .ppt formats?
<quote>You might not get the Web Apps in your favorite language yet, as we are still rolling out updates to different regions.</quote>
Does this mean that YOU are going to decide what language a user will get according to the OS regional settings ?
Just as an example:
I am in the Netherlands, my OS language is English, my Regional settings is Dutch. Please guess what language I prefer ? (hint: websites with language detection do this guess 100% wrong)
How to enable Onenote sharing feature in Office 2010 through Office web apps?
Thanks! This is revolutionary. MS Office has evolved. I love the way Silverlight enhances the user experience.
Awesome. Have you noticed how the Windows Live header is also updated to include messenger & hotmail integration. Go to your WL profile page to connect facebook and loads more wave 4 goodness!
"Lies, is it?" I have been using Windows since Windows 95 and Windows Live Spaces since they introduced it. You can find my Windows Live Space here: aginghag.spaces.live.com
Now it was Office itself that I referred to as using resources. You need to read the comment thoroughly before you respond. I quote: "Office which is an intrusive program that does nothing well (which is why the first thing I do when buying a new computer is get any and all office trial software off my hard drive and out of my system registry. Like almost everything else Microsoft has been coming up with lately it's a resources hog" "Office Trial Software, see?"
As for Office apps---since I don't use Office why would I have any use for Office Apps? I use Windows Live Writer for blogging and I like it just fine.
As for Windows Vista and Windows 7 BOTH use up huge amounts of ram. Window 7's system requirements (according to Microsoft) include 1 GB of RAM
www.microsoft.com/.../system-requirements.aspx
Vista needed a minimum of 512 MB for the Home Basic Version and 1 GB for the others.
Again...that's according to Microsoft
So since you don't have any idea what you are talking about adacosta i suggest you shut up.
That's what you said Cassandra, it could be easily interpreted as installed apps that come with Windows 7. If you don't want to use Office Web Apps, no one is forcing you. You are not required to visit the site. That comment about Office being an intrusive software is very baseless. How is it intrusive? Its a productivity suite, you use it to prepare written documents, calculate and analyze data, manage email/contacts/calendar, create presentations, manage databases. Its used by more than 500 million people. So how could it be intrusive software when the majority of users seem like and use Office for so many years. Again, if you don't want it, remove it. Its at the discretion of the OEM to install it on your system. Please note, it does not come with Windows. As for system requirements, most modern operating systems use a minimum 1 GB of RAM which is normal. I have 2.6 GBs in my system. Check Mac OS 10.6 and Ubuntu 10.04 system requirements, at least 512 to 1 GB of RAM is recommended. Windows 7 does more and will of course require more than the previous version. This is how it has been since Windows 1.0. In the case of Windows 7, it uses almost the same requirements at Vista, less in some areas. Your blog name describes you best.
@Cassandra M: If you thing 1GB of RAM is a huge amount, then there's something horribly wrong. Nearly all computers (excluding netbooks) come with 4GBs of RAM.
@Mansoor Ahmed, yes, Office 97 to 2003 docs are supported.
Any idea when existing Office Live workspaces are going to get migrated over to Skydrive?
Could easily be construed by the inattentive anyway. And, yes, 1 GB is a huge amount of RAM compared to previous operating systems. Windows XP only needed 128 MB of RAM, for example. Windows 98 only required 24 MB to run at its BEST. 16MB was the minimum it could get by with.
As I told you...I've been around awhile.
Now, I'm sure you'll say "But Windows 7 can do so much MORE."
Yes, I know.
But most of what it does i don't need. Just as I don't need Office in ANY form.
I am 60 years old, disabled, and a home user. I don't need to do spreadsheets or any of the rest of that garbage and it is rather rude that Microsoft forces these "improvements" on everyone rather than just making them optional apps that those who wish can tack on to their browsers or whatever.
I don't like the way they have changed my Windows Live Space, either.,
Suddenly all my privacy settings had been altered...my friends list was wide open to the public along with my personal information, my job history, education, and so on.
Yes, it has taken time but I have most of it reset now. What causes me to shudder is the thought that they might just as easily have done all this NEXT week.
When I would have been in the hospital.
Undergoing surgery. And for days all my information would have been OUT there.
This is information I share only with friends.
The Guest Book has been ruined...one can no longer share graphics with friends. The comments section for friends' blogs has been turned into "Twitter" so one can no longer engage in serious discussions on subjects of interest. e g: aginghag.spaces.live.com/.../cns!933F5A04C51C4305!24555.entry
So, yeah, I ain't thrilled.
There seem to be a lot of features that are standard in Google Docs that aren't here. Captioning, changing styles, autonumbering, etc, etc. I can understand why Microsoft can't give away the store, but you know that G-Docs will have all this functionality soon, if it doesn't already. Plus, G-Docs imports OpenOffice, exports to PDF and multiple formats. I wish Microsoft would not give us *the minimal set of features possible* to get away with, and would rather be generous with the feature set. But of course that would be the end of the cash cow - an end which is imminent anyway. Get ahead of the curve for once.
Some of the best Microsoft ideas take time to develop but when they deploy they kick some serious ass. After Google's open challenge to Microsoft, it seems that Bill has put on his war helmet (more like propeller hat) and now he is on his way to crush Google docs.
All what I have to say is that: These Guys are Good! - Microsoft that is :D
Really nice! Started setting up Notebooks for my groups.... Brilliant stuff.
Couple of general complaints. The "Share something" box on our profile pages is nice and all, but it would be nice if we could also change our status/share a photo/doc from home.live.com (Wave 3 had this, and it's missing in Wave 4).
Also, adding OneNote Notebooks in groups doesn't seem to be coming through on the "feed" for the group (the What's New section)... Shame... Or is this just because of the roll out.
Otherwise, nice work!
Thanks guys, I've been waiting for the web apps for a long time!
They seem a bit slow, so I hope you're gonna keep fixing things with frequent updates, but they're a huge step forward.
One thing I don't like at all is document syncing.
In onenote native app I can share a notebook: then I'll get a local copy, a skydrive cloud copy, and both will be kept in sync. Gorgeous.
In word or excel, instead, I can save files to skydrive: then I'll have a skydrive copy, and just a cached copy on my pc that will last for a maximum of 30 days.
I just don't understand why you didn't apply the onenote strategy to the other apps!
Anyway, keep up the good work
@Alimaggs -- thanks for the feedback, yes the "share anything" control will be on the home page as we complete the rollout of the new Hotmail and home page in the coming few weeks. stay tuned :)
I agree that is needs a network drive link. It would get used more if it did. Part of the reason that people use the other services so much is it is just so easy to save stuff to the online drive.
The other thing it could really use is a URL shortener. Even the binged.it one would work.
Thanks Jeff - great to hear that's coming down the pipe. Absolutely love what you've done on Wave 4. I've been using WL Groups for managing teams and projects (work related) for the last year, and Wave 4 has made the experience even nicer. It's great to have a place to share and collaborate. Wave 4 with Groups/Office has become what Google Wave sort of promised, but in a much simpler interface and love the Messenger integration too. Good work.
Whilst you're at it you should get a "Windows Live" link added to the header of Bing (and, for that matter, MSN). I'm not sure quite why Hotmail is the only service promoted on MSN/Bing but I'm sure it's stopped people discovering some of the other services.
@Cassandra
And what about Windows 3.1 that required 4 to 8 MBs, or Windows 3.0 that required 2 to 4 MBs, or Windows 1.0 that required 640 KBs? Should we still be using those too and require that software developers update their programs to work with those versions of Windows? Windows XP was released 9 years ago, which was a different time, different requirements. Windows 98 was released 12 years ago, the same applies to it and Windows 95 which was released 15 years ago. This is how technology works, as demand grows for more functionality, so does the requirement of the software. Would you expect technologies like the latest versions of Adobe Flash Player and Silverlight to work on Internet Explorer 1.0? No, I don't think so. The developers wouldn't even know what the changing landscape holds 10 or 5 years ago, so it would be hard to predict.
If you don't need the features of Microsoft Office, then remove it, it does not come with Windows. If you don't want Windows 7, fine, no one is forcing you to upgrade. There are people who are still running Windows XP and even Windows 98. Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP until 2014, hopefully you will upgrade by then. If you think those versions of Windows work just fine for you, stick with them. Please note that Microsoft Office is sold separately and not bundled with Windows. OEM's do this to add value and because they believe the majority of buyers might need the use of an Office suite. OEM's can't remove Office trials from every PC just to suit you. If you don't want all the features in Windows 7, Microsoft made it easy for you to customize the OS. Click Start, type Turn Windows features on or off, uncheck the features you don't want.
I see..so because a bunch of nerds are delighted with all these new toys no one else is allowed an opinion?
I pay to use Microsoft's products---I think that gives me the right to voice my views. I do not require that you agree with me but you don't have the right to ignore me.
I was quite happy with Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Essentials the way they were a day ago. I do not see why all these changes had to be forced on us. As I said...the Office Apps and so on should have been made available as OPTIONAL components for those that wanted them. The same goes with this Messenger Social garbage. Messenger is another program I have no use for.
I will give Microsoft credit here...at least they didn't do what Yahoo did. Now, whenever you log into Yahoo (which I still occasionally have to because I have many friends who still love it so, in order to keep them updated on stuff I'm doing I have to leave a note on my Yahoo Profile (they don't call it that anymore but that's what it is)....
What the hell was I posting about???
Oh! Right! Yahoo. Well, whenever you log in there for your mail and whatever the web version of their messenger starts bombarding you with Instant messages (mostly from people you've never heard of).
At least Microsoft didn't do that.
As long as one doesn't actually sign IN to Messenger it leaves you alone. But I DID notice that they took my entire friend's list (network) 168 freakin' people and added them to Messenger. I never added ANYONE to Messenger.
Well, I take that back. I had maybe five people in Messenger.
Now everyone is there as well.
Had I wanted them to be able to message me I wouldn't have unchecked the box that said "add to Messenger" when I accepted them as a Live Spaces Friend or "Network Member" or whatever.
As for Silverlight...there's been a lot of shoutin' about it but it's been around for a couple of years now and I haven't noticed that it did anything to improve the Internet Experience.
Heck I was still living with my ex when that first came out in beta and that's been five years now.
It's rubbish as far as I can see.
I haven't encountered more than a couple of websites that even used it. (Microsoft is about the only one I deal with regularly who does---and mostly it just made it harder for me to find the downloads I was looking for).
ANYWAY...
As a customer of long standing with Microsoft
(more than ten years)
I am expressing my opinion.
I don't like this "Wave 4"
Now, carry on....
Oh by the way..I am using Vista...not XP.
And I ain't that crazy about Vista either.
@usctrojan98 You should see edits for your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in your Messenger social feed if they are shared with others. Your friends will see them when they login to http://home.live.com.
@Saqib Ali There's no browser bookmarklet like you describe currently - great feature idea!
@Mansoor Ahmed Ah, a question in 3 parts! :) Here's my attempt:
1. We work to make sure the service works on a pretty wide variety of Internet connections - worldwide - taking into account common issues (such as longer latencies when further from the datacenter, network reliability, etc). We think we've got pretty decent coverage across those. That said, with Office you can work with your document in the client and save back changes - which should make it even more comfortable than a browser-only solution. And with Office 2010, you'll be able to have those files offline with you (so when your Internet connection is at zero, you can still work!).
2. I'm not sure what you mean by basic version - what are you looking for there?
3. We view Office 97 - 2003 format documents, but we automatically convert them for you to Office 2007 format for editing. This gives you a lot more features and broader compabitility going forward - but you can still get to documents in those older formats.
@pradeepiswav If you open your OneNote notebook (or other document) in the browser and click File in the top left, you can choose the "Share" option to share. If your document is at the top level of your SkyDrive, you can share it directly, and if not you will get the option to share the folder it is in.
@vedichymn You can find more information on the Office Live Workspace migration here: ask.officelive.com/.../common-questions-about-the-office-live-workspace-upgrade-to-skydrive.aspx.
@barts2108 Language is always so tricky. :) You can actually go and set yours so we get it right - home.live.com/.../language. When you do so, we'll pick it up across the websites and in the Office Web Apps.
@Cassandra First of all, there is no need to write offensive comments concerning any topic. This community respects critical feedback if a) it is reasonable b) well argued for c) your expertise in the topic is visible from the comment. With flaming and mindless criticism you simply waste your time and ours too. Secondly, just as adacosta said, if you don't like any of the Windows Live services, you don't have to use them. This stands for Office, Windows Live Essentials and Windows Vista/7 as well. You are a consumer, and as such you have the right to decide what products are for you. If you are not satisfied with these products, you can use others, like Yahoo Messenger, Windows XP, even linux. Your choice really. But just because you might make a choice like that you cannot mock and blame a service that others might enjoy. That is selfish. (I'll make no further comments on this issue by the way)
It's great when it works. I tried on Win7 and IE8 and Firefox. I also tried on Mac OSX and Safari 5 and nothing. On a work PC with Windows Vista and IE8 it works. All have the latest Silverlight. Whn it works it works, but most of the time I get errors and it logs me out. I hope this is a beta and not final or I won't recommend. Very Disappointed!
If you see their employees using a competing companies' phones, they blew it.
[Until Windows Phone 7 comes out, of course :D]
Also, on a more serious note, will office editing be coming to phones? Will it only be for Windows Phone or for many other smartphones as well?
Please, please bring back the ability to view and edit the HTML in an e-mail composer in Windows Live Mail. I'm no power e-mail user, but I can't tell you how often I miss it (OE had it). And it's been asked for since day one by plenty of people in the various Microsoft hosted support boards. Pretty please?
And please add the ability to color messages in the list based on rules. I'm surprised at how useful that feature is at my work e-mail using an otherwise unsatisfactory product which shall go nameless here.
I'm thinking about Side-grading to Word Perfect Office. If Microsoft wants to force me to upgrade by crippling office live when I'm not using the latest version of their office suite... I'll upgrade... ... To something just as good, but cheaper. I get Outlook for free through my Exchange host, and it's the only thing WP Office is missing that I critically need. And OneNote... But I'll just go back to doing things they way I did them before I knew it existed.
Let me guess...you didn't like the term "nerd". Fair enough, I shouldn't have used it. I ws wrong to do so and I apologize.
As for my comments concerning the service...I am being charged for this service every month I have a right to complain when they change it and wreck what I had. AS I said...just last week I was VERY happy with the service and with the features therein. Including IE 8 and all the rest.
As for not having to use Vista since the Hewlett Packard desktop I own came with Vista installed I am kinda stuck with it.
I don't know if you've ever tried installing a different operating system on an HP but it never really goes well.
Remember the fun when Windows released the Service Pack 3 upgrade for XP? I had an XP computer at the time. And I dutifully installed the upgrade.
Then my computer stopped working.
Well, fortunately, with an HP you can reformat right away (which I did) restoring it to factory condition (SP 2) and waited until Microsoft and HP worked out a patch for the Athlon Processor. Which they did pretty quickly and I sent Microsoft a letter of thanks because it really wasn't their fault and I appreciated their willingness to lend a hand to HP,
But just as I am quick to praise them when they deserve it I will criticze them when I feel they deserve THAT.
No, I am not a computer professional...and that's the point.
I am an average home user and these wave 4 changes have had an extremely negative impact on many of us.
Or maybe you aren't listening to "regular people"/
On Windows Live Spaces many people are extremely upset with having had their "network" arbitrarily added to Messenger (I'm not alone on that). They are also very unhappy with the limitation to the "comments" section on people's blogs. If they had wanted to be using Twitter they would have been.
They don't like the fact that they can no longer leave graphics in each other's Guest Books.
There's a long list of things that regular people used and enjoyed that Wave 4 changed in an unfortunate way.
MOST people really won't benefit much from having Office apps in their Skydrive. Nor from having all their information (including phone numbers and email addresses and last names) suddenly go public when the changes came in.
And most of them are scrambling just as I was trying to fix that mess. One, known as Happy Flower, said this:
" I am so utterly disappointed at this publication of my contact list.
I will put space to private for now because this is all I can do."
I could quote a lot more people..but hopefully you'll get the point.
You professionals are not the only ones who use these services and you should pause and consider the desires and rights of others before you make such sweeping and totally arbitrary changes.
I shall have to investigate alternate spaces.
SkyDrive is now almost perfect! But it still desperately requires two additional features.
1. The ability to upload folders.
The upload feature could easily be enhanced to handle folders. This would improve the user experience greatly, and remove a major obstacle facing user migration from hard drive to SkyDrive!
Uploading files in multiple folders can take hours or even days, and must be managed manually! The ability to upload a root folder would reduce the time and effort from minutes or hours to almost zero.
2. Display an embedded video player for video files.
It would be easy to implement an embedded video player for files on SkyDrive of certain formats. This great feature would improve the user experience tremendously for video files, and greatly accelerate discovery adoption of SkyDrive.
There are already millions of video files here on SkyDrive! At present the file must be downloaded, which is literally the worst possible user experience for obtaining content of this type on the web. You should instead, when possible, display an embedded video player. (I would suggest using the free open-source Silverlight Video Player initially for a quick implementation.) Users will then be much more eager to share links to video files on SkyDrive. Users will also spend much more time on SkyDrive and engage more with the website, because users love to share and consume video content. In fact, with this simple feature, SkyDrive could become a serious rival to YouTube!
I am looking forward to trying this out, but you know what? You guys at Microsoft infuriate me all the time. You are always late to the party. I have been using Google Docs, and now I have to see if I want to change over. The same thing with Windows Live. That could have been so great, but you went at it half-@ssed. You got rid of my.home.live (or whatever that was called) and replaced it with live.com which is NOT fully customizable like the old my.live sight. Why do you guys do this? So now I use iGoogle. I've been a Microsoft user since DOS and Win 3.1, and I am a shareholder, and I WANT to use your products, but lately you keep going at it half-@ssed and killing any product (One Care, Money, etc) after a few years.
The problem is, you guys don't have anyone to take over from Bill Gates. Ballmer is NOT doing the job and he should be fired.
how do I find my previous Office Live files? Are they going to be moved into my Sky Drive?
Is the mobile version of Office.live.com up yet? I get redirected to the mobile.live.com site on my Windows Mobile 6.1 device, with no option to open Office documents.
Please don't tell me _Windows_Mobile_ isn't on the list of supported smartphones... (Then again, if it were, the screen cap of the mobile version above probably wouldn't be featuring an iPhone, would it?)
@Jason Moore: Thanks. I did not see the edit notification in my feed, nor was there any email. Is email notification not enabled?
@stmon99 - They technically didn't get rid of One Care. It became Microsoft Security Essentials and is now free. Check it out here www.microsoft.com/security_essentials .
I have always been a fan of MS Office. Nobody even comes close to the power or integration that the product provides. I have been using Office 2010 for some time now and there's nothing ever wrong with it and it always works.
@Tim Acheson - Having the ability to play video files using the embedded silverlight player would be great but streaming video is heavy on the network and since it's free I can understand why they wouldn't do it.
I can't wait to start writing Outlook 2010 Add-Ins to connect up to SkyDrive. With Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate it's super easy to make an Add-In and having .Net 4 and Silverlight at my disposal I can code anything I can imagine. Way to go Microsoft and keep up the solid work.
Great news but it seems the windows live spaces got messed up with the changes. The new permission sets tried to change the old ones, and I do not see the statistic tool anymore. It was nice to see how many visits you have in your profile and where it comes from.
@jason, Well you're right about language but there is nothing much tricky. Just give people an easy to find option to change it. What you see nowadays is that a website forces you to a specific language and the link to change it is extremely hard to find.
In general: Websites that decide for me which language I must use and websites that think they must open a full screen browser are saved into my ban list. I am smart enough to decide for myself which language I want to use.
@Jason: But I need to get my document in 97-2003 formats, please make it possible! By basic version I meant, just like there are two versions of Windows Live Mail, Basic and Standard, so is there any basic or standard version for Office Live as well. Or just Standard?
@Cassandra M - On this one I totally agree with you: privacy settings are unsatisfactory and oversimplified. I don't know what the guys at Redmond were thinking, especially after the hysteria around Facebook's privacy protocols.
I've tried using office.live.com on my mobile (HTC HD2) and it redirects me to Windows Live photos instead. Is there a problem with that particular mobile?
Office web apps on the PC is brilliant though!
@Cassandra, @Leonard -- thanks for your feedback. Regarding privacy controls, can you be a little more specific on what you're unhappy with? We've worked very hard to make privacy and permissions controls in Windows Live even more transparent, clear, and in your control than ever -- including very simple, straightforward "high/medium/low" options that give the majority of people simple choices that easily map to the settings they want, as well as a much cleaner and more comprehensive set of advanced/detailed permissions controls than ever before. Thanks much.
A good start, but could we have some sort of road map regarding the badly needed integration? What strikes me as the most obvious is Live Mesh. (It stores synchronized files in the cloud for use on other PCs, so why not include those files in SkyDrive??)
OneNote is another example: you can put them on SkyDrive, but you can not even open them online, or in Windows Mobile (well, you can see the files, but not the content).
There are more bugs than I would ever have expected regarding OneNote. For instance, I have not been able to save PC-stored OneNote notebooks online yet: although I am logged on, it keeps asking me to select from one of my security certificates. When I choose one and OK it, it repeats the question but won't do anything (a messge would be helpful). Although the selected certificate was already installed on my PC, I reinstalled it. Thereafter, the selection was accepted, but it tries to connect to igydy9.docs.live.net and requires user and password to do this. Needless to say, there is no indication how to sign on... and you get the message "oneNote can not move the notebook indicated to the location specified". Actually, I had not intended to MOVE it, just to publish it online.
And guess what: there is not help pages online or offline. This is worse than any freeware product I have ever used.
@Tim Acheson Thanks for the feedback. Of note, SkyDrive now supports playback for WMV files in Silverlight. Support both in the web page and in our new photo slideshow.
@tylerwasson123 If you are looking for your Office Live Workspaces files, you can still find them at workspace.office.live.com. You can read about the transition coming up for Office Live Workspaces here - ask.officelive.com/.../common-questions-about-the-office-live-workspace-upgrade-to-skydrive.aspx.
@usctrojan98 There is no email notification for edits. You should be able to see notifications for edits for any files you've shared by going to your profile - http://profile.live.com.
@Mansoor Ahmed For outputting documents in other formats, you'll need to use a client version of Office - we support opening files from SkyDrive in Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 (launching next week). As far as "Basic/Standard" separations, we just have one offer: the whole thing. Hope that works for you. :)
@Scott Davies Scott, we'll look into that. You should not be directed to the mobile photos experience.
Wow, I just found that you DID add a video player to SkyDrive in Windows Live Wave 4! Thanks, I've been asking for this for some time and have submnitted feature requests!
Please update the embed code so we can embed the video player! At present the embed code provided just displays the old video file thumbnail image!
www.timacheson.com/.../skydrive_video_player
@Scott, @Todd Office.live.com for mobile is available today on the Android, iTouch, iPhone 3+, Blackberry 5+, Opera 9+, Palm (WebKit), and Nokia S60 (Generation 5+).
I was so excited to hear about this. I've said for years that I would pay a monthly fee to have everywhere access to OneNote. It's honestly one of the best pieces of software that Microsoft has ever released and I don't think enough attention is paid for it.
....but, I'm realizing now that there doesn't seem to be a way to upload my OneNote Notebook without a third party tool How can this be? How long do we have to wait?
@gerrard00 I completely understand - I love OneNote too! You'll be able to upload and use your notebooks offline (synced to SkyDrive) with OneNote 2010. That will be available next week. We don't support earlier versions of OneNote but you will be able to upgrade and move your existing notebooks online (or create new ones).
Where is Office.live.com for iphone available?
I'm pay for MSN Premium still (believe it or not), and part of the reason is I don't want to get ads on MSN and Live services. However, as it is right now, for office.live.com I get ads showing up. Will this be changing so I (and my family) don't have to be presented with ads?
All great. Two things about the new home. though...
Facebook posts:
We should be able to like posts, trying to differentiate between Live and Facebook like that would be just silly... I don't want to have to visit both sites, one or the other on the run.
Importing friends from Facebook...:
It's importing connections, not just friends... I've fanned more pages than I have in freinds so I hope that's on the change list... :P
Can't wait for thenext few service roll outs!
@Jason Moore So, I have to buy a new copy of OneNote just to upload my files? That doesn't seem to make much sense. That's not a reasonable workaround for what seems to me to be a use case scenario that was just missed.
@Richbaer You can navigate to http://office.live.com in Safari on your iPhone.
@jtt88 MSN Premium removes ads in Windows Live Hotmail and Spaces only. If you don’t want ads in our other services like SkyDrive, we have a service called Windows Live Hotmail Plus (www.gowindowslive.com/.../default.aspx) that may fit your needs.
@gerrard00 Understood. There's significant changes that have happened from OneNote 2007 to OneNote 2010 under the hood that make it so we cannot support both clients. Given the changes (which will make the experience better and smoother than ever before) we've decided to support OneNote 2010. There will be a way to try out trial versions of Office 2010 soon and I hope you'll give it a shot - the OneNote experience is pretty special.
Issues from an Offiec 2003 User. I set my default save format to Office 2007 formats. When I upload documents, Web Apps operates in a crippled mode. Not cute. -- Will we be able to sync OneNote Mobile 2010 to Cloud? Otherwise I don't see a point in giving it Office Mobile users. Strip it out and make it an optional download for those of us who don't use phones with multi-gigabyte internal storage space (WinMo lets you install most apps to SDHC, so lots of WinMo users don't see a point in getting that much internal storage). Not supporting OneNote 2007... That's kind of laughable, and that's part of the issue why I'll probably upgrade everything except Outlook to WordPerfect Office. The Forced Upgrade Treadmill is getting quite old.
And yea, I read the reasoning behind the OneNote stuff. I'm just saying!
Jason, this is good news. However I'm very frustrated by my inability, using SkyDrive, to have two different accounts co-author a Word document. User #1 creates a new folder and then give permissions to add, edit details, and delete files to User #2. User #1 then creates a new Word document in that folder, edits and saves within the browser. User #2 goes to the shared folder and selects edit in browser. This message consistently appears at this point:
"Word Web App cannot open this document for editing because it is currently being edited by another user."
Am I missing something? This is so intuitive in Google Docs. We are on the verge of committin to Office 2010 because of the co-authoring feature, but not matter what I try (either with the new Word web app or with using local version Word) I can't seem to do something that should be simple.
I should point out that the same basic steps work perfectly using the Excel webapp.
I was very interested in the next version of OneNote, but being forced to move to that new version just to get online access to my notes leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure you guys have code to convert 2007 notes to the 2010 document format in the 2010 desktop client, so I don't believe that it's a technical decision as you are characterizing it. Guess I'll give Evernote another try.
Yea, the way MS is trying to herd us into upgrading Office is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. Outside of business use, there is very very little reason to upgrade from Office XP or Office 2003, much less someone who has Office 2007. I don't see myself using these Web Apps with any regularity.