Maybe you’re keen to collaborate online, but other members of your team are dragging their heels? One common reason for sticking with the old methods of working is a natural reluctance of busy or non-techie people to learn to use new software. And if that’s the case in your nonprofit, the new (free) Office Web Apps from Microsoft may help you get past that collaboration roadblock.
As ReadWriteWeb reports, Microsoft Office Web Apps on Skydrive rolled out to users in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland this week:
Users can login with their free Live accounts and create and edit Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010 and Excel 2010 documents in their browsers, and store them in the cloud. Users don't need an Office 2010 desktop license to use the apps, but the Skydrive version integrates with desktop versions of Office 2007 and 2010. There is also a beta version of Office Web Apps that can be deployed on-premise as part of Sharepoint.
SkyDrive is Microsoft’s free online storage and sharing space, part of the Live.com suite that includes Messenger and Hotmail. Like many similar services, it gives you access to your password-protected files from anywhere you’ve got Internet access, by computer or most smartphones. The difference here is that SkyDrive’s free Office Web Apps let members of your team collaborate on and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, even if they don’t have Microsoft Office installed on their computers.
While the Office Apps don’t have all the bells and whistles we’ve come to enjoy with recent enhancements over at Google Docs, or with the Zoho suite, there’s a lot to be said for a familiar interface when you’re trying to nudge your committee members into working in the cloud!
Office Apps are only available to users in certain locations at the moment, as noted, but Microsoft says they’ll be rolling out the new SkyDrive features worldwide over the next few months – “If you don’t see them yet, you can expect them soon.”