I was cruising around my Skydrive account and noticed a curious information bar. I was lucky enough to get the invite for the Microsoft Office Online Apps. I, enthusiastically, signed up. Today according to the Office Web Apps blog, the Windows Live Team has made available Excel, Word, and PowerPoint to a select group of Windows Live users. The functionality is somewhat limited, however it looks and performs great. Keep reading to see some previews.

Here is the Agreement you must accept to use the Online Apps.

SUPPLEMENT
TO
MICROSOFT SERVICE AGREEMENT (for Windows Live)

USE OF MICROSOFT OFFICE WEB APPS
TECHNICAL PREVIEW/BETA

Thank you for agreeing to participate in Microsoft’s Office Web Apps Technical Preview/BETA. Your use of the Web Apps is governed by the terms and conditions of the Microsoft Service Agreement you agreed to when you signed up for Windows Live and the terms and conditions of this Supplement. In the event of any conflict between the Service Agreement and this Supplement, this Supplement will govern as to use of the Web Apps during the technical preview period.

PRE-RELEASE SERVICE. The Web Apps are pre-release versions. They may not work the way a final version will. We may change the Web Apps for the final, commercial version. We also may not release a commercial version.

FEEDBACK. Because the Web Apps are pre-release, you agree to give feedback about them to Microsoft. You give to Microsoft, without charge, the right to use, share and commercialize your feedback in any way and for any purpose. You also give to third parties, without charge, any patent rights needed for their products, technologies and services to use or interface with any specific parts of a Microsoft software or service that includes the feedback. You will not give feedback that is subject to a license that requires Microsoft to license its software or documentation to third parties because we include your feedback in them. These rights survive this agreement.

TERM. Your rights to use the prerelease version of the Web Apps terminates upon their commercial release or receipt of notice from us to cease using the Web Apps, whichever is first.

Notice the rub there? “We may change the Web Apps for the final, commercial version.” Which means Microsoft will have a version for businesses that will be a paid subscription.

Now, on to the previews of the Microsoft Office Apps themselves.

Excel

Click the images to enlarge…

With Excel, you get the basic functions. Creating tables, and editing it’s properties. No graphs yet, hopefully will be implemented soon.

One great thing about this, is you can export the document right from the online app, to Excel on your computer. There are many other features, but you can have a look for yourself.

Word

Unfortunately Word seems to be offline with this message:

Still to come...
Editing is not currently available. We are working on it though.

  
Somewhat of a disappointment, however even more exciting. Another thing to build up excitement for.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a marvelous program. Useful for many things. The online version is very limited currently. Basic text and effects are possible. No templates or layouts are to be found. Just like Excel, PowerPoint can be exported to your installed PowerPoint for offline editing.

One Note

Just like Word, One Note is not available as of yet. According to the Office blog however, we can expect them in the times to come.

That’s all for now, they are very limited applications. The Office Apps resemble more of Office 2010, rather than 2007. Which is Microsoft’s next Office Suite. Users of SkyDrive will now be able to edit their documents stored on Microsoft’s cloud directly from the web, if you’ve got the invite, and save or export them.

Stay tuned for more news on Microsoft Office 2010, and Microsoft Office Online Applications.