Microsoft Thursday began a belated and limited beta of its newfangled browser-based Office Web Apps, the widgetry that’s supposed to joust in the cloud with Google Apps and the other free or low-cost online Office wannabes.
It’s their first public outing.
The invitation-only technical preview for consumers, available through Windows Live, only includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, not OneNote, and they aren’t feature-complete yet – nor will they ever be as feature-rich as the real McCoy.
Word is currently only good for viewing and sharing documents, not creating or editing them. Excel documents can be viewed, created and edited and PowerPoint presentations viewed and edited. Microsoft said nothing about printing.
But Office documents can apparently be embedded in blogs, social networking sites and other web sites.