Microsoft is ratcheting up its software-plus-services strategy with a new offering known as Office Live Workspace that is due later this year and that will let customers access, share and collaborate on documents online.
But there is a catch: Users will not to able to edit the documents they are viewing through a browser unless they have Office installed on their computer.
“You need Microsoft Office to edit Office documents, but if you do not have it installed you can view Office documents in a browser [both Internet Explorer and Firefox will be supported] and can comment on them,” a Microsoft spokeswoman told eWEEK Sept. 30.
For users who do have Office on their machine, when they click to edit a document, it will be downloaded into the version of Office they have on the desktop a ”Office 2003 and Office 2007 are supported. When changes are made and the document is saved, the changes are automatically saved to the online version of the document, she said.
The service will be available at no charge when released later this year, and the Redmond, Wash., software maker is accepting registrations from customers who want to help test the beta.
Source: TechZonez