Microsoft puts beta new Office Web Apps online

A few days after the release of Office 2013 beta, Microsoft also put a beta version of the new Office Web Apps online. The interface has been given a makeover and, according to Microsoft, has been expanded and faster.

The web version of Office now has the same Metro styling as the recently released beta version of Office 2013. The developers have mainly focused on speed improvements and adding new features, according to the report. Office Next blog† SkyDrive users can currently use the Web Apps in beta to test†

Users can now take advantage of more functionality from the desktop versions in the online versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. For example, in Word you can now adjust page dimensions, orientation, margins and paragraph settings. In PowerPoint, the drawing tools are extensive and there are also more options for animations. Excel now has support for pivot tables, among other things, and the charts are now more extensive. It is now also possible in all apps to work on a document with different people.

Microsoft says it greatly appreciates the feedback from users and mentions a number of things that have been adjusted in response to user suggestions. For example, a word counter has been added in Word, OneNote now has a search bar, PowerPoint has support for videos and it is possible in more places to call up a contextual menu via a right-click. Support for mobile browsers has also been improved, so that the read-only version presented to smartphone users looks better.