Office 14 To Get Office Web Apps

At PDC, Ray Ozzie announced that Microsoft will be launching online versions of their popular Office programs with Office 14. The idea is to stay competitive with the likes of Google Docs and Zoho.

These Office Web Applications are to include Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote and will feature full editing functionality. It will utilize the Ribbon interface currently used in Office 2007 for a streamlined browser experience.

Two people can edit a document at the same time, making for greater networking abilities. What's really neat is someone using the web client and the real program can both edit at the same time. Both are compatible. Edits appear just a few seconds after they are made on the other person's screen. The idea is that it will maintain desktop functionality on the web. To be delivered through Office Live, the web apps will be funded by ads and subscriptions and will work in Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox