Microsoft is on a streak, in renaming its products at least. After changing the SkyDrive to OneDrive, the company has now announced that the Office Web Apps has been renamed as the Office Online.
Office Online will avoid any confusion that the old name might be causing. In line with the rebranding, the company also made the online suite easier to find on the office.com website and by having drop-down headers in OneDrive and Outlook.com.
"We heard from customers that the inclusion of Apps in our name was confusing. Are they something I install? Do I go to an app store to get them? No, to use them all you need is a web browser. Ah! You say. So it's like Office, online. Yes, exactly. Office Online," Microsoft announced in its official blog.
Microsoft also hinted of new templates that have been integrated with Office Online, which includes classic programs such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. Users also have access to OneNote, OneDrive, Calendar, and People.
"Not only are we making it easier to find, share and collaborate using Office Online, we're making it easier to create great looking documents. The new online experience includes hundreds of Word, PowerPoint and Excel templates so you can go from nothing to something with just a click. Budgets, resumes, calendars and more, all available online, for free at Office.com," it stated.
The changes might have been hinted by earlier changes noticed by the Chinese website livesino.net on Jan. 29. The site noticed the preparations for the name change when it noticed the elements of the productivity suite sporting the names Word Online, PowerPoint Online, OneNote Online, and Excel Online. The company expressed its intentions to reposition the brand as early as 2007.
One only needs a Microsoft Account to make use of the free versions of the programs and all files are stored to OneDrive. The company also tweaked the service to become more cohesive and connected so collaboration will be easier. The rebranded Office on the Web includes an app switcher that allows users to jump easily from one file to another or between the cloud storage and email without going out of the Office Online environment.
Users can open their online app created documents on their desktop version of Office 2013 or Office 2010 by clicking a specific button on the Office Online program. Unfortunately, those who use MS Office on their Macs cannot open their online documents in their desktop version of the program.
