From PC World: If you’ve messed around with Microsoft’s “free” Office web app, you’ve quickly discovered that it stinks, for one important reason: You can’t actually create documents. A new, free, ad-supported local version of Office changes all that, according to a report.
(Update: The ad-supported version is a test, a Microsoft representative said Monday afternoon. “Microsoft has been conducting some limited testing,” the representative said in an email. “Currently, there are no plans to launch a free, ad-supported version of Microsoft Office desktop apps.”
If a new report from Beebom is accurate, this new version of Office basically takes many of the basic features Microsoft has included in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and makes them available for free. The one catch is a minor one: You’ll need to save your created document to OneDrive, but you’re then free to re-download it like any other file. Some of the more advanced features are excluded, too.
Microsoft is simply referring to the new service as the “free” version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Beebom reported, noting that it’s ad-supported. Since you’re forced to save documents to OneDrive, you’ll need to enter or create a Microsoft account to do so, which isn’t the worst compromise. However, this new version of Office runs on your local PC, not the web.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft has yet to confirm this new ad-supported Office option, although we asked for more details. (We’ll update this story when and if we hear back from Microsoft.)
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