There is an add-on module for SharePoint 2010 called Office Web Applications. Office Web Applications allows people to edit Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) within the web browser window rather than opening the document in the associated Office application.
The advantages of Office Web Applications include:
- You do not have to have Office installed on your own computers.
- It allows some mobile devices to read (not edit) Office documents.
However, there are some significant disadvantages:
- The Office Web Application enables only a subset of the functionality of the full Office application. It works for simple edits (adding or changing text, changing fonts, styles), but advanced features are missing. With the restricted functional capability we are not sure what demand there is for Office Web Applications.
- Office Web Applications server software is free. However, in order to use Office Web Applications legally, all people who have access to it must be covered by a volume licensing agreement such as the University of Saskatchwan Microsoft Campus Agreement for Office Pro or higher. This means that departments that are not participating in the Microsoft Campus Agreement cannot use Office Web Applications. It also means that students and off-campus people are not covered.
Primarily because of the licencing difficulties, Office Web Applications is not offered to the campus community for the initial deployment. We are exploring whether it is possible to configure SharePoint 2010 to
contain site collections which are restricted to those on the Microsoft
Campus Agreement with Office Web Applications available and other site
collections without Office Web Applications open to any university employees or students. If a way to overcome the license costs proves to be possible, and demand for the application is evident, Office Web Applications may be offered in the future.
For a list of the features that are missing in Office Web Apps, see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431682.aspx#Scenarios
