Read Office Documents Online Using Microsoft Office Web Viewer

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If you’ve used SkyDrive, then you know that you can use it for viewing and editing any Microsoft Office documents online. It works great, and is a superb tool for sharing and collaboration.

Google also offers a similar service named as Google Doc viewer, but Microsoft is now offering a new way to open documents from any site. Let’s take a closer look at how this can be done.

Microsoft Office Web Viewer allows users to read Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents online, without the need for anyone to have Microsoft Office installed on the computer. To use it, you just need to paste the complete URL of the online document into the form and then click on the “Create URL” button.

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Once you do this, the same page will refresh and you’ll get the link to the document. You can now share this link with anyone. Click on the “preview in a new window” to open the document in a new window.

Now you’ll be able to view the document online, in fact, you can send this link to anyone who wants to view the document and there’s no need for even logging-in to a Microsoft account to view the file.

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From the online interface, users can click on “Download” to download the file, or find any text from the document. The File menu gives you options like translate, save as, print and share the document. These buttons are visible from the top of the browser. There’s no option to edit the document at this moment.

Webmasters can also link the URL to their website, so that visitors can view the document online. This is a great addition to those who want to offer a way to view the document, without downloading or the need for installing Microsoft Office.

However, please note that Microsoft’s Office Web Viewer is limited to Office documents only at the moment. It only supports Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents. These three are the most common used document formats and therefore in most cases, users won’t face any problem with that.

Try it out and let me know your opinion in the comments section below.

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