Microsoft Office is the world's most widely used efficiency and collaboration suite.

Having become a de facto standard in companies and administrations, the company markets it in editions for local installation and one-time payment, and also as a subscription model (Microsoft 365) which is the great bet for the present and the future once this form of distribution has been established, which reached the program after defeating the services of continuous use of music or video.

Apart from the paid commercial editions, Microsoft offers the suite for free and on other platforms, such as Android, where downloads number in the millions.

But it also has a free version for the desktop that includes Simplified editions with the essentials for a large part of individuals.

We are going to give you some reasons to use it and we are also going to discuss its limitations in case you need more.

Office Online is free

The cheapest version of Office 2021 costs 149 euros, while Microsoft 365 for consumers is priced at 69 euros per year.

In front of the commercial editions, it is clear that The biggest benefit of Office Online is that it is completely free.

Previously known as Office Web Applications, it includes the three main apps of any office suite: the Word text processor, the Excel spreadsheet tool and the PowerPoint sample tool.

Microsoft adds other free ones like OneNote, Teams and Outlook, apart from Microsoft Teams, Forms and Sway.

Using it is as simple as entering your website, sign in with a Microsoft ID account (or create one if you don't have one) and start working in any browser.

Access to documents anywhere

Along with the listed apps, Microsoft gives 5 GB of free storage space in its OneDrive cloud service.

Enough to store documents, spreadsheets and samples.

When you work in Office Online, all changes will be saved to OneDrive instantly. 

This means you won't lose hours of progress if something goes wrong and you haven't manually saved the files.

Another key point to emphasize is that Office Online works independently of the device and the interface, and can be used from any compatible browser (each and every essential one) on machines running Windows, Linux or Mac operating systems.

It is also connected to applications for smart mobile interfaces, iOS or Android, which work really well and are also free.

Simplicity of collaboration

Many customers continue to distribute Microsoft Office documents via email or mail services.

With Office Online it is much simpler and more flexible, since you can use the Share function to send a link whose online opening enables its use by another user.

The menu lets you choose any contact or add multiple ones at a time.

You can also choose to have editing or read-only privileges.

This version also allows multiple people to work on the same file simultaneously, requiring only that both have the file open with the appropriate privileges.

Workflow made simpler

As you might expect, Office Online doesn't provide as many features as its commercial desktop counterparts or the Microsoft 365 subscription.

They don't include the suite's more powerful tools, such as Word's advanced formats and Excel's detailed graphics or macros.

This may scare off this version for expert purposes, but it is still very capable for personal use.

In addition to this, there are users who may feel overwhelmed by the amount of tools and work platform of the finished editions.

Office Online gives you the essentials with everything at hand to get work done.

And it doesn't load the system elements as much., which can be a virtue when working on computers with lower hardware levels.

Office Online also offers organizational benefits.

Because it keeps all of your files in OneDrive, they won't take up storage space on your local machine, though it also lets you do so if you choose.

Finally, indicate that Office Online works with standard Office file formats, such as DOCX and XLSX, essential to ensure compatibility.

Continuous update

This Office for the web page receives continuous updates from Microsoft, Work platform, features, security and popular errors.

Not as much as Microsoft 365 on which it bases its performance, but considerably more than the on-premises Office 2021 suite, which will not have a feature update until the next version.

If Microsoft does create it, it has now warned that this one would be the last.

So Office Online will be fully up to date, soon after the new features have been deployed for the commercial cloud suite.

Office Online is not special

At this point, we must also comment on the weaker points of this suite.

Or rather restrictions.

If you need the most important features of the business suite, you will not find them.

There are also no free editions of apps like Access, Visio, and Project.

In addition to this, it is an online suite which means that you need to be connected and you may not always be able to access a reliable Internet connection.

On the other hand, the industry provides choices to Office High quality and some free.

Example Google Docs / G Suite which has nothing to envy the Microsoft solution and if you are looking for a program for local installation, there you have the fabulous LibreOffice, open source, completely free and with more than enough possibilities for the vast majority of users.

What about Office Online?

It attracts us. Fast, with a simplified work platform, easy to use, regardless of devices and interfaces, and which provides for free the essentials of the major applications in the Microsoft suite.