Excel Web App

The Excel Web App is the free web based version of Microsoft Excel 2010 that anyone can use. Being a hosted web application, the Excel Web App does not require the installation of software on your computer. All you need is a Windows Live account.

Although the Excel Web App has a cut down version of the functionality available in Excel 2010, the similarity between the two is unmistakeable.  They both display the ribbon running across the top of the workspace, although the one in the web version displays fewer commands due to its limited feature set.

One noticeable difference between desktop and web programs is the performance time. Calculations in the Excel Web App tend to be performed more slowly than in Excel 2010, as it’s the server that executes them. Data and instructions take time to travel from the computer to “the cloud”, and results take time to return to the computer.

Like Excel 2010, the Excel Web App uses the .xlsx file extension. The Excel Web App actually provides a free way for people who don’t own a copy of Office 2010 to open a .xlsx file.