Microsoft Office web apps won't officially support Chrome, Opera browsers

Microsoft plans to launch stripped down, web-based versions of its Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint soon. When the company first unveiled the upcoming web apps, Microsoft announced that they would work with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Now, in an official blog posting, Microsoft has stated that those three browsers will be the only ones officially supported by the Office Web Apps.

In other words, if you use Google Chrome, Opera, or another web browser, you may be out of luck. It's worth pointing out that Microsoft hasn't said that other browsers won't work. It's just that the company isn't going to take the time to support additional browsers.

According to the blog post, the Office Web apps will be designed to work without any plugins installed, but Microsoft recommends installing Silverlight, which will help the web apps load faster and perform better. The text will also be easier to read, and PowerPoint animations will be smoother with Silverlight installed.

[via InfoWorld]

Tags: google-chrome, microsoft-office, office, office-web-apps, opera