The Office suite is, without a doubt, one of the essential programs when working or writing all kinds of documents, spreadsheets or presentations. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Office programs are paid programs, that is, to be able to use them on the computer it is necessary to go to the cashier and buy their license. However, we can avoid buying this program if instead of using it in Windows we prefer to use it online, from a browser. And from Chrome we have several ways to do it very simple.
Microsoft, like Google, has its own office suite in the cloud . With it, the company intends to take a further step in the integration of its cloud services. And thanks to this, users who do not want to pay for an Office license, or Microsoft 365, can make use of these programs from the browser, although they are somewhat more limited in functions than those we can install in Windows 10.
If you are one of those who prefer the cloud, for the convenience, flexibility and savings, here are a series of “tricks” with which we can access Office online more easily .
Use the official Office extension
Microsoft has an official extension designed to allow any user to use its online programs to open, create and edit any type of document. This extension is installed in the browser from the Chrome Store, and the first thing it will ask us to do is log in with our Outlook account , both personal, work or education.
When we log in, the extension will start working. If we click on the icon that appears to the right of the address bar, along with the other extensions, we will be able to see all the options that the program offers us. For example, we can see the Office web applications that we can access, and a list with the latest documents that we have saved in the OneDrive account . In addition, we will also be able to open any document that we have on the PC directly from this extension.
This extension is not much more than a “bridge” between us and Office online . If we try to open any of the programs we will see how a new tab is opened in the browser, in which the corresponding Office online application is loaded.
We can download this extension for free from the Chrome extensions store.
Drag any document to the browser to open it with Office
This extension has a feature, disabled by default, that allows us to open documents much faster and easier. Instead of having to upload the files by hand to OneDrive, we can drag any document from our PC to the browser window to open it directly with Office.
In order to use this function, what we must do is activate the ” allow access to file URL ” function, which, for security reasons, is disabled by default. To do this, we must enter the browser extensions section, open the details of the Office extension, and activate the file URL access box:
After doing so, the only thing left to do is drag the file we want from the PC to the browser and that’s it. This will automatically open with Office online.
Access Office online
In addition to the previous extension, if we use a web browser other than Google Chrome , or we do not want to install any Microsoft extension on it, there is another way to access Microsoft’s office tools in the cloud: directly from their own websites.
We can enter the Office.com website to open from here the different programs that Microsoft offers us from the cloud. For example, we will be able to open Word online, Excel and PowerPoint from here, as well as other Microsoft programs, such as Outlook mail, the OneDrive cloud, Microsoft To-DO and Skype, among others.
In addition, as we can see, we will also be able to open any of the recent documents that we have opened, or saved, in the cloud, as well as our anchored documents and those that have been shared with us.
And if we want to do it even faster, we will also be able to access our storage, and Office documents, from the OneDrive website . From here, in addition to being able to access all the files and documents saved, we will also be able to open any document from the browser, and even create new documents or load any document from the PC to open it from the browser.
Google Drive, the free alternative to Word, Excel and PowerPoint online
Office is king when it comes to desktop office suite. However, when we look for a free alternative, especially based on the cloud that we can use from anywhere with just an Internet connection, things change.
Google Drive is Google’s cloud-based office suite . All users who have a Google account (for Gmail, for Android, or for whatever reason) will be able to use this suite directly from their browser without having to pay anything. In addition, the company offers 15 GB of cloud storage totally free for all users.
This office suite in the cloud can be used by entering this link . From it we can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations as alternatives to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We will also be able to even upload our documents created with Office programs to open them from the browser, and even download any document that we have created directly in DOCX format, ready to be opened on another PC with Word.
You don’t like the Microsoft suite? Try LibreOffice
Office is the most popular office suite. However, there are users who, for one reason or another, do not want to go through Microsoft’s ring. We always have the possibility of using Google Drive, Google’s online office suite, but we will be facing the same situation.
So the best we can do is look for an alternative to Microsoft programs. And one of the best is LibreOffice. This multiplatform suite (we can use it on Windows, Linux and macOS) will allow us to open, create and edit all kinds of documents, both our own and created with Word, Excel or PowerPoint. It is true that it may have some limitations, especially when it comes to format compatibility, but it is, without a doubt, an excellent totally free and open source alternative.