SkyDrive web apps vs MS Office

As a very casual user of Word and Excel, is there really any point in me even installing MS Office? I just started using Sky Drive and discovered I can create and edit those kinds of documents just fine with it. I don't really need offline access to edit those files either. The Sky Drive web apps and account are also free.

No sense in installing anything you don't need. Of course, if you paid for office out seems like a waste. But if you were using office without a license, this seems like a great way to get back into straight and narrow.

The benefit to installing Office is offline access to cached files.

I had a quick look at the web app feature (Office 2013) available via skydrive and for simple spreadsheets it looks like it could well do the job.

But be aware that if you are using an existing book created in the desktop office application and use advanced functionality - macros, hyperlinks etc. and post it to the cloud, then I found it seemed to come unstuck and those features wouldn't work in the web app version and I had to take the option to open the book in the desktop office product.

Even when creating a worksheet in the web app itself, there appeared to be nowhere near the full functionality of Excel.

I must concede that my testing wasn't thorough but I was disappointed with my initial results.

Am keen to see what others have experienced.

Kebero said:

The benefit to installing Office is offline access to cached files.

Click to expand...

True, but whether it's worth $100 or so is the question. My internet is quite reliable and I would assume Skydrive and Web Apps will be reliable too. I've had my email on Gmail for years now and have rarely ever been not able to access my email.