Office Online Apps Now Integrated With Dropbox Storage Service -- Redmondmag.com

Office Online Apps Now Integrated With Dropbox Storage Service

By Kurt Mackie
04/09/2015

Microsoft's Office Online apps and Dropbox's storage service are now integrated.

It's now possible to use Office Online apps, such as Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word, to open files stored on Dropbox servers via an interface from within each Office Online application. Additionally, the integration works the other way around. Dropbox users can open and edit their Office Online files right from within the browser they use to access Dropbox files.

The new integrated experience is currently available to all Office Online users and to all Dropbox users as of today, according to Microsoft's announcement. Office Online users need to add their Dropbox accounts to Office Online to get it to work.

Microsoft and Dropbox previously announced the arrival of this product integration in an announcement late last year. Back then, the two companies also announced an integration partnership for native Office apps running on both Android and iOS devices, with an aim to facilitate file access, editing and sharing.

Microsoft might be thought of as a competitor with Dropbox because Microsoft has its own storage service known as OneDrive. However, Microsoft's strategy seems to be more focused on making Office "sticky" for end users across various platforms. Microsoft also has a similar integration partnership with storage services provider Box as well. Dropbox, for its part, claims to store more than 35 billion Office files on its servers.

Office Online apps are pared-down versions of the Microsoft Office suite of apps that run in a browser and are free to use by consumers. They are also included as part of Microsoft's various Office 365 paid subscription plans for business use. Office Online apps lack a lot of the features found in the full Office suite, but they facilitate mobile access and collaboration. Microsoft's former name for Office Online apps was "Office Web Apps," but the company changed the name last year.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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