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Office in the cloud

Over the last month I have been using the web version of Office applications. I switched over from the desktop versions not because I was dissatisfied with them, but I switched because I wanted to be on the bleeding edge and get a preview of the new features quickly. I also did not want to update the desktop applications every day to get the new features, and the web apps relieved me from that burden. 

As I used the web apps daily, I found that I did not miss the desktop versions. Sure, the web apps have their quirks, and living on the bleeding edge with preview features does not help. However, in this case, the plusses outweighed the minuses. 

For one, I did not miss the ability to work offline, as I am almost always online and connected to a high-speed network. I loved that the browser took care of managing my open documents, presentations, spreadsheets, email, and calendar tabs, and automatically restored them when I restarted my computer or updated my browser. I also loved the smaller memory footprint when I opened tons of documents and presentations. 

 But above all, I loved seeing and using the new collaboration and AI features that made me productive ahead of their rollout to the public.
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