How to use Word for free: all the advantages of the online version of Office

To this day, the suite of Microsoft Office turns out to be the most used by most users. At first it was only available for computers with Windows and macOS, and some time later its great popularity has led to the launch of versions adapted for other operating systems, including Android, iOS and a web version for the rest.

Specific, This latest web version is very useful for all those people who do not have Microsoft Office installed on their computers and that they need to create a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, because in this way it is very easy to achieve it directly from the browser itself, without having to install anything and, what is perhaps more interesting, without paying. For this reason, we are going to show you all the advantages that using the online version of Word on your computers can entail.

Word Online: this is how the free version of Microsoft’s official Word works

As we mentioned, except in cases such as students or some institutions, To be able to use Word and the rest of Microsoft Office products, you must go through the box, not being too attractive for a multitude of users despite all the options they give (monthly, annual or a single payment).

However, if you need to edit Microsoft Word documents sporadically, or you want to make basic changes to files and alternatives such as OpenOffice do not convince you, maybe Office Online is an option to consider.

So you can use Word Online to edit documents

In this case, you will not need to download any files to use the online version of Microsoft Word. The only requirement to use it is to have an active Internet connection and a Microsoft account (valid Outlook, Hotmail, Live …). Fulfilling this, to start editing documents you just have to access the Word Online home page through your browser.

In this case, you must enter credentials for a Microsoft account to get started, and then you will access the online editor of Word, which although it is somewhat smaller than the desktop version, has all the basic functions.

Working in the cloud also has its advantages

By the mere fact of having a Microsoft account, you have 5GB of storage for free in the OneDrive cloud. This space, in addition to being able to be used to store any other type of files if you want to, will also be used by Word Online. In this way, the changes made to the documents are saved on the Internet servers at the time, so that in case of disaster on the computer from which you are working there will be no problem in recovering the latest changes.

Also, this does not stop here. Thanks to the collaborative tools of Microsoft Office, you can share the document with whoever you want, so that they have permission to see the changes you make and even collaborate with you in editing the document, so that the files can be edited by both participants at the same time.

Reduced features but sufficient in some cases

As we mentioned, the Online version cannot be compared to the desktop version of this suite, since the functions are quite scarce and use without an Internet connection is not allowed. Nonetheless, may be more than enough for some users to edit their Word documents in case you need it.

In the event that it falls short, on the one hand there are paid improvements within Office, such as the Microsoft 365 subscription, in addition to There is also Google Workspace, integrated with Google Drive, iWork integrated with Apple’s iCloud or Zoho, a solution focused on companies that improves privacy. All of them basically allow you to do the same thing but with different functionalities, and if you need an offline solution, there are always alternatives such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice, available for free download.