Software giant Microsoft rolled out its free Office Web Apps on SkyDrive in the US, the UK, Ireland and Canada to allow users to view, edit, save and share Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote documents directly from their browser.

Office Web Apps, which are currently available on office.live.com, also allow multiple users access and edit a particular document at once; with no one get locked out of the document.

Recently edited documents can be easily accessed in the “recent documents” section, while a version history will let users to get back to older versions.

So, those who use the recent version of Office will not need to cut, paste or drag. They can work on a document on the desktop, save and sync the document with the online version, which will make changes made by users offline appear online as well.

The move is expected to strengthen Microsoft’s position against Google Apps.