Microsoft adds more depth to Office Online

Office Online is great for creating simple documents, presentations and spreadsheets, as well as doing some light editing, while maintaining compatibility with the full-blown version of Office. The web suite may not be as powerful, and that's fine. Not everyone needs the most advanced features that Office has to offer.

Still, Microsoft has been working hard on improving Office Online, to make it even more powerful and refined. The latest update, which is available now, adds more depth to the features offered by the web suite.

Microsoft has focused on expanding the functionality that Office Online already offers, so that explains why there are no new major features in the mix. Let's take a look at what's new.

Those of you who like to print from Word Online will be pleased to know that you are no longer required to download files locally; the web app adds support for direct printing now.

Microsoft tweaked the Reading View toolbar to make commands like Edit, Print and Share immediately available, and make tools like Download and Translate easier to locate.

The Save As menu is more powerful now, letting you choose where to save files and what to name them, rename files, download copies, and download files as PDFs.

From the Office Online toolbar you can now also easily add files to OneDrive. Microsoft explains that this feature can be helpful when, for instance, you want to edit a locked file -- just save it to your OneDrive and make the changes you want. Click on Add to OneDrive, choose the location and hit Save to take advantage of it.

The latest update to Office Online is also touted to be designed to let you start editing much faster. You can quickly create documents with a certain template, directly navigate to your most-recently used files, and see more OneDrive files.

The proofreading service is improved, and there is also a new highlighted word count feature, which works for the whole documents as well as specific sections you select.

Last but not least, Tell Me, the Office Online help tool, now integrates the ? help icon. Just type in the Tell Me box to get the information you're looking for.

Head over to Office Online to experience all the latest changes now.