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Microsoft 365 Blog
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Why Office Online is Now Simply Office

Bill Doll's avatar
Bill Doll
Former Employee
Jul 24, 2019

 

Microsoft PowerPoint for the web with an updated header.

 

Microsoft has decided to retire the “Online” branding for the web version of Office and adopt new terminology for how we refer to the apps on the web.

 

Office uses sub-brands to denote our offerings such as Office 365 and Office 2019. Because our offerings have evolved to provide access to apps on more than one platform, it no longer makes sense to use any platform-specific sub-brands. In line with this approach, the official product name for what was previously referred to as “Office Online” is now simply “Office.” We have also discontinued use of the “Online” branding with each of the apps so “Word Online” is now “Word,” “Excel Online” is now “Excel,” etc.

 

Of course, at times we still need to make specific reference to the web version of Office so you may see us use the term “Office for the web,” which aligns with how we refer to Office on other platforms such as “Office for Windows,” “Office for Mac,” “Office for iOS,” and “Office for Android.” However, “…for the web” is not a new brand or strict naming convention so you may also see us also use terminology such as “…on the web,” “…on Office.com,” and “…in a browser.” We encourage people to use whichever terminology is most appropriate and provides the most clarity for a given context.

 

It is important to note that this branding change only applies to the Office apps. There is no change to the branding for our “Online” server products – specifically Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Project Online, and Office Online Server.

 

We have already made these changes across most of our in-product experiences, communications, and marketing and technical content and expect to complete the remaining updates relatively soon.

 

Today’s Office is a solution that spans platforms and devices connected through the cloud, and the web is a critical part of that. This name change reflects Microsoft’s commitment to providing first-rate experiences on each of its supported platforms and devices. We expect people to choose Office to get access to the best productivity experience on the planet, wherever and however they want to work.

 

To use Office on the web, get started at Office.com.

 

Updated Apr 15, 2022
Version 7.0
microsoft 365 apps
Office for the web

27 Comments

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  • ron S.'s avatar
    ron S.
    Brass Contributor
    Jul 25, 2019

    I just reread that Orwellian masterpiece of doublespeak and this gem jumped out at me:

    "so you may also see us also use terminology such as “…on the web,” “…on Office.com,” and “…in a browser.” We encourage people to use whichever terminology is most appropriate and provides the most clarity for a given context."

    .

    Please do explain how your multiple examples for the same product provide "clarity" when compared to simply using "Office Online", or "Word Online"

  • ron S.'s avatar
    ron S.
    Brass Contributor
    Jul 25, 2019

    Personally, I'm against flaming "on the web", but this is just another stupid MS marketing move, another in a long history of stupid marketing moves and frankly I'm incensed!  Specifically "reusing" the same name for different products:

    • OneNote (for Windows vs for Office is the most recent example before this one. "For Windows" is another "improvement" that is missing key features!)
    • OneDrive (for Business vs for Consumer)
    • Skype (for Business vs for Consumer)
    • Office 365 (for Business vs for Consumer: look at the license terms)

    .

    Right, you've simplified 2 words, "Office Online" into 4, "Office for the Web".

    .

    Thanks for nothing!  This (dis)"improvement" just adds to the confusion.

    .

    Since it Office Online apps are the most dumbed down version of "Office", it is vital for users asking for help to qualify exactly which version they are using. It is bad enough when people already use the "Office" umbrella to ask questions about Office for Mac in an Office for Windows forum. Office Mac STILL has fewer features than Office Windows. So if the user follows your advice and simple calls it "office" or "Word", they get the wrong answer! The specific example I encountered yesterday is "Photo Albums" in PowerPoint.  According to MS documentation, the mac version still does not support that feature:

    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/photo-albums-aren-t-available-in-powerpoint-for-mac-1db1a051-c3bc-4e42-9e93-304f62fa9a9c

    .

     

  • Deleted's avatar
    Deleted
    Jul 25, 2019

    I think if the online Office applications have functional parity with their locally-installed counterparts, then the name change makes sense, otherwise I feel it will create confusion amongst users.

     

     

  • Michael Sampson's avatar
    Michael Sampson
    Iron Contributor
    Jul 25, 2019

    "Because our offerings have evolved to provide access to apps on more than one platform, it no longer makes sense to use any platform-specific sub-brands."

    That reason doesn't make sense to me, because the capability sets offered across platforms are very different within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. While you may want to have unified branding (to make it appear that you have a unified offering across platforms), until you have unified and non-differentiated feature sets across the different platforms, surely the above change will just create massive confusion?

  • KevinCrossman's avatar
    KevinCrossman
    MVP
    Jul 24, 2019

    > We encourage people to use whichever terminology is most appropriate and provides the most clarity for a given context.

     

    Seems to me that you've taken what was previous a very precise and unambiguous label and removed it. Which no doubt will cause confusion.

     

    But, if we can use "whichever terminology" is most appropriate, I'm going to use the wording that provides the most clarity: Office Online.