Word online feature parity

Question

We have an Office add-in that we use as a template designer for generating documents. We're currently re-writing our add-in using your new JavaScript API (our existing add-in is a C# COM add-in). One of the benefits our customers will receive from this is the ability to use the online versions of Office apps.

We're starting with our Word add-in and we've found that these features are missing in the online version of Word. Our plan is to tell our customers to use desktop Word when they need these more advanced capabilities. We were wondering if Microsoft has a roadmap or plan for adding some of these missing capabilities that we could look at as we continue to plan the future of our product.

Answer 1

I do not expect the online version to ever have the same features. Even the Mac desktop version does not have the same features.

The online version is free and MS wants to be paid. It is handy for users but is not really a substitute. There have been numerous reports of corruption of numbering by using the online version on documents with multi-level numbering. I would recommend that customers use the desktop versions for any editing.

Even if a subscription were required to use it, the underlying web structure is such that the only way they would have parity would be if the desktop versions were downgraded to match the limits in the web version.

Answer 2

Hi, @Matthew Binsfeld
In general, Office for Web has fewer features than Office for Desktop. If you would like Microsoft to improve, you can submit feedback here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoftfeedback/

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