At the Professional Developers Conference on Tuesday, Microsoft finally gave developers a preview of a version of Office after more than a year of speculation about when the company would put its productivity suite on the Web to compete with Google Docs.

Microsoft announced that a Web-based version of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will be available through Office Live, a service that will be linked to the next version of Office. For the first time, users will be able to perform some editing functions within the Web versions, a capability that had been missing in earlier versions.

Office Web will let users both edit and view documents anywhere they have a broadband Internet connection. Microsoft explains that the feature will give users a consistent experience and access to Office even on mobile devices with advanced web browsers. The files should be savable both online and off for working away from an Internet connection.

The news come along with the announcement about the new Microsoft 7 which is currently slated to ship in 2010, and has both positive and negative reception despite its being very promising from all points of view.

Moreover, due to the popularity of the Office documents, users are likely to replace Google Docs with Office Live. Google Apps are popular with small businesses and some Mac users. We don't know yet anything about when Microsoft plans to release the next version of Office (although if past history is any indication, it shouldn't be too long after Windows 7, which is still officially slated to debut in early 2010). But Microsoft has said it will be working on extending anytime-anywhere functionality to mobile devices.

The enhanced Office will work in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Microsoft isn’t releasing many pricing details, but there will be ad-supported versions, subscriptions and a business version that’s hosted by Microsoft. The web offerings will be “lightweight” versions of the desktop applications. Microsoft says the web and desktop versions will complementary. In other words, unlike most cloud applications (such as Google Docs), you wouldn’t use it for your day-to-day work, but specifically for collaboration. Multiple users can edit the same document simultaneously.

"Nobody, none of our competitors, will do as good of a job on the phone, the browser or the PC," said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president at Microsoft's Office business. Earlier this year, Microsoft made an online version of Office available, but it only allowed users to view Office files. The new version will also allow users to edit and compose files.

Microsoft said the new Office Web applications will be available for consumers on Office Live, but it did not reveal whether it would be paid for by advertising or subscriptions.