The Office 2010 Web programs will be Microsoft’s first real attempt at an online office package. In 2007, Microsoft launched something called Office Live Workspace, which let people view and comment on documents, but it lacked tools for creating and editing files.

Presenting at its Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said it will soon invite tens of thousands of customers, including through subribers of Microsoft’s newsgroups, to start testing Microsoft Office 2010, which features broadcast and video editing in PowerPoint, new data visualization capabilities in Excel, and co-authoring in Word.

OneNote, Excel, Word and PowerPoint are the parts of Office 2010 that will be rendered accessible online, although the cloud-based versions will not replicate all the features available in the full version. In addition to access through Windows Live, Microsoft also plans to offer Office 2010 as both a hosted subscription service and an on-premises application.

The Web version of Office 2010 will be free to consumers, in a version supported by advertising. Microsoft will let companies with long-term Office licensing agreements install the online programs on their servers for no extra charge. Companies will also be able to buy subscriptions to access the programs through Microsoft-operated data centers.