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Facebook's new in-box brings MS Office support

New messaging service does a lot of things, including native support for Microsoft's Office document formats. The feature isn't yet live for most Facebook users, but will be soon.

Josh Lowensohn Former Senior Writer
Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
Josh Lowensohn
Facebook's new messaging system, which will have support for Microsoft Office attachments.
Facebook's new messaging system, which will have support for Microsoft Office attachments. Facebook

Confirmation arrived this morning for earlier reports of Microsoft's Office Web apps product being integrated into Facebook's new in-box product.

At Facebook's San Francisco press event this morning about the overhaul of its messaging service, the company detailed how users can now view and share attachments on the service. Included on that list is Microsoft's Office Web Apps service, which means Facebook users will be able to open up Word, Excel, and PowerPoint attachments without having to have Microsoft's software installed locally.

The "view on Office.com" feature appears below each file attachment as an option, and opens up documents within Microsoft's Office Web App viewer in a new browser tab. Presumably more partnered services will be added to this list as time goes by, but for now this is the only option on these file types.

Last week, Microsoft pushed out support of its Docs.com service within Facebook's recently introduced Groups feature, adding sharing for MS Office docs and PDF files within groups.

Facebook began rolling out its new messaging system to select users and members of the press earlier this morning, and intends to bring it to the rest of its users over the next few months.