Box.net, the file hosting service and creator of the file-sharing widget, has just released a beta version of its latest product, Office On Demand (a tentative name), which lets you save files directly from Microsoft Office to Box.net.
Office On Demand is a Microsoft Office plug-in that enables you to save documents to your Box.net account, directly from any application in the Office suite, with a single click. This tool allows you to edit documents within Microsoft Office, while they still exist online. This is obviously helpful for those using community computers, or for someone that would like to keep a mobile version of their files for use on different computers, or even to share with others using the Box.net widget. Box.net feels this is the next step for it to provide a seamless integration with Box.net's online space and collaboration tools.
Best of all, the Box.net Office On Demand release was created with its API, so any business looking to offer this plug-in for easy file saving is welcome to take advantage of this new feature. Other programs that are in this space include the Zoho suite of solutions, Google Docs, and ThinkFree, which recently launched a community around its goals for document sharing. Egnyte also has a comprehensive solution for automatically saving file versions from your computer.