The improvements have been available as a preview since July, and Microsoft says more than 750,000 users opted in to test the new apps. Now, the new look for Office Web Apps is available to all users through and .

The look and feel for these apps is similar to that of , with a ribbon of options across the top of the screen and the same modern fonts and sharp angles dividing each section. And much like Office 2013, the new Office Web Apps also have some light improvements for tablets.

Buttons are larger, and there's a new text-selection tool that's easy to drag around. (On the Apple iPad, this is separate from the built-in text selector. Activate it by tapping instead of holding a finger on the screen.)

Microsoft also claims that performance is improved, and documents now render 30 percent faster in Office Web apps. I didn't test that claim, but the online version of Word felt zippy enough on an iPad and a .