14 DAY TRIAL // When Google unveiled its web-based Docs and Spreadsheets solution, it was immediately elevated to the level of a veritable rival for Microsoft's Office system. The Redmond company argued from the beginning the validity of such a scenario, emitting the opinion that Google Docs and Spreadsheets and the office productivity suite were not exactly in the same league together and that the Mountain View search giant was not stepping on its territory. Well, Microsoft now managed to answer Google by taking Office 2007 online and introducing Office Live Workspace.
"Office Live Workspace will provide anywhere-access to Office documents, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. In other words, these documents will go wherever people go when they're away from their usual desktop. People will be able to work on documents from any Microsoft Office-equipped computer with an Internet connection - or review and comment on documents on devices that only offer Web access," revealed Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes.
One important aspect to keep in mind is that Office Live Workspace is in no way a hosted version of the Office 2007 System. Instead, Office Live Workspace is designed more like an online extension of Office 2007, much in the same manner as the Windows Live suite of programs and services relate to the Windows client. Essentially, Office Live Workspace will permit users to access their documents from everywhere, up to the limit of 1,000 items. Focus is also placed on the collaborative aspect, allowing users to view and share documents, but not edit them in the absence of Office 2007. And last, but not least, Office Live Workspace will permit users to connect via the Internet to Office Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook on their computer.
"People also will be able to collaborate on documents and share information with friends, colleagues or classmates simply by sending an e-mail and inviting them to a password-protected online workspace. This will help people avoid the pain of trying to find the latest version of a document, or having to pull together multiple versions of documents. They can also easily post files to their dedicated password-protected online workspace directly from the Office application in which they're working," Raikes added.