As a long time user of Google docs, I have tried workspace now, and have the following suggestions. I work with scientists in the field in Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, as well as other scientists all over the globe. What matters to me as the head of this project is that my project members have access to edit/add to the project from wherever they are. While the field scientists are traveling, they may need to add/edit information from an internet cafe in Indonesia where the public computer doesn't have Microsoft Office. This makes Office Live Workspace worthless. Unless I've completely misunderstood the purpose/intended use of OLW, I think that editing features must be added to make this a true online project collaboration tool. If it's just intended for people to share docs to view, then it's not for me, and I'll stick with Google. I think this has potential, but relying/forcing the project members to own a copy of Microsoft Office makes me think that this is just a clever marketing campaign for MS Office.

Shame no-one from MSFT replied to this. Nice avoidance of the "Google Docs" question.

 

I wish someone would address this.  It seems a shame that OLW couldn't stand on it's own.  The fact that people may need to access and edit OLW information from a computer that may not even be appropriate for office seems to be of no importance.  On a global scale, MSFT has to realize that people may be on a locked down system from a cafe etc. that doesn't have office and there is no way for the person to install office.  So excluding people from participating in an OLW project because they haven't bought office seems wrong.  I guess this has been ignored since I referenced Google docs?

Hi,

Office Live Workspace is a collaborative service that leverages the fact that many PCs already have a world class Office suite installed that can provide a significantly richer user experience than current generation browser based solutions.  While other services are trying to create an editor, we are free to focus on enriching the customer experience, knowing that our users can use the tools that they already have and are familiar with. 

That doesn't mean that we only support Office and Office documents, however.  We have a "Save As" button and an "Upload" button that, together, allow you to use the editor of your choice on the documents of your choice and document versions are preserved.  If you do choose to use Office documents, we have made it easier for you by having a one-click "Edit" button.  This is not because we want to give Office preferential treatment.  Again, we are leveraging the fact that we know how to detect and interact directly with Office XP, 2003, and 2007 if it is installed.  Other editors do not support this.

Even on kiosk and locked down environments, there is usually some form of editor available.  The exact editor requirements greatly depend on which documents you want to collaborate with. Not all editors need to be installed so even "locked down" systems can potentially be used.

That's not to say that you can't collaborate using just a browser.  We do provide Web Note and List editing directly in the browser, not to mention the ability to comment on existing content.  SharedView is another option that does not require a client editor while still enabling rich collaboration.  Our sharing model is based around email invites.

Please feel free to reply with your thoughts.

Hi Oscar,

Thanks for the detailed reply. You actually drove me to go and check out the web note feature that I had never used before and I can see a lot of value in that (although it kinda replicates functionality on offer from http://listas.labs.live.com and vice versa - no bad thing I suppose). Sharedview I've been using for a long time and I love it.

I understand that OLW is, first-and-foremost a collaboration tool. However, many people do seem to bring up the subject of Google Docs quite a lot and its easy to see why. Not withstanding the fact that less than 3% of the US population have even heard of Google Docs (according to something I read recently) I don't think Microsoft can ignore the fact that it exists and it IS a competitor - certainly in the consumer space anyway. I don't know any enterprises that are going to be adopting it soon - the world's business still runs on MS Office.

I won't ask whether you are considering building a fully-fledged Google ocs/Zoho competitor because I know that even if you were you wouldn't tell me about it - but can you tell us whether or not you think Google Docs is a competitor to OLW?

Thanks

Jamie

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this response.  I hadn't tried sharedview, and just downloaded it to try it out.  You point out some good items to address the online editing and collaboration within OLW.  While there appears to be several ways to collaborate, what still seems to be missing is that all members of a project would be able to contribute and participate in a project on the same level.  While you say that the integration with Office isn't to give preferential treatment, it is in fact an issue, and one that I guess I'm trying to point out.  Members of an OLW project who own or have access to Office are given a much greater experience, and those without Office are forced to only comment, make notes on the project or edit docs in another editor.  As for downloading the docs, editing them in another editor and then uploading them again, I think you would have to agree that working in that way would not result in a nice outcome.  The documents would then be in different formats, there would be no master document, and someone would have to merge the comments/pieces together at some point.

It's about having to resort to work arounds or hacks to collaborate, comapred to everyone using the same tools and working on the same docs, regardless of software which is what I'm less than thrilled about.  I agree that Google's offerings are somewhat unprofessional looking, and wouldn't really apply in a professional environment, but they do work.  What I think is a benefit over OLW is the fact that all of the docs can be opened and edited in the browser, and everyone sees the same thing.  I don't have to worry about supporting technology I'm not familiar with.  Any one of the project members can support another member because we're all looking at the same application interface.  We can instantly see edits in the master docs, and revert to prior edits if need be.

I hope that this is considered for OLW.  It would be nice if there was an option to edit in place or edit in the proper Office app.  If there was a simple WYSIWG editor that provided limited editing capabilities in the browser, and the ability to check out a doc to the office app, I would switch to OLW for my project(s) in a heartbeat.  I hope this is considered and that Microsoft comes up with a solution for this.