Is Google Docs better than Microsoft Office Live Workspace ? Storage Capacity, Online Editing, File Size, File type	Visited: 898 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Lalit yadav yadav June 16, 2008

Microsoft has announced the launch of its online version of Microsoft Office. With the onset of launch, analysts are again back to their job of evaluation. Microsoft Office Live Workspace is now available for the public use and the comparisons have started.

To many, the Office Live Workspace is a rival to Google Docs in the market. But with it had started the controversy as to which one is better and which is not? Below is complete detail about the features of both the free services and lastly the conclusion, which is best and which is better???

• Storage Capacity: Microsoft Office Live Workspace allows you to store a maximum of 1000 documents whereas Google does not pose any such limitation. It provides you with unlimited storage.

• Sharing: Both Microsoft Office Live Workspace and Google Docs allow the online sharing of documents with the other users. But the limitations are in the number of the users who all can share the document online. With Microsoft’s online version of Office a user can share its documents with 100 people where as with Google Docs you can share the documents with almost double number as compare to Microsoft Office Live Workspace.

• Online Editing: No doubt Microsoft has launched an online version of Office Suite but it in real words it do not allow the editing and creating a document within a Web page. With Google Docs you can create and upload a document on Web. The analysts are recommending it as a patched service with the software as solutions tag.

• File Types: In this aspect, Microsoft is the enjoying the upper hand. The number of file formats that you can manage with the Google Docs is limited to HTML, .txt, .doc .rtf, .odt, .xls, .csv, .ods, .tsv, .tsb, .ppt, and .pps. With Microsoft Office Live Workspace, the number of file types you can manage is unlimited. But you can not upload the file types that are blocked as Windows read them as executable files.

• File Size: The Office Live Workspace allows for individual files that are 25MB large but Google Docs can handle documents of 500K, plus 2MB of embedded image, 10MB of presentation.

• Cooperation: The Google Docs promote the idea of association working. It means that a document can be edited by about fifty people at the same time. But in case of Office Live Workspace, a document can be edited by the one user only. To other users, a message of “checked out” will be displayed. When a user finished its work and saved, only then any other user is allowed to work on it.

• Uploads: With Google Docs you have to upload a document one by one but with Office live Workspace you can upload a batch all at one time. This feature is available only if you are using Internet Explorer.

• Saving a file: Google Docs allows you to save a file in any format, but Microsoft Office Live Workspace assumes that file is in Microsoft office format only.

So, after analyzing each and every aspect a user can make a good choice between Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live Workspace.

Satinder Kaur/ITvoir Network