Here's a demo of what Microsoft envisions for cloud collaboration
I was one of the lucky souls invited into the technical preview of Microsoft’s Office Web Apps, which launched last Thursday. What I’ve seen so far of Microsoft’s plans is intriguing but the preview is limited. Word and OneNote functionality are, so far, severely curtailed. That said, Microsoft offers what Google can’t — the rich feel of its Office applications in the cloud. This, however, may not be enough to save it.
The navigation of a Web App document is based on the Office ribbon menus. But they don’t match up exactly. For instance, a Web Apps spreadsheet sports a ribbon called “Tables” that offers sort and filter functions and a few other tricks but it does not line up exactly to previous ribbon menu versions. Still, if you know where to find the buttons on the Ribbons, you can easily find them on Web Apps.
The save button in the spreadsheet is mysteriously missing. This is because any modifications you make in an Excel file are autosaved, which is nice for a cloud app, when you never know when your connection to the Internet might bobble.
You cannot yet create a Word or OneNote document online, though Microsoft promises to add that soon. If you’ve uploaded some documents already, you can work with them online, but every time I have tried to click on the niftiest feature of them all, the option to open the file on the PC with the desktop version of the app, I’ve gotten an error message.
Another complaint I have is that file and folder permissions are too broad. You can choose between keeping a file completely private, allowing someone to read it, or allowing someone full access to add, edit AND delete. I would like to be able to offer permissions that allow editing, but not deleting, of files.
These are just nitpicks though. The technical preview isn’t intended to be a fully functional product. The bigger issue is that Microsoft is running out of time to bring its Web apps to market if it wants to have any impact at all.
A recent survey has found that about 20% of respondents to a study by IDC say their organizations are already using Google Docs, up from 5.8% a little more than a year and a half ago, reports USA Today.
As any IT professional can tell you, most of this is coming from ad hoc use where employees are simply firing up Google Docs and collaborating on their own, outside the controls IT is tasked with providing. Like or not, IT is the guardian of compliance, discovery and security. Those go bye-bye when users are firing up Google Docs on their own.
Right now, Microsoft has not been playing up compliance as a virtue of its Google cloud competitor. But if it could crack that nut, this would be the single most important factor in finding enterprises ready to pay for its document collaboration product instead of Google’s. In July, Microsoft announced that these online applications would be available for free on Windows Live for companies with an Office Software Assurance plan. Paid subscriptions will also be offered.
If you haven’t been invited to the preview, here is a video that outlines much of the features. (I recommend that you skip forward to the 35-second mark if you want to avoid the annoying hand gestures of the Microsoft spokesperson in the video.)
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