Microsoft Office vs Google Docs

Every business goes through the research stage of what products to purchase, whether its for efficiency, security, cost, or ease of use. Every business wants to know what is the best on the market, and what the alternatives are. For productivity software  its  been Microsoft Office running the show for years with no competition in sight. Now, its a different story. Google Docs has taken its free concept and expanded it to its Docs products. Is it better? hmmmm….let’s see.

Microsoft Office is  mandatory for any medium to large size organization. The main benefit of Office is not any of its features; It’s simply  people are use to opening up Word documents. Crazy thing is Microsoft has been ordered not to sell their core product Word due to patent infringement. Microsoft is planning on appealing the decision but who knows where this will leave the 2010 version of office that is planning to hit the shelves within the next few months. In even bigger news Microsoft is also planning on providing a free web based version of office 2010 to the public shortly. This is an obvious reaction to Google Docs but has some people  pretty excited that Microsoft is listening and reacting to what people are asking for. The web-based version will have the majority of features that 2007 has but the desktop version of office will have quite a few new features that will only be available to those who pony up. One great new addition to the 2010 suite is photo and video editing right inside of PowerPoint. For those of you that want to spiff up presentations for clients you will now be able to do so right inside of PowerPoint. Collaboration and Customization have vastly improved from the 2007 version. You can now choose which tabs on the ribbon interface you want, so you can take as much or as little as you want. With Word 2010, if it ever comes out, you will notice the addition of colleagues being able to edit a document simultaneously, and having their edits in a specified colour with your initial attached. I feel this has been missing from Word for way too long and I’m happy to see it finally included. It’s Highly recommended that if your serious about business you go out and purchase a version of Office 2010 and make yourself familiar with its features. Outlook alone will help you organize your business, and if you go the extra mile to purchase Business Contact Manager you will notice how superior organization and follow up items make your business flow much better.

Google Docs - Small businesses that want to keep expenses at a minimum and do not rely on doing professional proposals or presentations will love Google Docs.  The best part of it is that it’s free, and secondly you can access your documents from any computer with an internet connection because they are stored on Google’s servers. You can easily share documents with colleagues or clients by simply adding their email address, and you will find most of the usability and visual cues to be very similar to Microsoft Office. Docs does lack many features that Office provides such as watermarks, ‘quick’ styles, several different page layout modifications,  save as a PDF, among many others. Gmail is also a great email client and will sync with your mobile phone, it works perfect with my iPhone, but its a big step down from Outlook when you are talking about customization and business use. You basically have to look at the pros and cons of each and ask yourself how secure you need your information to be, since Google Docs does host your information on THEIR servers, and also if you need to easily share your information with colleagues and/or clients.  If your looking for something robust with tons of features Google Docs is not the solution, but if you are looking for something easily accessible and absolutely free then visit docs.google.com.

I am very excited to see where these two powerhouses end up in the next few years, and if your not sure which one to pick, try them both out. Office 2010 will definitely be worth the purchase, it will also have a scaled down web version for free within the next few months.  Google Docs is also free. Remember free in the online world means giving up information. If your not comfortable with that, always go the paid route.

Till next time, keep fit and have fun…

Related posts:

1. So What is Google Voice? If you haven’t heard of Google Voice yet, you soon will. Google has slid under the radar lately with some...
2. Google Wave Few products get raved so much that you hear about them almost every single day of your life. Whether its...