Hands-on with Microsoft Office Live Workspace

I first got a demo of Microsoft Office Live Workspace, the company’s Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others, on the floors of CES. Honestly, at the time I didn’t think it was much and thought of it as a tool that couldn’t do half as much as Google Docs. Right up front I will make it known that you cannot edit documents in the Web portal. But when I got my beta invite a few months back, I started using the tool regularly to access my Microsoft Office documents in an online space and to move documents from one computer to another. Though you can’t edit documents in the online workspace and still need software versions of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, I find it really useful when bringing an article I have been working on in Microsoft Office at work home with me at night—circumventing the need to e-mail it to myself or repeatedly save drafts. Setting up the service is easy. After logging into the site with a Live ID account you can install the Microsoft Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office, which installs a new toolbar in Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003 (and apparently new menu options in Microsoft Office 2007). These tools allow you to open Microsoft Office documents on your local computer and save them to your online Office Live Workspace by clicking a button on the toolbar.

Once you save a document to your online workspace you can log in on another computer and open that document using Microsoft Office on that system. Though I have been using the service as a mobile document tool, you can also use it to collaborate with others. You can easily share your documents online with others by typing in their e-mail address and sending them the doc. Once you share the document with them they can add comments to it or download it and edit it in a version of Office on their PC.

Office Live Workspace is now available in public beta to anyone worldwide. Users can sign up for free at http://workspace.officelive.com and will be granted immediate access to the service. Microsoft is also unveiling a number of new Office Live Workspace features, including an activity panel, notifications, direct links, and multi-file upload.