Google Drive Versus MS Office, Word
For years I have been using Google products for pretty much everything. I happily left Microsoft products since they always were and continue to be clunky, not universal, over-complicated and strife with errors, bugs, etc. Google provides more user-friendliness, more accurate search results within documents and in the operating system and overall easier to use and less time consuming.
"...However, when it comes down to it, which is better for business? The pendulum swings slightly in favor of Google Docs on this one. While Microsoft’s Office suite may be the industry standard for many organizations, Google is moving much faster than the industry. Google Docs (now a part of Google Drive) is a lot more simple and basic than the all-encompassing range of functions that Microsoft offers in its Office programs, but this may help more than it hinders: too many employees have become lost in Office’s myriad options, features and less-than-straightforward Help sections. Google Docs, on the other hand, is much more intuitive and user-friendly, and the simplicity it offers may be the way forward for businesses." [1]
Not to mention the timeout issues and logging back into Outlook when you are away from the computer for more than a few minutes. The log in time alone via MicroSoft costs precious time.
"As Microsoft prepares to launch Office 2010, the latest version of its venerable productivity suite, Google is persuading longtime Office users to ditch Redmond's apps and upgrade to Google Docs instead.
A pitch posted Tuesday on the Official Google Enterprise Blog outlines the alleged advantages of Google Docs, a Web-based office suite with word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools that has been around for four years. Google Docs offers strong collaboration features, an important component for enterprise customers, but its browser-based productivity apps can't match the features and polish of the two-decade-old MS Office.
Google's blog post acknowledges that enterprise users may already be running an earlier version of MS Office, be it the 2007, 2003, or even the (ancient) 2000 edition. But rather than uninstall Office, Google recommends that users simply migrate over to the cloud-oriented Docs, which makes Office 2007 and 2003 "better," the company claims.(Click on image above to enlarge) "For example, you can store any file - including Microsoft Office documents - in Google's cloud and share them in their original format," writes Google Enterprise Product Management Director Matthew Glotzbach. He adds that his company's recently acquired DocVerse technology will enable real-time collaboration directly in Office 2007 and 2003." [2]
The fact that Google Docs will import all Microsoft Docs, when used in conjunction with Open Office you have replaced almost all functions and even added a few such as creation of PDF documents. The only downside I have witnessed using this set of tools is that the formulas don't always translate from MS Office to Open Office/Google Docs.
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