Steps up battle with Office software

In a bid to attract more users to its free online file editing service, Google has added templates to allow simple creation of the more mundane documents.

Often a mainstay for the more repetitive or novel tasks on such programmes as Microsoft Word or Excel, like printing mailing labels or invitation cards, Google has unleashed its own piece of the action.

The templates were created in association with Visa Business, Avery Dennison and TemplateZone among others, so at least you know they'll probably work.

Full article: techradar.com 

Labels: docs, office, templates

Google announced an interesting development for Google Docs last week. They have issued an update to include PDF support, adding one of the most popular online documentation and form format to their free suite.

The addition at this point does not include editing or saving PDFs, only the ability to read PDFs and paste into fields. However, it's a jump from having no PDF support at all.

Read more: techspot.com 

Labels: docs, PDF, Spreadsheets

Online apps go offline

Google is introducing new code to allow Google Docs to be used offline.

Users will be offered offline access to docs.google.com over the coming weeks allowing them to work on documents when web access is unavailable.

On reconnecting to the internet any changes will be automatically synchronised, the company said in a statement.

Read more: vnunet.com 

Labels: apps, docs, Gears, Internet, offline

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was one of the featured speakers at the Gartner Symposium in Orlando yesterday. His appearance wasn't streamed live, but archived video is now available via this page.

One of the big topics was the trend toward software applications being delivered as online services. In that specific area, Ballmer disputed Gartner analyst Yvonne Genovese's assertion that some of Microsoft's efforts look a lot like what Google has done. She was alluding to its Google Apps and Google Docs & Spreadsheets services.

Read more: seattlepi.com 

Labels: apps, business, docs, Spreadsheets, Steve Ballmer

1. Office Live Workspace Does Not Allow You To Create And Edit Documents Within A Web Page. Google Docs Does.

First and foremost, Office Live Workspace will not allow you to create and edit documents within a Web page. With Google Docs, you can easily create documents and edit them and even upload current Microsoft Word documents.

Just like all things related to Microsoft's Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) strategy, Office Live Workspace is a patched together, too little, too late offering compared to Google Docs. Question for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: when will Microsoft deliver a SaaS offering that the channel can take advantage of that beats Google hands down? Right now the Google Docs environment is a great choice for VARs looking to build a pure Web 2.0 environment for small businesses and even entrepreneurial enterprise units looking to operate out of the purview of Big Brother IT. New fleet of foot businesses do not want to be hobbled by DOS 1.0 Microsoft view of the world. The biggest advantage Google has is that it does not bring all the excess legacy bloat and excess that comes with Microsoft Office.

Full article: crn.com 

Labels: docs, live, office, Spreadsheets

Google plans to add a presentations application to its Web applications suite on Tuesday, delivering on a promise made in April. The suite, until now known as Docs & Spreadsheets, will also be renamed Google Docs on Monday.

Because Google Docs is part of the broader Google Apps suite of collaboration and communication applications, Google Apps users will also get the presentations application.

Read more: macworld.com 

Labels: docs, office, presentations, Spreadsheets

Google’s long awaited Powerpoint clone could be days away from launching, according to a report at The Inquirer.

The service is said to be called “Presently” and is based in part on code from Zenter and Tonic Systems, two companies Google acquired earlier this year.

Read more: techcrunch.com 

Labels: docs, microsoft, office, Powerpoint, Spreadsheets

Not content with taking on Microsoft Office with its online Docs and Spreadsheet service, Google has now included StarOffice in its free download suite.

StarOffice is, curiously, the paid-for cousin of the open-source OpenOffice, which has been selling for around $70 on Sun's website. StarOffice includes extra features, fonts and templates over OpenOffice. Sun also offers customers three free support calls during the first 60 days of ownership.

Read more: pcpro.co.uk 

Labels: docs, Pack, Spreadsheets, StarOffice

Google is adding JotSpot, which the company acquired in October 2006, to the Google Apps, according to Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google Enterprise. Google Apps currently includes mail, calendar, instant messaging, Web page creation, documents and spreadsheets.

JotSpot will bring wikis and easy to build team Web sites to the suite. The company has been in the process of moving JotSpot to the Google infrastructure to gain reliability and scale efficiencies, Girouard said, but he didn’t disclose when JotSpot would become available.

Read more: blogs.zdnet.com 

Labels: apps, calendar, docs, JotSpot, mail, Spreadsheets, Web

With its empire expanding, the search giant can have an unprecedented breadth of knowledge about you. Can we trust it with so much data?

From search to e-mail, from calendars to spreadsheets and text documents, more and more of what PC users read and create flows through one firm: Google.

Google's pending purchase of online advertising giant DoubleClick (the deal awaited Federal Trade Commission approval as we went to press) will give it access to yet more information: the Web browsing histories collected by millions of DoubleClick cookies. Combine that data with what Google already knows through its homegrown services--Google Apps, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Desktop, and many others--and the company has the potential to know more about you than any one entity ever has.

Full article: washingtonpost.com 

Labels: apps, data, docs, DoubleClick, giant, mail, Maps, search

When Google announced its latest foray into an area of software in which Microsoft holds dominance, it was hard to miss the swipes aimed at Redmond. The search giant has decided that it will no longer confine itself to online-only technologies, but wants to live in the offline world and compete with Microsoft there as well.

Yesterday, at Google Developer Day 2007 in Sydney, Australia, Google announced Google Gears, an open-source program "for creating offline Web applications," according to Google's press release.

Read more: reddevnews.com 

Labels: docs, Gears, office, Spreadsheets

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to subtly press its office productivity software into the hands of the masses, consumers and businesses. And yet, the company continues to say it is not targeting, as a whole, Microsoft's Office franchise, which requires a decent chunk of cash to purchase as well as installation on a PC (or network) to function.

Google's Gmail (email), Calendar (scheduling), Docs (word precessing) and Spreadsheet (calculations) require nothing but a web browser and an internet connection, while giving many "light" users the same capabilities as the Microsoft Office package. All for free.

Read more: bloggingstocks.com 

Labels: apps, calendar, docs, microsoft, office, Spreadsheets

Google is exploring ways of further integrating its e-mail and instant messaging services with its hosted productivity applications.

Brains are working overtime at Google Inc. to explore ways of further integrating its e-mail and instant messaging services with its hosted productivity applications.

The intention is to boost the group collaboration capabilities of the Docs & Spreadsheets hosted suite of office productivity applications. Although the suite's word processor, spreadsheet program and upcoming presentations application lack the breadth of features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Google believes they offer users benefits over their Microsoft Corp. Office counterparts. Chief among the benefits, Google says, is the ability for workgroups to collaborate, since Docs & Spreadsheets files are hosted by Google and designed for multiple users to view and edit them. Word, Excel and PowerPoint, on the other hand, are desktop PC applications, which makes multiuser collaboration harder, Google argues.

Full article: PCWorld.com 

Labels: docs, Gmail, instant messaging, Spreadsheets