Over the last couple of days I decided to take a look at cloud based word processing and the biggest two in the game in this department are Microsoft and Google. So step forward Office 365 and Google Apps. This article is not a full review of either suite but rather my first impressions of both and how easy they are to use.
Lets take Office 365 first. I signed up for the 90 day free trial for the Plan B1 which is aimed at the small business market (at the time Office 365 Small Business Premium wasn’t available so I have not tested that yet). Plan B1 costs $6 per user per month and provides you with Office Web Apps meaning you get Word, Outlook, Powerpoint and Excel along with Sharepoint. Using Outlook online was great as it is identical to using the desktop version (as expected) and having the option of using Sharepoint to share your files with other people was welcome. Having never used Sharepoint before I have no basis for comparison with the desktop version.
Trying to edit a document however gave me my first headache. All I wanted to do was to upload a document, edit it and then save to my hard drive. The upload part was simple but I was only able to edit the file through Sharepoint (easy enough though). I was expecting a separate tab where Word would open and import the document. Maybe it was me just being picky. Once completed I went to save to my local hard drive and the option was not available instead saving the file to Skydrive. I can understand why Microsoft set this action as default but it would be better if there was something like Dropbox where you download and installed a folder onto your system which automatically syncs with the online storage (Google Drive does this). Maybe this is avaialble in the new Office 365 Small Business Premium package but I was unable to test it.
Overall I found the interface to be a bit clunky and complex. The amount of options you can administer is staggering and for a first time user it wasn’t very intuiative. Another thing I found out from scouring the other packages Office 365 offers is the ability to download desktop versions of Office onto your system. I thought that Office 365 was meant to be web based? Yes you can edit files offline when the internet is down and then upload them later (but remember there is a limit to the number of systems that you can install Office onto) but the whole point of Office 365 is to allow users to access and edit their files from anywhere using the web interface. To me it seams the current Office 365 experience is overly complex (take a look at the pricing) and along with a clunky interface can be offputting.
Now lets take a look at Google Apps. The first thing you notice about Google Apps is how easy it is to use. The Dashboard (nerve centre) has everything laid out nice and simple and it is very easy to find what you are looking for. Google Drive is downloaded and installed onto your system which allows your files to be synced and the best bit is that you don’t have to save files as Google Drive does it automatically.
It is not all rosy though. Anyone used to Word will be disappointed with Google Docs. Yes it does work but both the interface and options available are not upto the same standard as Word. I uploaded a document to edit (.doc file) which Google Apps transferred into its own format. All the images in the file disappeared. From what little I have seen Google Docs is the weakest part of the whole package which is a shame as overall the whole experience is very good. Even the pricing is simple at $5 per user per month. Of the two Google Apps feels more like a web based offering.
So which one to choose? At the moment I would say Google Docs as the overall package (to me anyway) is easier to use even though Google Docs is no match for Word. If however you must have Word and Outlook then there is not really a choice – go with Office 365.
Time for me to do some more testing. Office 365 Small Business Premium next.
About the Author
Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.
For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.
Loading ...
