Test-drive: Office Web apps technical preview

Microsoft has finally started to open up its Web-based versions of Office apps to early testers. Thursday we got access to a "technical preview" of Excel and PowerPoint on the Web (not, notably, Word). The obvious comparison that will be made is to Google Docs.

Excel

The version of Excel that we have access to is the most similar to Google Docs in capabilities. It allows simultaneous editing -- two or more people working on a spreadsheet at the same time. As in Google Docs' spreadsheet app, as soon as one person updates a part of the spreadsheet, everyone else viewing the sheet gets the change in real time, or close enough to it. Users don't have to "save" their file for the changes to get pushed out.

In raw editing capability, Excel on the Web beats Google. It will have features approaching the PC counterpart of the app, not to mention the same user interface (the "ribbon" Office users are accustomed to) instead of Google's old-timey but clear pull-down menus. The commonality between the Web and PC versions of the products should make it easier for people to pop between the desktop Office apps and their Web counterparts.

The technical preview of Office Web Apps shows how similar the online apps will be to their desktop counterparts, even though many features are missing in this early version.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

In the preview we saw the user interface of the Web-based version of Excel is extremely close to the traditional version of the app. Getting comfortable with the app took no time at all. It's just a lot slower than the desktop version. Given that this is such an early preview, we were not surprised that many tabs and features were missing from the Web app. But complex formatting, database elements, and charts from Excel files created in Windows transferred with good "fidelity" (that's Microsoft's word) to the Web. It appears users won't lose anything in translation in the move from editing documents on a desktop to the Web.

Sharing in Office Web Apps is unbelievably tedious.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

However, setting up sharing is much more tedious in Office Web Apps than it is in Google Docs. In Office Web, you don't share files, you share folders. So to share a spreadsheet, you first save it to a particular folder, and then share that folder with the people who you want to let into the file. That's no big deal if you're just sharing one file, but if you want to share different files with different groups of people, it's confusing and tedious, since you have to create a different folder for each set of people you want to share with. If you want to change the sharing specifics on one document in a folder but not others, you'll have to move the document to a different folder. This is a catastrophic design flaw. Worse, there's not even a clear "share" link. You have to find the "Shared with" entry in each folder, click on the "People I selected" link, then "Edit permissions," then enter the name of the person or people you want to share with, and then, once that person shows up in your sharing list, you have to change the default permission from "view" to "edit."

Google, for its part, lets you share files from within the files themselves, by selecting "Invite people" from the "Share" menu. It makes much more sense. You can also see all your Google docs in one big list. With Microsoft, you have to page through your folders to see your documents. Microsoft does have a nice browser plug-in for drag-and-drop uploading of files, however. That's a bonus, but not enough of one to offset the awful sharing workflow.

PowerPoint

Like the online version of Excel, PowerPoint on the Web is a high-fidelity experience. Documents come through just as they appear on the PC, and can be edited in place on the Web. Most of the graphically intensive features, like adding animations and design elements, are not yet in this preview, though, so we could not evaluate the experience of creating complex builds and graphics over a Web connection. PowerPoint documents displayed very well on the Web, as I said, but I'd like to see a real full-screen slideshow viewer (the current version displays just a touch of browser frame) for showing presentations over the Web.

The capability to edit a PowerPoint doc from any Web-connected PC right before you have to make the actual talk will make many presenters a lot less nervous about making last-minute changes before a pitch.

As in Excel on the Web, only new Office 2007 files (.PPTX for Powerpoint; .XLSX for Excel) can be edited online. Older .PPTs can be viewed and displayed, but not edited.

Word

Finally, while online Word editor isn't available yet (the viewer is, and it works well), we did learn a few things about the capability -- none good. First of all, Word online won't get you simultaneous editing. When you open a file to work on it you will lock it, and other people won't be able to get in to change things. If you want simultaneous editing, you'll apparently be able to do it from within the Word 2010 installed app. Online simultaneous editing is "on the road map," we're told, but won't be ready even when Office Web Apps goes public in 2010.

OneNote is on the same track as Word, and will get editing capabilities online when Word does.

You also won't be able to embed your Word documents in other Web pages, Scribd-like. There will be options to embed Excel files. (The feature does not seem to be turned on yet.)

It's no Google

Office Web Apps is a fundamentally different product from Google Docs. The apps run more slowly than the lightweight online Google productivity apps, but Microsoft will offer more features and commonality with the desktop apps.

For people and companies that have standardized on Microsoft Office, the preview shows that Office Web Apps will do a good job of extending the desktop experience to the Web. But the desktop legacy may also be a liability. File management -- moving documents between desktop and Web, or keeping them in sync across platforms -- is going to be complex, and it's unclear how Microsoft is going to integrate its desktop apps, PC sync products like Mesh, and Web-based storage services like Skydrive, where Office Web Apps stores files for consumers. Also, Enterprise customers can use SharePoint for storage, which may not integrate well with workers' personal file stores, online or offline.

In what appears to be a childish move, but one that Microsoft is defending by saying, "we had to prioritize," Office Web Apps doesn't work on Google's Chrome browser. That's a shame, since for Web apps (as opposed to more-static sites), I have found Chrome to be a faster and thus more usable platform than Firefox or Internet Explorer. (Office Web Apps also supports Safari.)

In summary, Office Web Apps is, very clearly, the desktop Office suite put on the Web. It's feature-rich and appears to be targeted at individuals creating complex documents on their own. New users who don't need or want the complexity of a desktop app, or who are more accustomed to working hand-in-hand with others, may be put off. Certainly, if Microsoft releases this product to the public without fixing the collaboration workflow, even die-hard Office users will avoid the service when they're in a hurry and have work to do with colleagues.

[selfkill]

I think it's a good effort so far (for playing catch up) and most of these criticisms can be overcome if Microsoft is smart enough to do so.

Some of the criticisms about speed will undoubtedly become a non-issue as browsers continue to mature and standardize with the evolving online app world. I don't think it's a good idea to sacrifice features for speed, and I'll guarantee you this is going to be a setback for Google if these features really bring in the "home sweet home" feeling most Office users are familiar with.

As far as the sharing and collaboration, yes this is a downgrade. I'd hope it was more of a "stay on schedule" kind of thing and Microsoft will come to their senses about it.. But maybe that's just wishful thinking. In any case, those obstacles can be overcome too. I think especially with regards to the folder sharing feature, that's something I've been wanting of Google Docs for a long time. In combination with individual file sharing privileges, that could be quite a handy feature.

Give it more time, let it mature (even after it's released into the wild) and hopefully this will be as promising as it sounds.

[rafe]

Well, yeah, I realize this is an early preview. I forgive lack of features and poor performance. But fixing sharing will require a big backtrack in the way the system is built (I think). With any luck, I'm wrong, and MS will fix this before it goes public.

[ksmiths]

I'm sorry to say this but this is quite a biased preview. The author is obviously smitten by Google and IMHO cares little about the average reader.

Hope this is taken as constructive criticism.

-average 'joe' reader

[masud1000]

I agree with you 100%
i am not sure how MS OFFICE and Google Doc is comparable.

[aphoog]

Can we take the bias out of the review? I understand comparison with Google Docs is inevitable but Google Docs is not the standard by any measure. IMO MS Office is the "standard" productivity software suite and Google has to work to reach that level. That said, the early reviews of web version of Word shows Microsoft has ways to go before it successfully translates the desktop Office experience to the web.
As for the sharing feature if this is what Microsoft plans to release in the final version.....God Help Them!! I am referring to the number of hoops you have to jump through to share (just from reading the review and not by personal experience). I don't care if I have to share the folder or file - it should be at the most a 2 step process.
Chrome??? I use chrome and probably most readers of CNET do but it does not have a share that warrants building for it. If something works in Chrome... Great! else just hope it starts working by the next version. I am sure chrome users can open IE or Safari or Firefox to access Office Online.

[forever4now]

Before getting too excited about Office Web Apps, remember:
- Google's strength comes from its support of open standards.
- Microsoft's strength comes from its ability to lock-in users, with proprietary technology.

Google builds web apps & services that are intended to run EQUALLY WELL on ANY PLATFORM with a modern, standards-compliant browser.

Microsoft builds web apps & services that only run/always run BETTER, with other MICROSOFT PRODUCTS & proprietary technologies (Windows/Office/IE/Silverlight). This serves to "lock" users, into their ecosystem.

Look at the hell businesses are going through now, just to move from IE6, to a modern, standards-compliant web browser.

Unless Microsoft can demonstrate that they have truly changed, I'll take Google, thank-you.

As they say: Buyer beware.

[joefriend]

FYI, I'm running the Office Web apps preview in Google Chrome right now. Not everything works, but much of it does.

[lavern]

there is nothing even close to MS office out there so if they can put most of the feature in a web version I think that rocks...

[bblackmoor]

"even die-hard Office users will avoid the service"

I certainly see no reason to use it,.

[keithmanning]

Think again about the workflow for sharing; you may have it all wrong. A journalist may want to share every file they create with a different set of people. But most Office users work in teams. Having a folder for each team and creating a new file or dragging an existing file into a team folder is exactly what serious business users want.

It should not surprise us that the development team which supports 90% of the serious business productivity users in the world come up with designs which support the needs of serious business users. Web apps are obviously intended to work in collaboration spaces (team spaces); if you take another look at the sharing architecture from that point of view, you may find that the developers are not as stupid as you seem to think they are.

Keith

[anuchoksey]

We are heavy users of Google Docs. Different files are shared with different set of people and hence sharing is MUCH easier in Google Docs and MOST IMPORTANT is that the files remain in MY OWN folder structure design vs. forced to create new file folder structure by the need to share. As much I would like the MS office on the web - sharing is crucial (that is where web has to shine in sharing/collaboration) otherwise I might as well mail the stupid files from my desktop.

And on the web if Google Docs is not the 'standard" then what is it? Zoho? Thinkfree?
Google Docs may be more to the current standard based on the number of ACTIVE user base.

Jay Sha
Jay Shah

[belmosan]

Shared Folders make more sense. Instead of setting up sharing for every document, you can just drag the file into the proper folder. Too many people are drinking the Google Kool-Aide.

[keithmanning]

Agreed. That is the point I was trying to make earlier.

In response to Jay Shah I would say - the issue is not "What is the standard on the Web?". Rather it is "What is the standard for collaboration and sharing among people who are prepared to pay for their technology?" To this more relevant question the answer is clearly Sharepoint; followed by several solutions from IBM (Lotus) and others well ahead of Zoho and the Web only players. Hoary old products like Lotus Notes still support huge amounts of the sharing and collaboration going on in large corporations; where it is being replaced it is with Sharepoint, not Zoho.

Over the years we have used Lotus Notes and Sharepoint and tried Google Docs, Zoho and Office Live plus lots of others. Today we depend on Central Desktop for sharing and collaboration with large customers (however, we still author almost all content in Office). For the future we are betting that 2010 is the year MS will find the right combination of desktop power and Web sharing for us with Office 2010 and Web Office. Since this combination will be good for the big boys as well as for the fleabites like us, this will ensure the MS dominance of productivity and collaboration for the next five years.

Keith

[krazys1]

Rafe....
What would be the best app for iphone users to pull up work email from Outlook... one that can be utilized at the same time as the regualr email iPhone app that I use for my home emali??

[pennsc]

another guy paid by google, I remember google's first try at web apps, it was very crude and sad, after several years they put print preview in, speaking of childish, chrome has its own problems running msn and live programs, I don't love microsoft but I'd like to see a little objectivity when I'm reading a review, without it makes the review is worthless and unbelievable