Webware

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.

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The technology preview of Office Web Apps allows users to edit Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations and view (but not edit) Word documents.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft plans on Thursday to start public testing for the first browser-based version of Office, although the technology preview is at least as notable for what it doesn't include as what it does offer.

The limited test of the so-called Office Web Apps includes versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but not the OneNote note-taking application. And while Excel and PowerPoint offer the ability to edit and create documents, the current Web-based version of Word can only be used to view documents, essentially the same capability it already offers as part of its current Office Live Workspace product.

Microsoft said the Web versions of OneNote and Word share "the same editing surface," and that the technology is still being worked on.

"We made the hard decision to turn off editing in the Word Web App at Tech Preview, in order for people to have the best experience at this early stage," Microsoft said.

Microsoft plans to offer the Web Apps preview first to users of Windows Live SkyDrive, giving them 25GB worth of storage.

The Office Web Apps are scheduled to be launched along with Office 2010--the next version of Office, with both browser-based and desktop programs due out in the first half of next year. The Office Web Apps will be made available to consumers as a free, ad-supported part of Windows Live, while businesses will be able to offer them to workers via their own SharePoint servers or through the Microsoft Online subscription service.

Microsoft said it will have editing abilities for Word and a version of OneNote by the time the Office Web Apps launch in final form. The current technology preview will be made available to tens of thousands of users, with a broader beta planned for later this fall. However, Microsoft would not commit to offering editing abilities for Word by the beta release.

Once finished, the browser-based versions will all offer editing, though not all of the capabilities of their desktop counterparts. Excel and OneNote will feature live co-authoring abilities, while all the Office Web Apps will work only while a user is connected to the Internet.

Microsoft also takes a different approach when it comes to sharing documents than do its rivals. While Google Apps lets users share a document directly, Office Web Apps enables sharing at the folder level--meaning that to share a document, a user must save it into a folder on Windows Live SkyDrive and then share that folder.

Forrester analyst Sheri McLeish said that the Office Web Apps do appear to be more complicated than rivals such as Google Docs or Zoho Office.

"Google and Zoho are very easy to get started on today, requiring just a step to register before being able to work on a document or spreadsheet," McLeish said. "Microsoft's Office Web Apps do not seem to match that level of ease to get started."

On the plus side, McLeish noted that Office offers a depth not found in its online rivals.

"Once you are in the Web Apps the experience is very much the same as the desktop suite," McLeish said. "And for enterprises, deployment choices to host the Web Apps themselves on-premise is a big differentiator from Google and Zoho."

As for the current release, Microsoft noted that it is still in pre-beta form and has a number of known issues.

"It's still going to be rough around the edges," said Ural Cebeci, a senior product manager in Microsoft's Office unit.

The Office Web Apps are being certified to work in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, and may also work in Google's Chrome--although Microsoft isn't guaranteeing Chrome compatibility.

Microsoft had previously indicated on several occasions that the Safari compatibility meant that users would be able to edit documents on their iPhone, but Cebeci said that iPhone users will only be able to view documents--capability similar to that offered on other smartphones.

As noted by blogger Long Zheng, Microsoft has snapped up the Office.com domain.

The address would seem to make for a logical home for the forthcoming Web-based version of Office, though Microsoft declined to say how it plans to use the address.

"At this point it's too early to share details on our plans around www.office.com," a Microsoft representative said on Thursday. Microsoft launched a technical preview of Office 2010 last month, but the Web-based versions aren't slated to start public testing until later this year. Microsoft has said that the browser-based Office Web Applications will be a free part of the Windows Live service and will work with Safari and Firefox, in addition to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

As for Office.com, Microsoft appears to have acquired the domain from ContactOffice, which has its own Web-based suite of tools. As of Thursday morning, a message on the Office.com site warns users that they are being moved to the ContactOffice.com domain.

"As you know from the recent email we sent you, we will be transitioning the operation of your Virtual Office account to ContactOffice.com during the next 30 days," reads the current message on the site. "As part of this transition, on Monday, June 29, 2009, we changed email addresses in the office.com domain to ones in the contactoffice.com domain."

Microsoft declined to offer any details about its acquisition of the Office.com domain. A representative of ContactOffice did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Update: Robin Wauters at TechCrunch notes that the Office.com site wasn't owned by ContactOffice itself, but operated under a revenue-sharing agreement with the U.S.-based owner of the site.

(Credit: CNET News)

The newspaper industry has been hit hard by the weak economy. Advertising revenue is down. Layoffs are frequent. And even the most-trusted papers are facing possible closure. So, the industry has tried to find unique ways to help improve business.

Perhaps that's why it shouldn't surprise us that The New York Post announced Monday that it has inked a deal with SpectrumDNA to bring the company's Addictionary software-as-a-service platform to the newspaper's Web site.

Addictionary allows Web site visitors to create words and assign definitions to those words. People can rate and comment on words created by others.

According to a statement, both SpectrumDNA and the Post believe the Addictionary engine will help the newspaper achieve more "viral and word-of-mouth distribution." They also said they believe it could increase advertising revenue.

A definition made possible by Addictionary.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

The Addictionary platform has enjoyed some success. Its SaaS platform is currently being used by "The Office" Web page, Comedy Central, and Dictionary.com.

Once The New York Post's Addictionary gets going, the companies plan to release a variety of derivative products, including greeting cards, calendars, games, and books featuring the top-rated words created by the Post's community.

Is Addictionary the Trojan horse the newspaper industry has needed? We'll find out in August when the Post deploys the new feature.

Clarizen this week announced that it launched version 3.0 of its online project management tool.

Clarizen 3.0 adds a variety of new features, including the option to manage business issues, track expenses, and view Gantt charts. The company also tweaked Clarizen's design and added more tutorials to its site to make it easier for users to learn how to use Clarizen.

I've put version 3.0 through the paces and evaluated the project management tool to see how it stands up to alternatives, like OfficeZilla, which I took for a spin earlier this year.

Clarizen is certainly more powerful than OfficeZilla and it works quite well. But should it replace your project management software?

Despite the fact that Microsoft has competing products of its own, some influential folks within the company have seen some merits of "Open Web" technology that's a standard part of browsers.

The interesting case in point is Microsoft Office 14, the upcoming version of one of the company's core products and profit engines. The software, due in beta form in 2009, is of Microsoft's highest-profile efforts to bring its desktop software power to the Web.

Chris Capossela

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Specifically, when it comes to the best tools for building rich Web applications, Microsoft has promoted its own Silverlight plug-in as superior to the lowly JavaScript that's built into browsers.

"I would use Silverlight any place starting new," Brad Becker, who as group product manager for rich client platforms at Microsoft helps oversee Silverlight, said in a 2008 interview. The online Google Docs applications are built using JavaScript-based technology called Ajax, but, he asked, "How many shops out there have the Ajax chops that Google does?"

However, Silverlight might well be easier to program and offer slicker results, but JavaScript has the advantage when it comes to ubiquity. Thus, Office 14 will be built on JavaScript, with optional Silverlight-based features for those who have the plug-in installed, said Chris Capossela, the senior vice president who oversees product management for Microsoft group that builds Office.

"The fundamental premise for Web apps is you want to be able to get at your Web apps no matter where you are," Capossela said in an interview.

Silverlight optional
Though Microsoft has expressed confidence Silverlight will spread broadly--by luring people to install Silverlight to watch the Olympics online for example--it's far from ubiquitous today. And Microsoft wants people to be able to use Office 14 online not just from their own computers, but also from friends' machines or airport kiosks where people don't have administrative privileges to install software, Capossela said.

Microsoft's demonstration of Web-based Excel. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Microsoft)

Silverlight will improve the online Office 14 interface when installed, though Capossela wouldn't share details of how beyond an earlier demonstration of zooming a document to high magnification. But, he argued, Microsoft doesn't have to reproduce all the features of ordinary Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote in its online incarnations.

"You're probably not going to work for three hours straight in a browser, but you're going to want to do some lightweight work no matter what machine you have," he said. And if you're editing documents on your own computer, "We already have something on your machine. It's called Office. It defeats the purpose of doing productivity in the browser."

Balancing act
The view sheds some light on the balance Microsoft hopes to strike between the regular and Web versions of Office. Although the Web version of Office will be available for free in ad-supported form and in a licensed or hosted form for companies willing to pay, the company obviously still considers the PC-based version of Office the cornerstone of the business.

Google, on the other hand, which has no desktop software cash cow either to protect or benefit from, has every incentive to make Google Docs as powerful as possible.

That means Google has a stronger incentive to support JavaScript advances.

JavaScript speed has become a horse race among most browser makers, with Google loudly trumpeting performance of its V8 JavaScript engine built into Chrome. Internet Explorer trails Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Mozilla's Firefox in JavaScript execution speed, though the new IE 8 does better than its predecessor.

JavaScript runs a lot more than just Google Docs on the Web, so Microsoft doesn't have an incentive to retard IE progress just to spite its rival. But the fact that the company does have a version of Office that runs natively on the PC means the company isn't as reliant on JavaScript advances.

Microsoft's demonstration of Web-based PowerPoint. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Microsoft)

"We can make a very good experience in the browser and we don't have to compete with the rich-client experience we have today," Capossela said.

Ultraparanoia
What will be most intriguing to see as Office 14 arrives is whether Microsoft's attitudes shift. After all, Office is widely used, and the company certainly doesn't want people to have a negative experience with online Office overall or online Office in IE when there are competitors. So there are incentives for the company to improve JavaScript in IE, even though they aren't as strong as Google's.

Done right, online Office could help cement Microsoft's power as cloud computing arrives, bringing advantages such as the ability to let multiple people simultaneously edit the same document. Done wrong, it could yield power to Google as it seeks to expand its search power into other domains.

But though Microsoft may not be the first to the cloud with online productivity tools, don't expect it to be complacent. The Office business successfully navigated the transition from software running on isolated PCs to software that relies on a server for e-mail access or collaboration, Capossela said, and the company is paying close attention to the cloud transition.

"The use of these Web apps today is incredibly small," Capossela said. However, "we always feel ultraparanoid about missing out on something."

For those wondering about Microsoft exec Stephen Elop's suggestions that Office is coming to the iPhone, let me be unequivocal. It is.

How do I know? Microsoft has already said so. The software maker is planning over the coming months to introduce Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Those programs will run not only in Internet Explorer, but also in Safari and Firefox. And, lest there be any ambiguity, Microsoft has already confirmed that this means Office for iPhone and Office for Linux.

Don't get me wrong. Those are both big deals--particularly Office for Linux (think Netbooks and other Web appliances). It's just that they weren't new revelations, as some thought, on Wednesday.

For those who want to hear about Office for the iPhone straight from Microsoft's mouth, here's a video interview I did earlier this year with Office development chief Antoine Leblond.

Updated at 10:10 p.m. PDT to correct amount spent on R&D. The correct figure is $9 billion. Also, updated at 9:10 a.m. PDT on April 2 to correct the spelling of Stephen Elop's first name.

During an on-stage chat on Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Expo, Stephen Elop, Microsoft's president of the business division, defended himself against conference instigator Tim O'Reilly's challenge that Microsoft's traditional office applications aren't making, and may not be able to make, a successful transition to the Web.

Elop, a slick spokesman for the Microsoft way, shot back that the lessons of Web 2.0 success, from companies like Wikipedia, are making their way into enterprise computing and Microsoft products.

"What's happening behind the firewall (in business settings) is identical to what happened on the Internet," Elop said. "The difference in the enterprise is that you can translate the value into something customers are willing to pay for. While social networks themselves may be challenged financially, in the enterprise, (Web 2.0) is working."

Microsoft's Stephen Elop says his company is successfully adopting Web 2.0 principles in its business products.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Elop pointed to SharePoint as the indicator of this success. It is "the fastest-growing product in the history of Microsoft, and it's because the principles of Web 2.0 are being applied to it," he said. Hammering home the message of SharePoint's value, he said, "for every dollar we earn, our customers get tremendous value, and there are seven or eight dollars for developers."

Microsoft is offering some of its apps as over-the-Web services, Elop continued. Nike, Coca-Cola, and other companies are paying for online access to Microsoft-hosted apps.

In product news, Elop hinted that an iPhone version of Office may be coming. It's "not yet" near, but "keep watching," he said. He also said a cloud-based Office suite will come soon, with limited features.

O'Reilly asked if it would be free. Elop's reply: "Ad-supported. Nothing is ever free." Features in the paid versions of the suite that would not make it to the free yet ad-supported product include integration with SharePoint and "unified communications"--features most consumers likely can live without. And when can we have it? "Beta code in not too long a period of time," he said, but "not this calendar year."

Other Microsoft products we'll have to wait a while for include a Twitter competitor. "We are experimenting," he said, "in a corporate setting." He said it was a big challenge to bring microblogging functionality into the business setting, where younger employees are avid boosters for the concept but older workers (who are sticking around longer due to the recession), "aren't even comfortable with e-mail."

Despite its apparent slow pace at adopting Web concepts in its products, Elop said Microsoft continues to invest in new technologies. "The only way through this economy is improving productivity. During tough times, we have to power through. That's why we have $9 billion in R&D. We have to continue to innovate."

Previously:
Office Web Apps won't work offline
Consumers have to wait for Web-based Office

On Tuesday, ThinkFree Office launched a new Flash-based document viewer called Uni Paper that takes files up to 10 pages and 5MB in size. It works for most common office file types like PDFs, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint presentations. Like Scribd, Docstoc, Docuter, Issuu, and others, it lets users view and search through documents quickly and without the need to have any special office software installed.

If a user wants to make any changes, they can then send that file into one of ThinkFree's various Java-based office document editors, which gets reflected in real-time back anywhere the Uni Paper has been embedded or shared. To make this process a little more streamlined, ThinkFree has also tightly grouped together its document, spreadsheet, and presentation tools into something resembling more of a suite.

This is definitely good news for ThinkFree users who can get a quick preview of any of the files they have stored on the service, but it's not quite as advanced as some of the Flash-based viewers from the competition. It's missing the option to view all the pages of a document at once, and the the directory of publicly shared documents contains very little categorization, or genre-based exploration.

I will, however tip my hat to ThinkFree for wanting to charge into this space. Unlike the rest of these document hosting services, you can actually go in and make edits with a Web-based document editor designed by the very same folks who made the viewer. That's a great way to get people in the door.

I've embedded an example Uni Paper below, and no, there's no way to get rid of the annoying API ad on the bottom.