IT Professionals

Google Vs. Microsoft On The Office Front

Posted by on Apr 14, 2010 | One Comment

The Google vs. Microsoft battleground is really becoming interesting. Besides the obvious competition in the search realm with Bing and Google, there has been a bit of heat with some brand new revisions made to Google Docs that might put Microsoft’s Office suite on notice. In both cases, we have Web access available to the end user for no cost. But unlike the free online edition of MS Office, Google Docs provides access to presentation software. Not likely a deal breaker, but something to consider. Besides, I could never get the Google presentation software past the loading stage myself. Could just be me, though.

Then there is the Docx issue, something that really puts on the brakes for many enterprise users interested in using OpenOffice. While OpenOffice could open Docx files, formatting goes straight down the toilet, making the suite completely useless for Docx usage in an enterprise setting. My question is whether or not this will happen with Google Docs? Considering the obvious work that was put into the speed-friendly overhaul of the Google Docs project, I can only hope that Google managed to blend the need of clean importing of those annoying Docx files into the system.

Because, if not, Google may as well throw in the towel for enterprise users. Like it or hate it, we’re in a Microsoft world in the business world. I don’t see this changing, and Google must adapt to this to compete.

[awsbullet:OpenOffice.org for Dummies]

  • Levi

    Unless I need the features available in a docx format I always default to the old Word 97 doc format even in OpenOffice. This, like rtf, is one of the most accepted formats around and allows me to keep most everything in my document the same across platforms.

    I can see enterprise users requiring Microsoft Office for some things. But these days people just use what Microsoft sets as default without actually requiring it. So if we were to be more active in setting up a more usable default save format the issues wouldn’t remain.

    But I do see your point.