Why not just make a PDF if all we are doing is sharing a view-only document?

To me, the idea that someone would pick up a complicated document like this and edit it in the Word web app is laughable. If I was tasked with editing this doc, I would edit it in the desktop version of Word.

The fidelity argument will only go so far. Someone out there might be impressed that Microsoft managed to have fidelity between two versions of the same product. Given the history of compatibility issues between versions of the Office, I am a bit surprised actually.

Imagine, a Microsoftie stacking the deck to make it look like their own technologies are somehow better, rather than simply different and artificially exclusionary.

I gather the author thinks that issues with the rendering of MS Office documents in Google Docs is Google's fault. He'd never point out that it's Microsoft's fault for using a proprietary file format and forcing anyone wanting to offer file-level compatibility to reverse engineer that format.

Ultimately, no one should save files in MS Word format - it's an imposition on the increasing number of people who don't use MS Office, and anyone who actually wants ownership of their own data.

Once you start authoring documents in Open Document Format (a proper open document standard, unlike MS' file formats), you can transfer documents into Google Docs quite happily, and work on them there (as my business does) or do the same with OpenOffice or LibreOffice. They look great, and we can achieve everything we, as a business supporting lots of customers, needs to. And we don't pay Microsoft's monopoly software rents. In turn, we create no obligation on our collaborators to use MS Office. Win win win.

All I have to say is bravo on this.  At least someone has the guts in Microsoft to call out Google's dirty little secrets when it comes to their "productivity" applications.  Keep it up!

If anyone wants to see some horror stories of why NOT to touch Google Apps, look at their forums:

www.google.com/.../thread

They do not have the engineering talent needed to produce or support an Office suite.

They've pretty much told their customers to "Go F*** yourselves, we're doing what we want".

"Fashions fade, style is eternal." -Yves Saint Laurent As Yves Saint Laurent - renowned French fashion

@Eric, I started liking the new docs list format after they fixed a couple of things. Google did fix many of the issues based on user response and it works much better than the initial release.

However, what they did not do was give us any kind of warning that this was about to happen. The docs list reformatting was completely different and horribly broken as released in February. The docs list debacle is imo the reason why Google now pushes out features in different release tracks.

Seriously, the first day I used the new docs list, I was completely lost. I bookmarked the old version just to keep track of things. After a month of bugfixes, I prefer the new version. Problem is, Google should have fixed all this stuff before making everyone use it. They literally tested on paying subscribers with this one. And it wasn't like they tested an optional module... the default screen for docs became a beta test.

I think they learned a valuable lesson from the giant thread about the docs list you referenced.

I think Word web has a clear explanation than Google documents

I would be curious to see a comparison of documents created from scratch with both solutions. The example is very strong for existing documents, but still it is natural to assume that the integration between products made by the same company will better than the one between products of two different ones. I think that what would convince people in the superiority of one solution or the other will be a demo of specific features (styling in this example).

Well considering that MS has had these products since early windows 95 days (or earlier), been charging fortunes for "minor" upgrades and consumers paying for largely same functionality over and over with each "upgrade" and google docs only very recently.... I'd say rate of change google docs may have some way to go but they are progressing rapidly!

Keep going GOOGLE!

this great

Office Web Apps is a whole lot more klutzy than Docs when editing online.

I found myself having to make some minor changes online since the computer I was using did not have Word, and Web Apps really messed up the formatting.

For online editing, Google Docs is far superior--even working with original DOCX documents.

Believe me, I would love to switch, but until there are some serious improvements to online editing, it won't happen.

Also, do try out collate box it seems very good for online collaboration