LiveSide - News blog : Office Live

Two new Windows Live services coming soon: Documents and Devices

damaster — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:34:58 GMT

Our friend Picturepan2 from LiveSino.net has discovered two new services coming soon to Windows Live Wave 4: Windows Live Documents and Windows Live Devices. Here’s a screenshot showing the two new services added to the header of an internal testing website:

(Documents and Devices had been added to the header. Also notice that Events has been removed.)

It’s not hard to guess what Windows Live Documents will offer, considering that Office Live joined the Windows Live team at the beginning of this year. However, what will Windows Live Devices offer? Fortunately we were able to dig further and gained a preview of the homepage for Windows Live Devices, currently undergoing internal testing:

While were weren’t able to add any “devices” to Windows Live, it appears that Windows Live Devices will come coupled with a downloadable counterpart – an updated Windows Live Sync that is much more similar to Live Mesh’s functionalities, that will also become part of Windows Live Essentials. Like Office Live, the Live Mesh team also recently joined the Windows Live group at the start of this year. Recall what Stephen Rose (Windows Sr. Community Manager) mentioned a few weeks ago telling us to “watch for more seamless integration between your desktops and mobile devices.” Could this be it? Or are there more coming?

It seems like Windows Live Wave 4 is well underway, and the consolidation of Office Live and Live Mesh with Windows Live could only make it better. So stay tuned at LiveSide as we bring you more from Windows Live Wave 4!

Update: Looks like SkyDrive will form the “Live Desktop” component for Windows Live Devices. Also, the mention of “digital photo frames” in the screenshot above suggests that we’ll see some integration with FrameIt?

Office Live Workspace updated for Mac users

damaster — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:15:16 GMT

The Office Live Workspace team blog just announced two exciting news for Mac users using Microsoft Office and Office Live Workspace. Firstly, Microsoft Document Connection for Mac was just released as part of Office 2008 for Mac SP2 to access Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly from Office Live Workspace. Here’s an official list of features for Document Collaboration Companion:

Integrated (offline/local) access to Office Live Workspace and SharePoint Websites
Document upload
Document check-out/in
SharePoint Workspace and Doc Library access & browsing
An independent application with File Menu integration

Secondly, Office Live Workspace now supports both Safari 3 and the newly released Safari 4, adding support for users with Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. Could this be some sort of preparation for the upcoming release of Office Web Apps, which will support Internet Explorer 7/8, Firefox 3, and also Safari? Nevertheless, it is good news to hear that Microsoft is taking its online offerings cross-browser and cross-platform. Well done!

Office 2010 begins Technical Preview: Office Web Applications available through Windows Live at no cost

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:02:42 GMT

At the Worldwide Partners Conference in New Orleans today, Microsoft announced a “major milestone and Technical Preview” for Office 2010, with “tens of thousands” of beta invitations to the technical preview going out beginning today (just received ours this evening :) ). In addition, Microsoft announced three ways for users to access the new Office Web Applications, lightweight web based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote:

Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.

No real word as of yet as to how Office Live Workspaces fits in to the equation, here’s what we got when we asked:

Office Live services will continue to be offered and evolve over time. As we announced last November, we will deliver the current Office Live services through Windows Live as our single consumer destination. We are excited that we will have the opportunity to expose great Office Live features such as online document sharing and collaboration to the more than 500 million Windows Live users.

While the news that Office Web applications will be available for on-premises hosting will likely be good news to corporations that are leery of giving up their data to Microsoft (or Google), we’re more interested in how Office Live will “evolve”, how well connected the rest of Windows Live will be into the new services (SkyDrive access?). The Technical Preview only contains the desktop versions of Office 2010, testing of the Office Web applications won’t happen until later this year.

Survey: a new name for Office Web Apps, coming soon?

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:12:40 GMT

When we last came across a Microsoft Site Survey, it correctly gave us the new name for Morro - “Microsoft Security Essentials”, and we’re really beginning to like this new pipeline of information. In a new survey, Microsoft asks about possible new names for a “suite of paid, web-based services… that will complement Microsoft Office”. Microsoft “Office Web Applications”, lightweight versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, were first demoed last October at PDC. While the professional version will be a paid service, a consumer version is expected to be ad funded and free.

After listing a set of possible names and asking for reactions, the survey (conducted by a 3rd party marketing research firm for Microsoft) gets down to brass tacks:

Which of these names do you think does the best job describing a product that you would be more interested in trying than Google Apps, assuming both products have similar features and functionality?

Microsoft Ensemble

Microsoft Optro

Microsoft ArcLight

Microsoft Offsite

Microsoft Equipt

I am not aware of Google Apps

While the survey does not specify any availability dates, we came across the Microsoft Security Essentials survey about 6 weeks before it was announced, so we may not have to wait too long to see what we hope will be called Microsoft Ensemble out in the open.

Maybe this is why Microsoft is turning on those new data centers!

Office Live to join Windows Live

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:31:57 GMT

Yesterday Mary Jo Foley reported that Office Live will be joining Windows Live in Wave 4, at least in terms of how the products are presented to consumers, and today a post on the OfficeLiveWorkSpaceCommunity blog further confirms it. Office Live will remain a part of the Business division, according to confirmation received by Mary Jo yesterday:

Rajesh (Rajesh Jah, Corp VP for Office Live and Exchange) will not be leaving the Microsoft Business Division. There are no changes to the org structure. Rajesh’s title remains corporate VP, Microsoft Office Live and Exchange.

However Office Live and Windows Live will “converge” into a single set of services. From the blog post:

Today, I wanted to share with you some exciting news about Office Live: To simplify and improve the customer experience around our Live services, we’ve made the decision to converge Windows Live and Office Live into an integrated set of services at one single destination. We think that just makes a ton of sense and goes a long way toward giving you a simpler, richer, better service that allows you to do more with one account.

Of course this is not entirely unexpected news, as we have seen some hooks into Office Live from Windows Live already, still it’s good to hear that the consolidation of services that had been spread all over the Windows Live map is continuing.

Microsoft Office Web Applications: Your Burning Questions Answered

Sunshine — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:15:00 GMT

We already told you Microsoft Office will be extended to the browser. There has been a lot of excitement about this new service, but Sarah from on10 found there’s also quite a bit of misinformation around it. Therefore she decided to create a special Q&A, to answer some of those burning questions people have about the new web applications. I’ll list a few of them here:

Q : Is Silverlight required in order to use the Office Web Applications?
A: No! Silverlight is not required. Using Silverlight will enhance the user experience, resulting in sharper images and improved rendering. Also, the Office Live Workspace has integrated Silverlight technology into the multi-file upload function for a better experience there, too.

Q: Will the Microsoft Office Web Applications work on Linux?
A: Yes! It does not matter which operating system is used as long as you're running a supported web browser.

Q: Are the Web Applications replacing Microsoft Office software?
A: No. This does not change the way customers buy Office nor will it slowdown the future innovations coming to the desktop software.

Q: Will the Microsoft Office Web Applications be free?
A: Yes – for consumers. Microsoft will deliver Office Web applications to consumers through Office Live, which is a consumer service with both ad-funded and subscription offerings.

Q: How does the collaboration feature work?
A: Collaboration will be done using Office Live Workspace. There are two scenarios here, one experience is similar to SharePoint, where a user makes a change to a document and then uploads or saves to the SharePoint site. Whoever opens the doc first has control of that document.

The second scenario is using Microsoft SharedView, which is integrated with Office Live Workspace and enables real-time collaboration. With Microsoft SharedView, you can share your desktop and edit documents with others in real time. While sharing your desktop, Microsoft SharedView, enables you to control who edits, makes comments, etc. and then save that document back to your Office Live Workspace.

For the full list please read Sarah's Q&A. Besides Sarah’s Q&A there’s also a FAQ about Office Live Workspace available at the Office Live Workspace website. If you are not familiar with Workspace you can read this to orientate. It doesn’t tell much about the web apps, besides that they are lightweight apps and to sign up for Office Live Workspace if you wish to get more information and updates about any beta product availability. But hey you already knew that ;)

Previous articles about Office Live Workspace

Office In The Cloud

Sunshine — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:45:22 GMT

In all this excitement of PDC, cloud computing (Azure) and Live Mesh updates, there is one piece of cloud related news we haven’t told you about.

Microsoft Office will also be moving towards the cloud! We already know about the web storage of Office documents through Office Live Workspace (save, access, and share) but that is going to be expanded with lightweight versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Powered by AJAX and/or Silverlight, they will be available for use in standard Web browsers such ad Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Imagine being able to edit your Office document from your PC, Mobile Phone and the Web!

Click on the thumbnails for larger images

All this will be offered through Office Live, a consumer service with both ad-funded and subscription offerings. For business customers, Office Web applications will be offered as a hosted subscription service and through existing volume licensing agreements. Later on this will also be offered as a part of the Office Suites (Office 14). There will be a private technology preview of the Office Web applications later this year. If you are interested in this, sign up for Office Live Workspace. Of course we’ll keep you updated on this too!

For a first look video, head over to Channel 9.

PressPass - Microsoft to Extend Office to the Browser
Workspace Team Blog - Microsoft extends Office to the browser via Office Live

Office Live Workspace: Allow Previewing A Shared Workspace Or Document Without Sign-In/Sign-Up

Sunshine — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:31:45 GMT

Are you, just like me, hesitant to sign up for something just to preview/look at something a friend send you (or just plain hate it)? You no longer have to to preview an Office Live Workspace/Document. If your friend has set that option when inviting you in that is.

How to do that:

1. Open up the workspace or document you wish to share and click Share:

2. Click Share, or incase you are already sharing with someone Share with more. Then in the Sharing Pane, add in the email addresses for the people you want to preview your content:

and…..here comes the trick: check the box in front of Let everyone view this without signing in. A little note of warning though:

3. Click Send

Now an Invitation mail will be send to the recipients. All they have to do is click the link to preview the shared Workspace/Document, no need to sign in or sign up! If they wish to do so after previewing they can sign up or sign in by clicking Sign up on the left navigation bar.

Office Live Workspace
Workspace Team Blogs

LiveSide - Previous Office Live Workspace articles

Microsoft Launches Consumer Subscription Offering That Combines Microsoft Office And Windows Live OneCare: Microsoft Equipt, Initially Known As Albany

Sunshine — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Remember Albany Beta? Well, it has been renamed to Equipt and is released today!

REDMOND, Wash. — July 2, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Microsoft Equipt, an all-in-one security and productivity software subscription service for consumers. In one easy installation, the service delivers award-winning anti-malware protection technology and features to simplify PC management and help improve performance, the productivity tools people use to organize their lives, and online services that help make it easy to keep in touch with friends and family.

Initially code-named “Albany,” Microsoft Equipt offers consumers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, giving them the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare, the all-in-one security and PC management service; Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with people they care about most; and Office Live Workspace, a new service from Microsoft that makes it easy to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share them with friends and classmates. Anytime a new version of Office or Windows Live OneCare is released, Microsoft Equipt customers will get the version upgrades as part of their subscriptions.

Microsoft Equipt will be sold in nearly 700 Circuit City Stores in the US starting mid-July. Retail price is estimated at $69.99 for a one-year renewable subscription and can be installed on up to three home PCs.

From the factsheet:

Included Products and Services:

Windows Live OneCare
All-in-one security and performance includes antivirus, antispyware, firewall, file and photo backup, performance tune-ups, and home network management to help keep your PC running at its peak.

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
· Word 2007. Create great-looking documents with ease.
· Excel 2007. Intuitive spreadsheet tools let you create budgets and more.
· PowerPoint 2007. Design stunning presentations for family, school or volunteer activities.
· OneNote 2007. Organize different kinds of information — text, images, audio and video, Web clippings, and more — in one digital notebook.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace
This new service from Office makes it easy for you to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share these with friends and classmates.

Windows Live tools
· Windows Live Mail. Get all your e-mail in one place.
· Windows Live Messenger. Send instant messages to your friends or have a video chat.
· Windows Live Photo Gallery. Organize and share photos.
· And more. Including Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Toolbar.

Automatic updates and upgrades. Office Home and Student version upgrades plus automatic security updates and OneCare upgrades.

More information:
Q&A: PressPass Interview with Bryson Gordon
Factsheet Equipt
http://www.circuitcity.com

Office Live Small Business reaches 1 million subscribers

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:08:38 GMT

Office Live Small Business, the beta for small businesses to establish an online presence with a free website, domain name, and 100 email addresses, has reached 1 million subscribers, according to a Microsoft press release. Currently up and running in 5 languages/locales (US, UK, France, Germany, Japan), Office Live Small Business provides basic services for free, and offers upgraded services (more space/storage, Store Manager to sell products directly from your site or from eBay, email marketing tools, as well as a free adManager tool to manage ads set up through Microsoft’s adCenter) on a subscription basis. Office Live Small Business also sets you up with an Office Live Workspace account, to collaborate on documents and files, using Microsoft Office products or a web interface.

You can sign up for Office Live Small Business (if you’re in one of the 5 locales) for free.

Albany Beta launches today, what is it?

Sunshine — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:21:00 GMT

Microsoft launches Albany Beta today, but what is it? The name reveals nothing. “Albany” is the codename for a new all-in-one subscription service of essential software and services for consumers. It consists of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery, it also installs the Microsoft Office Live Workspace connector. With Albany consumers will get the latest versions of Microsoft Office Home and Student and Windows Live OneCare as they are released.

Each “Albany” subscription is good for three PCs and the final version of the product will be delivered before the end of this calendar year. Microsoft Office and Windows Live OneCare will still be sold as standalone package as well. Albany just gives customers more choice and addresses the needs of those customers who value having the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Office. Pricing is not yet known.

Q&A: Group Product Manager Bryson Gordon discusses “Albany”
Getting ready for Windows Live Wave 3

Office Live Workspace Beta - Now Publicly Available Worldwide

Sunshine — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Last week I reported about Office Live Workspace's first feature update, now, just a few days later, everybody can get instant access to this service! It is now available, in English, Worldwide:

REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the public availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta (http://workspace.officelive.com), the new Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others. Office Live Workspace was among the first entries in the new wave of online services in Microsoft’s software plus services vision previewed last fall.

Office Live Workspace is now available worldwide in English. People can sign up for free at http://workspace.officelive.com and will be granted immediate access to the service. Microsoft is also unveiling a number of new Office Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multifile upload.

The beta will be offered in various languages later this year. Microsoft also hopes to release the final version of Office Live Workspace later this year. Along with this worldwide beta release there's a Sweepstake for U.S.-based Office Live Workspace users. Yours truly will not be allowed to enter that one, but if you are in the US this certainly is a bonus!

More read of interest:
Microsoft Office Live Workspace Beta Fact Sheet

Previous LiveSide articles:
Office Live Workspace - first feature update goes live
Our first look at Office Live Workspaces
Office Live Workspaces: Our interview with Kirk Gregerson
Office Live Renamed: New offering announced: Office Live Workspaces

Edit: Once you are in the beta you can also go to Workspaces through http://home.live.com/.
Link in the More Services bar:

Office Live Workspace - first feature update goes live

Sunshine — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:03:00 GMT

Office Live Workspace launched last December and just got its first update, what's new:

A new Activity pane to help you keep track of what’s happening in your workspaces and email notifications so you always know when the people you share with make updates. This feature is a lot of fun and makes it easy to see at glance the changes happening in your workspace and in individual documents. Now you’ll know when someone comments on your document, adds a note, or updates an important list.

New support for adding multiple documents to your workspaces. The Add multiple documents button makes it is easier than ever to bring your documents into a workspace by browsing and selecting files from your computer or dragging and dropping files on the document uploader.

New permalinks for sharing direct hyperlinks to your workspaces and documents. Now you can bookmark individual workspaces and items in your workspace using the “add to favorites” tool in your web browser or copy the address bar and paste those links into emails to share with others.

A new Share workspace UI to easily invite others to your workspace. With the improved address book buttons you can quickly add people from your Windows Live addresses book (contacts from Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger) and people you have shared with before. You can also include more details in your invitation with the larger message box and choose to CC yourself on the invitation.

Besides these, other fixes and improvements have been made and the Office Live add-in has been updated.

Note on Office Live Workspace Registration:
US pre-registrants are invited into the beta on a first-come, first-served basis as quickly as possible. The service will be opened to the world and offered in other localized languages in 2008. You can pre-register at http://www.officelive.com/, when your workspace is ready you will receive an email.

More read of interest:
Our first look at Office Live Workspaces
Office Live Workspaces: Our interview with Kirk Gregerson
Office Live Renamed: New offering announced: Office Live Workspaces

Office Live announces V2: no premium tiers; e-commerce

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:34:00 GMT

Microsoft has just announced its version 2 of Office Live Small Business (and no, Henry Blodget, its not an online version of Office), the website management suite of tools for building and managing a small business online presence. According to tonight's press release, via IDC, "about half of the small businesses in the United States with fewer than 10 employees do not have a Web site". Office Live, first revealed here on LiveSide almost exactly two years ago, now boasts almost 600,000 customers worldwide, in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan.

The new version includes a number of new features and changes, most notably that the tier structure of Office Live Small Business is being done away with. Previously, customers had to choose between Basics, Essentials, and Premium. In the new version, the model moves to a basic free account with add-ons. What's new in Office Live Small Business? The short list includes Firefox support, a new pricing structure, Workspaces included at no cost for all users, a free year of custom domain and 100 business email accounts with 5gb of storage each, and a new e-commerce section that enables online sales and management from the customer's Office Live website, or from eBay.

Here's a more complete list:

Free and even easier to get started.
- Customer no longer need to choose a domain name or enter a credit card number to open an account.
- Once a customer is signed up, everything needed to establish a professional Web presence is provided for free, including Web hosting and an easy-to-use Web site building tool, as well as a custom domain name with 100 business-branded e-mail accounts (a custom domain and business e-mail is free for the first year, $14.95 annually thereafter).
- In addition, customers receive several useful business applications previously available only for a monthly fee, including Project Manager, Document Manager and Contact Manager, free at sign-up.
Store Manager ($39.95 per month). This hosted e-commerce tool enables customers to sell products on their Office Live Small Business Web site and on eBay.
E-mail Marketing beta (200 e-mails per month/free during beta). The feature makes it possible to connect to customers by sending newsletters, promotions and updates within attractive e-mails that match the look and feel of the Web site.
adManager (pay-per-click pricing). Now out of beta, this keyword advertising feature has been enhanced with a new bid recommendation engine and additional distribution through the Ask Sponsored Listings network.
Unified Analytics. A new tool called Analytics provides reports for Store Manager, adManager, E-mail Marketing beta and Web site traffic, integrated in one central reporting experience.
Workspaces. Now included at no cost to all users, Workspaces is simpler to use, with new sidebars that make it easier to see user permissions, add new users to a workspace and share data.
Advanced Web site design tools. It’s now even easier to get a professional Web site up and running. Office Live Small Business templates now offer more customization options, allowing customers to directly edit the code or import code from another site. In addition, customers now have the freedom to use any Web site design tool they choose to build their site.
Firefox support. Tools and features are now compatible with the Firefox 2.0 Web browser, even on Macs.
Private domain name registration. All custom domains now automatically receive private domain name registration, to help customers better protect their contact information from spammers and phishers.
Premium e-mail ($19.95 per year). Customers can upgrade their 100 ad-supported free e-mail accounts to ad-free accounts.

Office Live Small Business is available at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com

Office Live announces improvements across the board

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:16:22 GMT

The Office Live team has just announced an number of improvements coming soon to all three flavors of Office Live: Basic, Essentials, and Premium. "The upgrade process began January 5th and will last four to six weeks", according to the announcement. Here are the improvements for Office Live Basics, as listed on the Office Live Small Business site on Microsoft.com:

Office Live Basics

Here’s how we’re improving your service:

Web site design and management

Site Designer tool is now easier to use

Customize the look of your site even more by replacing template header with your own custom header

Easily add a blog to your Web site with the new integration with Windows Live Spaces Blogs

Slideshow creation is now easier than ever and you can now add captions to your images

For our advanced users and professional Web designers, a new advanced mode adds more flexibility in design and layout, You’ll now have the ability to:

Customize header, footer, and navigation on a page-by-page basis

Import or edit custom XSLT code

Use custom HTML and third-party design tools

E-mail accounts

All customers can now take advantage of full synchronization with Outlook 2007 for e-mail, personal contacts, calendar, and tasks

Mail storage capacity expanded to 5GB per user e-mail account

Reporting

The reporting system is completely redesigned and enhanced

With new adManager integration, you can monitor search advertising efforts with live.com and ask.com, along with your Web site traffic

Analyze performance of all your sales and marketing campaigns in a single place

Track Web site conversion points, click-through, and page views for each marketing campaign

Note The reporting system will experience a service interruption when the application is upgraded

There are changes coming to Essentials and Premium as well, check them out on the site.