So you all know I’m proudly a PC, with the exception of the iPhone. One of my favorite programs that I have been using for years on all of our PCs is Microsoft Office which includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. All fantastic programs in my book and Taylor has been using them for years now also for homeschool. Even Hubby uses them a bit. Now Microsoft has Microsoft Office Live which allows you to collaborate, share, and store documents online for free.
What I love is the sharing part – I don’t have to worry about having a flash drive with me if the documents are available anywhere with internet access. The flash drives are handy, but frankly I don’t carry mine around with me usually. This would be great for collaborating on projects also. I know I work with other bloggers of different things and we could easily all collaborate on Microsoft Office Live. Once you create a Workspace you just add the email address of those who you would like to be able to view the documents and those who you would like to be able to edit the documents. Lots of spaces for comments on the sidebar also which I think is clever.
When you get started you just create a Workspace – you would make a new Workspace for each group/project you are doing (kind of like a big folder). Then you can create documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Notes, lists, etc.) in the Workspace or you can use the pre-generated documents that Microsoft has supplied if you like. They have a step-by-step at the bottom of the new Workspaces to help you, and that includes how-to videos which I always find very helpful.
Hubby is the least technical in our family so I sat down with him to see if he would understand all of this. I showed him the main screen and walked him through creating a Workspace (we used the Household template) and went thru creating and editing documents plus uploading his own. It took him a few minutes, but then it started clicking and he really thought this was cool. His first idea was that he could use it to type up his guitar lessons for Taylor, including the tablature. Then Taylor would be able to see it and add notes even on any of his computers. Boy that Hubby of mine catches on quick!
One of the other awesome benefits to this is not having to send large documents via email. So many email providers limit the size of attachments these days or folks download emails on the go and don’t want attachments, etc. With Microsoft Office Live instead of emailing the documents I can just upload them on the website and share with whomever I need to. Perfect solution since usually I am collaborating on something when doing this.
Many homeschoolers now have kids collaborating on group projects also. The teenaged kids seem very comfortable working this way with not only local homeschoolers, but those across the country (and the planet) doing projects or sharing resources. Microsoft Office Live would be superb for this use and I’m sure Taylor will be using it to share with his online friends.
Overall I think Microsoft Office Live is a natural evolution for Microsoft. It works as easily as the programs do on your own computer and allows even more folks access to the wonderful programs.
So how do you think you could use Microsoft Office Live?
I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Microsoft Office Live. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.
