CJReport

In its latest effort to tie desktop software to the Internet, Microsoft Corp. today announced a free online storage, file-sharing and collaboration service designed for users of its Office software suite.

Users are now invited to pre-register for Office Live Workspace, which allows those with Microsoft Office to access their Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents online. The software giant is dubbing the offering an "online companion" to the Office product.

Unlike rivals such as Google Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc., both of which have targeted the lucrative Office software market with Web-based applications, Microsoft will take a more conservative approach with its new Office Live Workspace offering. "The biggest pain point users told us about was not having access to files wherever they were," said Eric Gilmore, senior product manager for Microsoft Office. "When you said [to them], 'Gimme a time when you don't have Office,' that wound up to be a very small minority, an exception."

"These documents will go wherever people go when they're away from their usual desktops," Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division, said in a statement. "People will be able to work on documents from any Microsoft Office-equipped computer with an Internet connection – or review and comment on documents on devices that only offer Web access."

Collectively, Microsoft’s online applications are now gathered under the umbrella of Microsoft Online Services. The ‘Live’ applications include Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. Initially, these services will mostly be marketed to large enterprise with more than 5,000 employees, CNet News said. For now, these online services won’t include any ads, but the company indicated it set these apps up so ads can be added later.

Available free, Office Live Workspace is among the first in a new wave of online services from the company. Users can save more than 1,000 Office documents to one place online and access them through the Web, and share the documents with others in a password-protected, invitation-only online workspace. Other users who don't have a desktop version of Office software can still view and comment on the document in a browser, Microsoft said.

If users want to edit the text, they must open the document using an installed copy of Office.

Live applications, like Gallery, Mail, Messenger, and Writer are free, Web-based offerings that provide services like photo sharing, Webmail, messaging and blogging. In September, Microsoft unveiled a unified installer that will enable one-stop downloads of those applications, a feature that will reportedly assist in a "cloud computing" effort that links these applications to the Windows operating system.

"It starts with document creation," said Gilmore. In Office 2007, for example, a Save to Office Live icon saves the document, whether an existing one or one just created, to a user's personal workspace, or any shared workspace to which a user has rights. Online, meanwhile, a click on a workspace document previews it in the browser -- Internet Explorer 6.x and later, and Firefox 2.x or later are supported -- while another downloads the file directly into the appropriate Office application on the PC or Mac.

Also on Monday, Microsoft announced the start of Microsoft Exchange Labs, a research and development program intended to produce next-generation messaging and communication technologies. It will involve select universities and school districts, Microsoft said.