Releases

posted on 04 March 2008 09:42

REDMOND, Wash - 4th March 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 Autumn.

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.

“Today’s announcement moves us further down the path of bringing a software plus services experience to people at home, work and college,” said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “By combining the rich client experience of Microsoft Office with flexible, intuitive service offerings, we’re providing seamless computing experiences for our 500 million Office users worldwide.”

Tim Kimber, who heads up the Office Live UK division explains “In today’s increasingly global and mobile workforce, the ability to manage projects across geographically-dispersed teams that often include colleagues, customers, suppliers and partners is vital, no matter where people are based in the world. Microsoft Office Live Workspace addresses the growing demand among our customers for on-the-go access to projects and the ability to collaborate with others regardless of where they live or work.”

“Customers have asked for an easy way to save their documents from Office to the web, so that they can get to their information if they’re away from their PC. People also get frustrated with the confusing free-for-all­ that can result when multiple versions of documents circulate in e-mail attachments that then have to be manually pulled together by the original author. We’re hopeful that Office Live Workspace will help solve these challenges by providing a place online to keep a single version of a document that everyone can work on and feel secure in the knowledge that they’re working on the latest draft.”

Access Anywhere, Share and Extend the Microsoft Office Experience
Office Live Workspace lets people organise documents and projects online and work on them from almost any computer. People can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online,* and access and share them via the Web. They can view and comment on documents in the browser as well as create simple Web lists and Web notes, and share documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView.

Microsoft has also added several new features to Office Live Workspace, based in part on feedback from early beta participants:

· Activity panel. A new activity panel shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance.

· Notifications. People can now receive e-mail notifications about changes made to their workspaces or documents.

· Direct links. People can now bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window.

· Multi-file upload. People can now upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop.

· Improved sharing. New sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses.

Hundreds of Thousands Registered for Office Live Workspace Free of Charge

Since the unveiling of the private beta last October, hundreds of thousands of people have signed up, and thousands from the pre-registration have been invited to provide feedback on the service. In terms of cost and availability, Microsoft Office Live Workspace is being offered free of charge and Microsoft plans to offer the beta program later this year in various languages for international markets. The company expects to release the final public version of Office Live Workspace later in the year.