Google Docs? Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps?

Lately, a lot of people ask me this question.  Google Docs?  Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps?  Both Google Docs and Microsoft Office Web Apps are first class browser based applications; offer collaboration features and they are also FREE!  So which one should we use?  Well, before I answer your question; let’s see what their differences they have.

Google Docs allows you to create Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Form and Drawing.

Microsoft Office Web Apps supports Word document, Excel workbook, PowerPoint presentation and OneNote notebook.

Their core functions are very similar; both of them have document, spreadsheet and presentation. Google Apps has Form, which is a handy tool to gather feedback and Microsoft OneNote Web App is a very powerful collaboration tool for brainstorming and collecting information.  It is up to you to decide which one is more useful.

If we compare Google Document and Word Web App, you would notice Google Document has a much longer list of items that we can insert into the document.

Generally, I found more features in Google Apps than Microsoft Office Web Apps.  Great!  Let’s use Google Docs.  But just wait a second!  Let me show you something else that may change your mind.

I have used Microsoft Word 2010 to prepare a brochure.  This is how the first page looks on Microsoft Word 2010.  Nothing fancy!

I want my business partners and printer to review it so I uploaded it to SkyDrive and this is what I got from Word Web Apps.

But when I uploaded it to Google Docs, I saw a huge difference.  I lost all my format and words!

If you decide to migrate to Google Docs, you better make sure all your Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel workbooks are all successful converted to into Google Docs format.  Google Docs seems to have some conversion problems and sometime it fails to maintain the original format.  You may also want to suggest all your business partners and clients to move to Google Docs with you; otherwise, if they send you an Excel workbook and refer to couple data driven charts in their email, then you may not be able to find the charts because Google Docs fails to convert them.

Google Docs?  Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps?  The answer would never be straight forward and the decision depends on your usage pattern, e.g. do you use use advance features?  do you need to collaborate with other people?  and what do they use?

Andrew Chan is the owner and founder of ALG Inc.