Microsoft's Disappointing Free Office Web Apps Make Google Look Good
Microsoft (MSFT) let epoch — years — go by as Google (GOOG) established free House-style apps online. Now Microsoft is irrevocably trying to recover by offering its free Employment Web Apps. Unfortunately, in its quest to foster the Office cash cow, the company has stripped so much from the Web versions that Google remains an inclusive better choice — and Microsoft looks like an unadvised startup putting alpha software breathing.
Getting into Microsoft Web Apps requires only a Microsoft Dynamic password. It quickly becomes obvious how much the plc has left out of these versions when you compare them both to desktop versions and to Google Docs. Start with spreadsheets. You have a determination of Home and Insert. Home offers essential data formatting and table options. Addition lets you add only hyperlinks or tables. You can’t add charts, images, or drawings as you can in Google.
What I found dumbfounding was the utter be of assistance in getting a spreadsheet to do the reasonable things you’d expect from such an claim. For example, I typed in two numbers and then tried to find how to add them. Nothing. Not a toolbar or menu entr in site. I tried typing an equals consequential and the word “sum” and, huzzah!, it worked. A small more experimentation showed that typing an equals and then a first learning presents a list of function choices in a pop-up menu. That’s masterly if you’re comfortable with keyboard shortcuts. If not, it’s Microsoft’s inducement to check out the competition.
