Sync Google Docs with MS Office

A new free sync service, Syncplicity, allows users to synchonize Google Docs to a local folder and edit them with MS Word. No support currently for spreadsheets or presentations.

Please sic Joe the Plumber on Google . . . .

Microsoft announced this morning at its PDC conference that the next release of Microsoft Office will include browser-based versions of some of its main office software products - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These will be "lightweight versions", but Microsoft told us yesterday that they'll still have rich functionality and will be comparable to Google's suite of online office applications. The apps will enable users to create, edit and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents through the browser. The apps will work in IE, Firefox and Safari browsers (no word on whether Google Chrome will be supported). Update: Microsoft clarified in an email that these apps will use HTML and AJAX, but also Silverlight components.

(From the ReadWriteWeb Blog)


Is the the beginning of a shift? As a collegiate educator, I'm used to getting students who have some familiarity with "traditional" MS Office products, and while versions and interfaces change, they DO have a basic understanding of MS Word, at least.

As Microsoft's licensing policies are more and more influenced by the 800-lb gorilla named Google, it seems possible that the new paradigm will be for students to be familiar with "light" versions of the program. Unless Microsoft plans to GIVE away academic licenses to K-12 schools, with budgets as tight as they are, a school district may opt to drop any MS Office site license they currently have.

Which then affects CIS departments on the issue of whether an allied health or social sciences major needs to be schooled in the "full" version of MS Office. Which would greatly reduce the number of students enrolling in the ubiquitous "105" course that covers MS Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint et al.

Which would then lead to colleges reducing THEIR site license numbers, which would then lead to Microsoft's losing revenue. Not to mention the revenue hit to the colleges--oh wait--that would mean a drop in MY REVENUE.

Oh, wait Bill--you were right. Google is a menace, and must be crushed!!!

Or, maybe the "light versions" of the program will have ad space, which Microsoft could then sell. Which then could be used to subsidize the price of the "full versions" of Office, so that the 11-year old could save up lawn-cutting money to buy his own full version. So that by the time he gets to my class, he's already an expert. Help, I'm not ready to retire yet!!!

Or, maybe like the television model (which Google brought to the web), content will be "free," supported by advertisers which the general user public have grown to accept as the price for getting the content at no additional cost? With the ability to have some "premium" content available (e.g. HBO) for those wanting/willing??? Which reduces those of us who teach Office software as something akin to TV commentators or pitchmen for Oxy-Clean???

Senator McCain--the next time you see Joe the Plumber, could you ask him to suggest to President Obama to spread the GOOGLE wealth around to ME while he still CAN????

[Or maybe, since it's Halloween, things just seem scarier than they really are????]

MS Office, Zoho, Google Docs

Every semester, my students struggle with either 1) buying a copy of MS Office (and what to do about MS Access, which not many students will use after my class) or 2) using a pirated copy or 3) timing the 60-day trials offered by Microsoft, then still facing the necessity of purchasing something subsequently.

But now that Zoho, Google Docs, and OpenOffice are all encroaching on Microsoft Office's turf (with some impressive features), it begs the question as to whether we in academia can justify perpetuating Bill Gates' strangle-hold on office applications.

It's not that I'm dissatisfied with Office 2007; Microsoft has added really useful functionality (my students especially like the citations feature in Word 2007!); in addition, I've been kept steadily employed teaching the Office applications over the years.

But I've noticed that 1) more students are coming to college with Macs (which can use MS Office, but usually NOT the "exact" edition that the PC users have) 2) most students have used (at least) MW Word in high school (though the version changes sometimes confuse) and 3) most students are ignorant of such "side" applications as LiveOffice Workspace, Groove, and the collaboration features of Google Docs, etc.

So, are we teaching "enough" to prepare our students for using software in the Web 2.0 world? Are we myopically concentrating on "old" applications and ignoring "new" ones?

Certainly, this cannot be a "one school" decision; employers must decide what they think is important for new hires, which will then be reflected in the curriculum offered. And articulation agreements must also be revised as new software and skill sets are added to the "literacy" criteria.

In addition, advances in touch-screen and tablet computing are working their way into the classroom, especially in the lab sciences.

I won't be nailing these proposals on the chapel door anytime soon; nor do I expect to the dragged before the inquisition for espousing them. But the center of the software world may no longer be Redmond, Washington.