Microsoft Office Live Workspace: A Definite Sleeper Hit

My Microsoft Office Live Workspace Beta account was activated sometime earlier today (Dec. 13). And, while it has some issues, I predict this may be the sleeper hot web service of 2008: That is to say that while it may not generate a lot of excitement, everyone using Office will use it. Office Live Workspace is a web-based online storage, sharing, and viewing. There is also an Office Live Add-in that lets you use Microsoft Office on your desktop to work with files stored in Workspace (very nice).

There are a couple of issues though. First, I was not able to view a PowerPoint slidedeck created with PowerPoint 2007 in Workspace. I was, however, able to view the slidedeck after converting it to PowerPoint 2003 format and uploading the converted file to Workspace. Second, I haven't fired up a Mac or Linux box to test them with Workspace yet. However, I will guess that this web service is limited to Windows and Internet Explorer. Third, if you use Windows Vista, check out the instructions below that are unique to Vista...

If your computer runs Windows Vista, you must install the Office Live Workspace update to ensure optimal performance when you use Microsoft Office Word, Excel, or PowerPoint applications with Office Live Workspace. To install the update package, click here. After the update installation is complete, be sure to restart your computer.

That said, Office Live Workspace looks very good and very useful to me so far. Keep your eye on this one. Its not a Google Docs killer, but it will hold its own in its web eco-space. I'll probably revisit it a couple of more times in this blog as I test other aspects of the service.