Microsoft Office Live Workspace

Web Storage Simplicity

By Charles Woodward

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is yet another tool to simplify the lives of Windows Live’s users. It is built to accompany Microsoft Office by allowing the user to completely skip saving information to the hard drive, and immediately upload for later use. In fact, one of the ways to create one of these documents is to go to the Office Live website (http://www.officelive.com/) and click “Get Started FREE.” This will either send you to a page allowing you to sign in, or it will send you straight to a page known as your “Documents” Workspace. From this page you can create other workspaces to which you will add files later, or you can simply upload all for your files, without organizing them, straight to your Documents folder. I created a folder for my 2009-2010 School year. To create a Workspace, simply click “Create a workspace now.” To add documents previously saved on your hard drive, click “Add Documents.” Everything in this service (And all other Windows Live Services) is very simple. The “New” is probably the most useful option on this page. Choosing new will allow you to create a new note, List, Task, Task List, Contact List, Event List, Word Document, Excel Document, Powerpoint Presentation, and Folder, all of which you can do online except the Word Document, Excel Document, and Powerpoint Presentation. Clicking on either of these three will launch a set-up for an add-on to Microsoft Office. After you go through the setup, go back to your workspace and press New then either of the three Microsoft Office Applications, at which point you will be able to create a new Word Document, Excel Document, or Powerpoint Presentation, without saving to your hard drive, enabling you to access these files from any computer with internet. Another way to save files to Office Live Workspace is go to the website and sign in. After that, go to your document, and after you've installed the add-on, click on the Office Menu in the top left corner, then click "Save to Office Live, at which point you will choose a Workspace, and your document will be immediately uploaded.