Microsoft Opens Office Live Workspace Beta

Everybody into the cloud. It sure seems like it today. On the heels of the Google Gears announcment, Microsoft is announcing that the Office Live Workspace Beta is now live worldwide (albeit in English only). Users can share and access their data online and Microsoft is rolling out several new features.

Office Live Workspace lets people organize documents and projects online and work on them from almost any computer. People can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online,* and access and share them via the Web. They can view and comment on documents in the browser as well as create simple Web lists and Web notes, and share documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView.

Microsoft has also added several new features to Office Live Workspace, based in part on feedback from early beta participants:

• Activity panel. A new activity panel shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance.

  >

• Notifications. People can now receive e-mail notifications about changes made to their workspaces or documents.

  >

• Direct links. People can now bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window.

  >

• Multi-file upload. People can now upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop.

  >

• Improved sharing. New sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses.