I’ve written a lot about Microsoft Office, online collaboration, and web office technologies in the past and like to think I temper my views on the subject with the practical experience I’ve had as a technical writer in the IT industry. So having spent a lot of hands on quality time with Microsoft Office, Google Apps for Business, Zoho Business, Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps, and others, I am comfortable with saying that Microsoft Office is here to stay but readily admit the rules by which knowledge workers create and share documents has changed immensely since its initial launch.

It is this change why I always said Microsoft Office needed to extend itself to the web whether through Office 2010 Web Apps and Office 365 or through a third party solution like Google Apps for Business. When Office products first went mainstream as part of the computer desktop it was a much different era with what have today with geographically dispersed workforces, outside contractors, and different work schedules.

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