Google Docs Better Than Microsoft Office?

For years the only available document processing suite available that was worth a darn has been the Microsoft Office Suite. It works well and is one of the most widely used programs in the world, but Google has challenged them with their own Software Suite Google Docs. So the question now, is Google Docs better than Microsoft Office?

I have worked with Office for years and the software suite only seems to get better with time and I am very happy using the program. It is one of the most user friendly software programs I have ever used. There are tools for almost every thing I can throw at it, and if the tool isn't in the program I can always find some download to add to the suite to do what I need.

I recently started using Google Docs just to see what Google had to offer me in the form of their own productivity suite. I have to say I was impressed with Google Docs, an easy to use web interface, simple menus, and all my work is conveniently stored on the Google servers. The best part about Google Docs is the price, it's free! But the next question is does free mean better.

The Good:

Google Docs is a totally free alternative to Microsoft Office which costs from $150 for a student version to $500 for a full professional version, with discounts if you are upgrading from prior versions. Either way you look at it you are going to spend at least $150 for Microsoft Office, as opposed to Google Docs which is free to use for anyone with the internet.

Google Docs is an easy to use set of programs that can perform similar tasks to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Google saves your documents on the Google Servers and instantly the program performs random saves for the user every few minutes. This helps the user to avoid loss of work if the internet goes down, power goes out, or other computer related problems.

Google Docs has a good set of tools to help users with formatting their documents to look the way they want them to.

Google Docs allows you to export documents you create into various other formats including PDF, Word Document, HTML format and various other document formats.

Google Docs can allow many people to edit documents and work together, making collaboration easier. You can also share and publish your documents for others to view, edit or make suggestions to easily.

The Bad:

It lacks a lot of tools that are available in the Microsoft Office Suite.

It isn't customizable and you can't install third party software to enhance Google Docs.

If you store all of your documents on the Google servers you have to rely on the internet working in order to obtain the documents.

Internet stability can affect your progress and work on Google Docs, if the internet goes down you can't work on the documents unless you have also saved a hard copy to your computer.

You give up a lot of functionality in Google Docs and the tools are more complicated to use; like their spell check, it is clunky and harder to use than the Office spell check tool.

In the Presentation Document (Google Docs version of PowerPoint) there are very few background settings, style sheet settings, or various other tools for making a presentation look fluid, you are expected to do most of the development of the document yourself. Microsoft offers loads of templates to help you with making professional looking slides, and you can always download and add more to the Microsoft Programs.

And the Winner is!

I would say that Microsoft Office Suite is still the better choice for corporations and Google Docs is great for home users who don't have the money to spend on pricey programs like Office. Although Google Docs is offered freely to users I don't think it is ready to take down Office, corporations wont be willing to give up Office and all it has to offer for a more watered down version which is what Google Docs amounts to. The Cost vs. Functionality is in Microsoft's favor here, you pay more and you get more!

Office comes out on top because of its superior set of tools, functionality, and accessibility. In a few years I think that Google Docs will have been developed to the point where it matches Microsoft Office's quality in every aspect but for now Office wins!