In the early days of word processing, dozens of applications vied for the top position. WordStar was the first big winner, replaced by Wordperfect and then by Microsoft Word. Today Microsoft has most of the office suite market, followed by Corel's Wordperfect Office Suite, Open Office, and Libre Office. But there's also an on-line challenger -- Google Docs. Could Google be the winner?
One of the main advantages of Google's apps is that they can be used on any computing device with a browser while the others can be installed only on Windows or MacOS computers -- or for Open Office and Libre Office, also on Linux computers. Apps exist that provide limited support for Microsoft Office on smart phones running Android and IOS operating systems. And although Google's apps can run on most devices, they cannot be run on Windows-based phones and that includes Blackberry.
But the primary issue has to be whether the apps in Google's suite have the capabilities that are common to locally installed applications. The answer is a resounding "maybe". As with so many other things, it depends on what you need.
If cost is the primary consideration, Google wins. Most users will pay nothing or will pay only a small fee for Google Drive storage if you exceed the 15GB that Google provides without charge. If you need more, 100GB will cost about $24 per year. Google says their most popular plan is the $10/month 1TB plan. Most users will pay nothing for for the Office suite. Business users will need the G Suite for $5 to $25 per month per user. Microsoft Office users can purchase a perpetual license for $150 or choose the rental plan -- $100 per year for up to 5 computers.
Google's applications are all on-line and you can't use them unless the computer has an internet connection. There are some workarounds. First, the files on your Google Drive will also be stored locally and there are ways to download the apps for use on a local machine. PC Magazine describes the process in an article from 2015.
Using on-line applications is more complicated than using applications that have been installed on the computer. I occasionally see synchronization delays and about one third of the problem reports Google receives deal with the apps not loading properly. If simplicity and ease of use are your primary concerns, the Microsoft Office suite is probably the right choice.
Those who work with others on documents should take a look at Google's suite. Microsoft has improved the Office suite's collaboration functions, but Google is the winner here because files are stored in the cloud and multiple users can be given permission to view a document or to view it and edit it.
Google's Office applications include Docs (word processor), Sheets (spreadsheet), and Slides (presentation graphics). Google Mail, Calendar, and Tasks combined are not exactly equivalent to Outlook and there is no database management tool such as Microsoft Access.
Be sure to consider the significance of Outlook's missing features in the Google apps and the inability to manage a relational database. Most people in the small office/home office (SOHO) environment won't need Outlook and an Exchange server. G-Mail, or an email client that connects to your internet service provider's email service or your website hosting service's email will be sufficient. Likewise, the need for a relational database is probably not a deal killer because the Google Sheets application is a satisfactory flat-file data manager.
A relational database contains multiple tables of data that relate to each other through key fields. They are essential for applications such as customer and sales databases where one table would contain customer information, another would contain order information, and yet another would contain order details. In a simple relational database with these 3 tables, customer records would be linked to sales records using a customer number and order details would be linked to the orders table using an order number. A typical flat file might be a list of names and addresses.
Using the Google apps means that you don't have to buy, download, and install an office suite. Instead, users just open Docs, Sheets, or Slides from any computer by logging on to the Google Drive website and opening an existing document or creating a new one. There are two options: Start at drive.google.com or go directly to docs.google.com.
Many on-line applications automatically save new documents. Once you've (1) named a document, you can (2) share it with other users. The document will be associated (3) with your Gmail account and, if you have more than one account, you can choose one from a drop-down menu.
I'm assuming that the user doesn't need a database application or an email-calendar-contact-task application. The user's needs will be satisfied by word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications so the comparisons need to consider Word versus Docs, Excel versus Sheets, and Powerpoint versus Slides.
Word is part of Microsoft Office 365 and it includes an on-line version that's (sorta kinda) like the compter-based version. Although Word Online is acceptable for casual use, it omits many features and it's incapable of handling huge documents. Fortunately, most people don't deal with huge documents and the supported size will depend somewhat on your connection speed.
Word Online documents can contain up to 100 million characters, which would be about 80 thousand pages. The connection speed is a factor because the download will time out if it doesn't complete in 60 seconds. Those with a fast connection won't have a problem, but those who occasionally use dial-up connections might.
You'll be surprised to find that Word Online can't open a rich text format (RTF) file and there are other significant differences and shortcomings between Word and Word Online. If you're looking for an on-line solution, Google Docs is the better choice.
As provided, Google Docs is a primitive word processor. Users are limited to styles for normal text, title, subtitle, and 6 levels of headings and you can't add more without installing an add-on. By default, Word has dozens of paragraph styles. Adding the Paragraph Styles+ add-on makes it possible to create new paragraph styles, but the capabilities are still severely limited when compared to Word.
This is one of many reasons that I'm delighted not to be a Microsoft product manager. When Word was released 35 years ago for DOS, it was a basic word processor. Since 1983, Microsoft has listened to users clamor for more features while simultaneously grumbling about bloated software. We can't have it both ways. Either we have complex, bloated, highly customizable, and full featured applications such as today's version of Word or we have simple, fast, basic, limited applications such as WordPad. Word does far more than any one user needs it to, but every feature in the program is important to somebody.
In some ways, Google Docs with add ons is a better way. We start with a basic word processor and then install plug-ins that add features we want. In fact, this is exactly what some Wordperfect software engineers were talking about in 1999 or 2000.
Some add-ins are free and others require a payment. Users can add options to insert accented letters (free), translate text (free), send faxes (free trial), add charts (free), create a table of contents (free), add typefaces (free), create labels (free), format more extensive tables than Docs allows natively (free), find rhymes (free), and format screen plays (free). You'll find dozens -- possibly hundreds -- of options in the add-ons directory.
Plug-ins added to one browser or one computer seem to show up consistently if you use another browser or another computer, so you'll need to add the extensions only once.
Excel has 461 functions according to those who count such things. As a result, it is capable of performing nearly any calculation or data manipulation that any user can think of. Some of the functions are difficult to use (nested IF statements, I'm looking at you) but the simple fact is that you'll find trig functions, financial calculations, engineering calculations, the ability to look up one value based on another, statistical functions, date and time calculations, logic branching and a lot more. Google Sheets has a little over 400 functions.
The function count is close and the ones that are missing are specialized functions that few people need. Still, if a function you need is one of the 50 or so that are missing, using Google Sheets could a problem. On the other hand, collaboration is still easier with Google's suite than with Microsoft's.
I've noticed that entering the wrong kind of data in a cell can destroy the cell's formatting. In a Sheets file that has a column for time, I occasionally enter text. The time is formatted using 24-hour times and leading zeros, so 7:30am is represented as 07:30. If I mis-type a letter into the field and then correct the entry by typing the time, the leading zero isn't shown. To get it back, I have to copy and paste another cell or use the format painter. This isn't necessary in Excel.
When compared to Excel, Google Sheets has what looks like significant size limitations. The Google spreadsheet can have at most 2 million cells. Excel, however allows 1,048,567 rows and 16,384 columns. If my math is correct, that would be about 275 million cells. The difference looks substantial, but how many people need more than 1 million cells in a spreadsheet?
Powerpoint is complex. As one who has spent some time teaching others how to use Powerpoint, I still sometimes have trouble making the application do what I want it to do. Those who are looking for a somewhat simpler option will find Google Slides to be a good fit and, as with the other applications, collaboration is generally easier with Slides than with Powerpoint.
As with the other Microsoft applications, collaboration has improved greatly in recent releases and those who are power users will miss Powerpoint's high-end features if they choose Slides.
Google exceeds expectations with collaboration. Google says that Powerpoint has 2 sharing levels (view and edit) while Slides has 4: view only, edit, add comments, and all access (owner). Realistically, though, Powerpoint presentations have an implied owner with all access, so the main difference is that Google Slides offers an option to have collaborators who can add comments without being able to make any changes.
Google also offers more options for sharing the presentation: The creator can make the presentation globally visible to anyone who has the link, only to a specific list of users, publicly on the web and searchable, and several other options for those who use the paid G Suite version.
The templates provided with Google Slides are primitive when compared to those available from Microsoft. Corporate users who must follow a color scheme specified by the business communications department will find that basic color schemes cannot be changed to match your company's specifications. Typefaces are also limited as are annotations, transitions, and 3D effects. Professional presenters will tell you that fancy effects often detract from your message anyway, so perhaps the absence of these features isn't such a problem.
And as with the other applications, when compared to Microsoft's applications, it's important to understand your own needs before you select one or the other. Or both. Some people use Slides and the other Google applications when they fit the needs of the project at hand.
Earlier, I mentioned using Google Sheets to record some information. It's health-related information that I like to share with my doctor. Using Google Sheets makes the information available on my phone and also on a tablet if a Wi-Fi signal is available. For more complex spreadsheet needs, I use Excel.
Even if you pay $100 per year to have Microsoft's Office Suite on up to 5 computers, sometimes it makes sense to use Google's applications. And the good news is that most Microsoft documents can be opened in Google's apps.
So pick the app that suits your needs!
Because of the Intel hardware flaw that makes data stored in a computer's memory vulnerable, a botched firmware update, and the initial disastrous patch issued by Microsoft, the company has now issued a second out-of-band security update. It's not being distributed automatically and you may want to ignore it for now.
Microsoft has placed the patch in its Windows Update catalog, so anyone who wants it will need to download and install it manually. Intel's flawed firmware update, combined with Microsoft's operating system update, causes some machines to repeatedly reboot. If your computer has been affected by Intel's buggy firmware updates, you'll need this patch from Microsoft. It's for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 systems and it will disable protection against Spectre variant 2.
If you haven't updated your computer's firmware yet, don't. Intel says users should wait until properly tested updates are available. Microsoft says that its internal tests indicate that the new update stops the reboot problem. Microsoft has also created a new registry key for computers that are affected so that IT administrators can manually enable or disable the protection for Spectre variant 2.
Intel has admitted to investors that its security updates have flaws that cause some systems to spontaneously reboot. In a recent report to investors, Intel said the updates could lead to "data loss or corruption". The updates could also lead to significant legal exposure for Intel.
Intel says it now knows what causes the repeated reboots on computers with Broadwell and Haswell processors. Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Skylake, and Kaby Lake processors are also affected, but Intel hasn't determined yet where the problem is. There's no indication yet when functional firmware updates will be released.
Probably your keyboard has 3 keys that control the computer's speaker volume: Mute, volume up, and volume down. There's also the speaker icon in the Notification area. Sometimes none of them respond.
By this, I mean that the speaker icon is present in the Notification area, but clicking it has no effect at all. The keys on the keyboard may require that you also press a separate function (Fn) key or flip a function switch from normal mode to computer control mode, but even if you do everything right, the volume control doesn't work.
Rebooting doesn't fix the problem, either, but there is an extremely easy fix that involves a couple of command line functions. The problem is that the Windows Explorer, which displays the file directory and controls the Task bar and Notification area has been slightly confused. Restarting the Explorer is all that's needed. Several methods exist to stop the Explorer, but not all of them make it possible to restart the service. If that happens, all you can do is power the computer off.
The sure-fire way to stop and restart the Explorer service is easy: Just open either a Command window or PowerShell (Windows Key+X, then select either Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell). Then enter these commands:
PS ~> taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
SUCCESS: The process "explorer.exe" with PID 11964 has been terminated.
PS ~> start explorer.exe
After the first command, the Task bar will disappear and the Command or PowerShell window will display a success message. The second command will restart the Explorer and the Task bar will return.
After the Task bar is once again present, type exit to close the window. The volume control keys and the volume control icon in the Notification area should once again be functional.
Windows 10 computers send data back to Microsoft and the European Union has expressed concern about what information is sent. As a result, the company pushed a diagnostic tool out to some Windows Insider program participants. Eventually it will be made more widely available.
The Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer allows system administrators to see what the Universal Telemetry Client sends back to Microsoft. Previously, this function was available only in the Windows 10 Enterprise Edition. For now, if you're in the Windows Insider program's Fast and Skip Ahead rings, you can obtain the viewer by updating to build 17803.
The viewer, when it eventually shows up on your computer will display common data (operating system name and version, the device ID and class, diagnostic level, and such); connectivity and configuration (device properties and capabilities, preferences and settings, peripherals, and network information); product and service performance data (health, reliability, movie consumption functionality, and device file queries); product and service usage; software setup and installed applications; browsing history data; and inking, typing, and speech data.
The display, at least as it's currently configured will probably do more to confuse most users than to provide insight. IT professionals shouldn't have any problem understanding what's being displayed.
Microsoft explains the difference between "diagnostic" data and "functional" data this way: Exchanging a user's location for local weather or news is not an example of diagnostic data -- it is functional data that the app or service requires to satisfy the user's request. Windows collects and sends diagnostic data in the background automatically. You can control how much information is gathered by setting the diagnostic data level. Microsoft tries to avoid collecting personal information wherever possible.
That isn't always possible, though. If the system crashes and Microsoft receives a crash dump from the system, the dump would include documents that were active when the computer crashed.
For additional information about the Diagnostic Data Viewer, see Microsoft's website.
