Microsoft Office Live

Microsoft Office Live is a discontinued web-based service providing document sharing and website creation tools for consumers and small businesses. Office Live consisted of two services, Office Live Workspace, which was superseded by SkyDrive, and Office Live Small Business, which was superseded by Office 365.

Office Live Workspace
Office Live Workspace was a free service for storing and sharing documents online. The company claimed it was most commonly used for work, school, and home projects because documents could be managed from remote locations without a flash drive. The service required web access and a compatible browser; the interface was available in over 25 languages. Certain functionalities were tied to a browser plug-in called Silverlight, reducing the portability of the service in comparison to other providers of online office suites. In order for workspaces to be accessed directly from Office, users of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint needed to install an Office Live Update. Files couldn't be edited from within a workspace, but clicking on "edit" would open them up in Microsoft Office. The workspace didn't offer offline collaboration — instead documents were "checked out" and "checked in" — but the service did integrate with SharedView for real-time screen sharing.

Features

 * Online storage – Office Live permits users to save up to 5 gigabytes (GB) of information in many file formats, which can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection, even if Office isn't installed. The company claims this replaces the need for flash drives or CDs as a storage solution, and provides capabilities for updating project schedules, organizing events, and delegating assignments without scheduling a meeting or relying on email


 * Information sharing – Office Live Workspace is designed so that computer users can share a single document or a workspace containing multiple documents, as well as collaborate online as a group. Workspaces are password-protected and users can control who views and edits information. Files or workspaces can be shared with up to 100 people


 * Software compatibility – While Office Live Workspace works with Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, it also allows users to store documents of other file types. If the Office Live update is installed, files and documents may be opened and saved directly from Microsoft Office XP, 2003, 2007 or 2008 for Mac. Users may also synchronize, contact, task, and event lists with Outlook 2003 and 2007, and workspace lists can be exported to Excel. However please note that the Office Live update is no longer available for download from Microsoft and is not supported.


 * Resources and support – Microsoft established a Community Support website, which includes a blog, wiki, how-to videos, and the opportunity for customers to ask and answer questions about using Office Live Workspace

System requirements
Office Live Workspace requires an Internet-connected computer running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. It works with the following browsers: Office Live Workspace is currently not supported on Office 2010. In May 2010, it was announced that Office Live Workspace customers would be moved to Microsoft's SkyDrive service, which offers 25GB of storage and the ability to view and edit documents through Office Web Apps.
 * Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
 * Firefox 2.0 or later
 * Safari 3.0 or later

Office Live Small Business
Office Live Small Business was an Internet-based service designed to assist non-technical users with the creation of a professional-looking website.

Features

 * Web site design tools and hosting – Office Live Small Business provides access to free online web design tools and templates for non-technical users' website development. Site Designer is a product feature used for customizing page layouts, colors, navigation, and other site elements. Users can also add modules such as PayPal buttons, Google Checkout, maps, blogs, and calendars to pages. Advanced web users can upload HTML code to customize their web pages. Microsoft provides free website hosting and 500 megabytes (MB) of storage space for site files. Additional storage space can be purchased if a user's site exceeds this storage limit


 * Domain name registration and business e-mail – Within Office Live Small Business, domain names may be selected and registered. Customers who already have a domain name with another provider can redirect it to Office Live Small Business. Users can create up to 100 domain-based e-mail accounts at no charge. Additional email accounts can be purchased. The price is $14.95 a year and includes private registration


 * Contact Manager – The Contact Manager is designed to organize customer information, contact histories, and sales information in one place and make it accessible via the web to their entire organization


 * Document Manager – This application is used as an online repository for documents in order to make them easily accessible to employees to facilitate collaboration


 * Team Workspace – The Team Workspace application creates a project website for posting information to share with customers, employees, or business partners. It is meant to streamline the editing process, give users remote access to company data, and download large files as needed


 * Resources and support – Microsoft offers 24-hour technical phone support at no charge for 30 days. Online, the Community site includes a blog, wiki, articles, how-to videos, and the opportunity for customers to ask and answer questions about using Office Live Small Business

Security
Office Live Small Business user data is stored on the Microsoft network where network firewall services help protect documents, email and other stored data. Built-in password-protection features are included for Business Applications such as Team Workspace and Document Manager.

System requirements
Many of the features of Office Live (including sign-up) require Internet-connected computer running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later with one of the following Web browsers installed:
 * Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
 * Firefox 2.0 or later