Rob --

Oh, you mentioned "ribbon interface" -- I take it you were talking about the Office Web Apps. No, there's no option to email it there. Probably because Office Web Apps doesn't have a built-in email system, like Google Docs has with Gmail.

Which is weird, since I do have a hotmail account, and was at some point asked for its password.

Rob --

I've got Google Docs pulled up, I'm editing a document. I go to the File menu -- at the very bottom there's an option to "Email as attachment."

It gives a choice of formats -- PDF, Word, HTML, Open Document, Rich Text, and Plain Text.

I pick "Word", give it an email address (my personal email), and type in a message.

In a second, the email arrives in my personal in-box, with the document as a Word attachment. I can download it to my desktop, just like I can with a regular attachment. 

Maria:

Great comparison, and good points.  But I think you're wrong about emailing the document.  I don't see an option to *send* the document.  But there is a "Share" option under the File tab of the ribbon interface.  You can send links to share the document for collaboration that way.

Its good to see some serious competition from the 2 leading vendors in the software industry. Hope this competition will make more benifits for the users

Mitch --

For my company, there's only one Excel function (text to columns) that Google Docs is missing -- and we use OpenOffice (now LibreOffice) when we really need it. Although in the future, I'm thinking there might be a work-around in Google Docs with other functions. 

For most spreadsheet use cases, we're making them from scratch in order to crunch some numbers, organize some lists, that kind of thing. For that, Google Docs is great, and the built-in collaboration is excellent.

However, many companies have pre-made spreadsheets.

So, I've got an old tax worksheet lying around, in Excel format... I'm uploading it to Microsoft Web Apps... and it has to convert it to the Web Apps format. Oh, oh. It's a different format.

Oh, and the conversion didn't take because I have protected areas in the original spreadsheet, and the Web Apps version doesn't support that. 

Okay -- what I wrote before about Microsoft's Excel Web App being good for companies that already use Excel? 

I might have to take that back.

Protecting part of a sheet is a pretty basic, common feature. 

There are a few other features that don't import, as well. But I just tried some other spreadsheets, and, overall, converting into Excel Web App seems a bit better than importing into Google Docs. More of the functionality and formatting is preserved.

I'm very disappointed, however, that Excel Web App requires a conversion to open an Excel document. Why cripple the app like this? 

Mitch --

For my company, there's only one Excel function (text to columns) that Google Docs is missing -- and we use OpenOffice (now LibreOffice) when we really need it. Although in the future, I'm thinking there might be a work-around in Google Docs with other functions. 

For most spreadsheet use cases, we're making them from scratch in order to crunch some numbers, organize some lists, that kind of thing. For that, Google Docs is great, and the built-in collaboration is excellent.

However, many companies have pre-made spreadsheets.

So, I've got an old tax worksheet lying around, in Excel format... I'm uploading it to Microsoft Web Apps... and it has to convert it to the Web Apps format. Oh, oh. It's a different format.

Oh, and the conversion didn't take because I have protected areas in the original spreadsheet, and the Web Apps version doesn't support that. 

Okay -- what I wrote before about Microsoft's Excel Web App being good for companies that already use Excel? 

I might have to take that back.

Protecting part of a sheet is a pretty basic, common feature. 

There are a few other features that don't import, as well. But I just tried some other spreadsheets, and, overall, converting into Excel Web App seems a bit better than importing into Google Docs. More of the functionality and formatting is preserved.

I'm very disappointed, however, that Excel Web App requires a conversion to open an Excel document. Why cripple the app like this? 

Mitch, I'm not sure that "everybody needs" Excel compatibility.  There are plenty of people who would much rather jab a needle into their eyes repeatedly than use a Microsoft product, and offerings like LibreOffice make it easy to remove yourself from the grasp of the Evil Empire.  But we were discussing that online "cloudy" thing, and Maria's analysis is sound: Google Docs whips the Microsoft offering upside the head, mostly because it doesn't have the baggage of Office that it has to drag around with it (that ribbon interface is surely the work of Satan).  In the end, though, because so many people either don't care or won't bother to learn something new and/or different, Microsoft will be able to carve out a comfortable niche with a basically inferior product, which is something they, ah, Excel at.

Great comparison, Maria!

I'm surprised to hear that the Microsoft application doesn't automatically save. That's so basic. 

To say that the Microsoft product is better for users who want Excel compatibility is a broad assertion. Almost everyone needs Excel compatibility.