As the excitement builds around the Microsoft’s new operating system, "Windows 7" rollout this week I thought I would mention another good product provided by Microsoft.  By-the-way, you will be hearing way too much (in my opinion) about Windows 7 in the upcoming days.   Not because it isn’t a good product but just because it is such a good product.  I have been using it very successfully for quite a while now and it is excellent; however, I have decided to let some of the uproar die down before I write about it much.

Today I would like to suggest you try out one of Microsoft’s ventures into the cloud.  I have written about Live Mesh previously, also a great application, but today, I’ll discuss "Office Live Workspace". 

First off you will need a Microsoft Office Live account (Live ID) which is free.  As unbelievable as it sounds to me, it doesn’t even have to be a Microsoft email account (i.e., hotmail.com or live.com).  I opened mine a couple of years ago with my Gmail email address.  However, you do have to have a verifiable email address somewhere so that they can make sure you are a real person.

At this time you get 5 GB of online storage with a maximum individual document size of 25 MB.  This allows you to store and access your documents from any internet connection.  MS says that you can store Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Rich Text Format, Adobe PDF and HTML files.  However, I have found a few others that work well also.  I guess the list keeps growing faster than they can document.

Also, you do not need to have Microsoft Office installed on your computer to use this site.  However, if you do have Office you can install the "Office Live Add-in" which allows you to open, edit and/or save documents to or from your "Live" online account.  I use this often.  For instance, when I saved the final version of this column I used, "Save to Office Live" in Word which is added to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  This file is now on my local computer and in the Live Office workspace as backup.  The "Office Live Add-in" installation also places, "Open from Office Live" in those programs. This allows you to open docs from the cloud from within Office.

Now, all of you Google-freaks out there (just like me) can write that "Google Docs" does pretty much the same things.  You would be mostly correct but I write about all of the major places’ best apps and I mentioned Google Docs several months ago.  Both MS and Google have some first-rate applications…in time we will see who wins out or will they continue to play happily together, in the clouds?

Tags: add-ins, google, google docs, microsoft, office, office live