Now that Microsoft has released Office 365 to the public, they need to offer a reason why it is worth small businesses to pay $6 every month instead of using the free Google Docs.
One of the reasons, offered up on Microsoft’s Sharepoint business site, is that Google Docs do a very poor job of preserving the look and feel of a document, including removing important information such as a Confidential watermark for example.
They write:
People expect existing documents from their desktops to look exactly the same when shared in the cloud. In this demo, you will see completely different results when the same document is viewed using Word Web App vs. Google Documents.
The demo can be seen at Microsoft’s website here, where it complains of missing graphics, watermarks and poor formatting.
We have included the comparison above as an animated GIF which makes it clear how much is actually missing from the Google Doc.
Is accurate display of documents a good enough reason to stick with Microsoft, despite the cost? Let us know your opinion below.