Google Drive Vs Microsoft Office Mac

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Trying to pick the best cloud storage provider but can't see the forest for the trees? Welcome to our showdown of the biggest names in the market, where we pit Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive. Create and share your work online and access your documents from anywhere. Manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys, and more all in one easy to use productivity suite. It's easy to get started - just upload a file from your desktop. With five points, the winner of this Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive battle is OneDrive. Google Drive trails with three points, while Dropbox sits at the bottom with an (unfair at first glance. Jun 03, 2013 Google Drive vs. MS Office Web Apps. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to spend money on pieces of software just to run them on your desktop, and you don’t mind storing items exclusively on the web, you have at least two Office-style programs that work like this: Google Drive and Microsoft Office Web Apps.

Mar 17, 2014 Excel Survey does the same in the Microsoft's Office Online. There are no Windows or Mac applications that feed their data directly into your Drive files, but the Google Drive mobile app can open.
Unlike Microsoft Word, Google Docs is free to use. Google Docs is free for the average user. If you want to purchase a “Business” version of G Suite, monthly plans start at $5 per user. It’s going to cost you more to get started with Microsoft Word.
Apr 17, 2014 Google Drive is superb value, both in terms of money and time – it’s free to use and easy to get to grips with. Microsoft Office old-timers should have no trouble making the switch, while the unthreatening interface is a great starting point for anyone new to the cloud.

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In recent years, Microsoft Word and Google Docs have been quietly waging a war for the title of best word processor. While most of us have been using Word for decades to draft everything from school essays to resumes to important work documents, Google Docs web-based platform is a total game changer for editing and sharing documents in the connected age.

So which is better? That depends entirely on what you need from a word processing program or mobile app. Today we’re going to cover the benefits and downsides of both Microsoft Word and Google Docs so you have the intel you need to decide for yourself.

Learn more about Word
Download our print-ready shortcut cheatsheet for Word.

How to use and access Microsoft Word and Google Docs

You cannot purchase Microsoft Word as a standalone program.

It comes as part of the Microsoft Office 365 package, which includes other programs like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.

Once you purchase this suite, you can only install Word on a select number of computers, depending on the plan level you choose.

So if you install Word on your desktop, you’ll need to bump up your plan to get a copy for your laptop, which can get pricey.

It wasn’t until 2010 that Microsoft finally launched Word Online as part of its Office 365 package.

Though Word Online boasts enough features for casual users, it is not the full version of Word by any means.

Select ribbons and toolbars were removed from the online version to help it load and run faster. It offers a more streamlined experience though it leaves others wanting more.

For instance, Word Online isn’t able to handle large or more complex documents and users find it clunkier to work around these bugs than using their regular Word program from the start.

All of that is different with Google.

As an internet-based company, Google Docs started out as a cross-platform word processor that works entirely online.

You don’t have to download any software or purchase a suite of programs you don’t want/need to use it.

Simply log in to your Google account from any browser and head over to docs.google.com.

That’s it.

Unlike Microsoft Word, which can only be installed on Windows and OS X computers, you can use Google Docs from any computer and browser, including:

Windows
Mac OS X
Linux
Chrome OS

The Google Docs app is available for both iOS and Android devices—but not on Windows-based phones like BlackBerry.

The Word app comes pre-installed on Windows Phone devices and as a free (very bare) app for iOS and Android.

Our winner: You can access the full version of Google Docs, with all its features, from any browser.

You have to purchase the entire Microsoft 365 software package just to receive a full version of Word. And the online version of Word lacks certain features which may render it useless for you.

Signature on microsoft word mac. Feb 24, 2016 In windows, Press start and search for 'character map' Search for the symbol you want, and select to copy it to clipboard.

Unlike Microsoft Word, Google Docs is free to use…

Google Docs is free for the average user.

If you want to purchase a “Business” version of G Suite, monthly plans start at $5 per user.

It’s going to cost you more to get started with Microsoft Word.

You’ll need to pay either a:

One-time fee of $149.99
Yearly fee of $69.99 / monthly fee of $6.99 (for an install on 1 computer)
Yearly fee of $99.99 / monthly fee of $9.99 (to install on up to 5 computers)

Business plans are priced differently.

Most of these packages include the desktop versions of all the Office apps and online access for their web-based counterparts.

Our winner: You can’t beat free — Google takes the cake here.

… But free comes with limitations and a lack of control

We know Google Docs is entirely online.

You access your docs online, you write and edit in-browser, and your documents are saved to your online Google Drive cloud.

But what happens when your internet goes out thanks to a big thunderstorm?

Or Google’s servers go down right before your huge AM presentation?

Though you can work in Google’s offline mode (after following a series of steps), you can’t normally access the platform when Google’s servers are in chaos or when you lack Internet.

Google lets you check for outages using their G Suite Status Dashboard tool.

At the time of this screenshot, all the Google apps were running without problems:

But when there’s a service outage or reported service disruption, you’ll see a bar like in this example:

The most commonly reported problems with Google Drive, according to Down Detector, include:

Not being able to access files online (53%)
Apps (like Docs and Sheets) not loading (36%)
File syncing (10%)

This could cause major stress if you’re unprepared.

You’ll need to download or email physical copies of your documents for times you won’t be connected to the internet.

Microsoft may have the upper hand here since you can get your work done in the offline desktop version of Word.

Plus, your Word documents will be saved locally on your computer or device instead of in the cloud so you’re always in control of them.

Our winner: MS Word removes the “what if” factor of relying on Google’s servers and lets you work without an internet connection.

Similar layouts and interface: Google wins on user-friendliness, but Word has tons of features

Seasoned Word vets know there are SO many options and features built into Word that it can be exhausting navigating all the ribbons and toolbars just to find the one button you need.

After all, you’ll probably click on ribbons like References, Mailings, and Acrobat, which will replace your toolbar with even more buttons, maybe twice in your whole life.

Google Docs solves that problem by drastically simplifying the layout and toolbar situation to create a more user-friendly, easily manageable workspace.

Just check out the differences to see what we mean.

Here’s what Microsoft Word’s ribbon looks like in both Windows and OS X versions:

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Now check out the Google Docs toolbar:

Pretty big difference, right?

Google places all your most frequently used buttons right in your easy-access toolbar. Everything else, like inserting images or tables, can be found in one of the dropdowns.

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With Word, any time you change one of the ribbons, like if you clicked on Layout, all the buttons in your toolbar change as well.

Though Word does let you customize your toolbar so all your most-used buttons are in reach, narrowing down these options can be overwhelming for a novice or casual users.

The less time you have to spend hunting for the exact tool you want, the quicker your work will be accomplished.

Our winner: An easy-to-use interface doesn’t mean much if the tools you need aren’t available. Choose Google if you need light word processing features; stick to Word if you’re on a more advanced features level.

Google saves the day when it comes to saving your files

Ever forget to hit the save button on your Word doc before you lose power or accidentally close out of the program?

Though you’ve crossed your fingers and recovered several Word documents in your lifetime, wouldn’t it be great if you never had to replay this terrible nightmare again?

Google Docs not only automatically saves your work every few minutes or so, it also continually saves as you’re working.

This means you can log in on your desktop and see the changes made live from your smartphone at the same time.

Plus, Docs backs up your saved files to Google Drive instead of your local hard drive.

So Google saves your work — and backs up your work — to give you extra protection should you spill coffee all over your laptop and wreck your hard drive.

Our winner: Google is the automatic save hero you never thought your docs needed.

Comparing document compatibility and file formats

You can use Google Docs to open and edit Microsoft Word documents. You can even download your Google doc as a Word document so it has a standard Word extension (.docx).

But that’s not the only file format Google Docs will let you export.

You can download your docs with the following extensions: ODT, PDF, RTF, HTML, TXT, EPUB.

However, you can only download your Word Online documents as PDF, ODT, or DOCX files.

And if you want to open a Google doc in Word, you’ll need to convert it first.

One area Word has Docs beat is PDFs.

You can open PDFs in Word on your desktop, edit them, and then save them as PDFs again; you can’t do this in Google Docs.

Our winner: Google gives you more file format compatibility. But Word may be your go-to if you require PDF editing.

Collaborate remotely using real-time editing and doc sharing

We live in an ever-connected world, which means many of us have to collaborate with teams and coworkers remotely.

Both word processors will let you track the changes made by editors you shared your document with.

While you can download your Word doc and email it to others for collaboration, you can invite collaborators directly from your Google doc or send them a link to access your document.

When you’re in Google’s “Suggesting” mode, all the edits made are merely suggestions which accompany the highlighted text as comments in the sidebar.

You can choose to accept these changes (and they’ll happen in the doc) or ignore them without harming your original text.

If someone deletes part of your text during editing, Google will strikethrough the text in the document like this:

Edits made in Word will remove the original text from the document and place it in the sidebar along with the other comments:

You’ll be able to read an edited version of your document without your original copy to distract you from the final product (unless you click into the sidebar).

Here’s the best perk about Google Docs: real-time collaboration.

When your recipients click the link to your document, you’ll be able to view their name (or anonymous Google-assigned animal avatar) and their unique identifying color in-doc live.

Watch your collaborators mark up your doc or open up the Google Docs messenger feature and chat with each other — right in your document — about the changes you want to make together live.

Google will track the changes — along with who was responsible for them and the time they made them — so contributions are always recognized.

You could literally have an entire department working on the same doc together in real-time wherever in the world they happen to be working from.

While you can email your documents to your collaborators with Word, you can’t actually work together on it at the same time like you can with Docs.

You can only do this in Word with Microsoft’s Office 365 online Word app, which isn’t a full version of the program anyway.

Plus, you’ll need an account or subscription for Word online and your teammates might not have one.

Here’s an interesting study to note:

When Creative Strategies surveyed over 350 college students across the country, they discovered:

12% use Google Docs to write papers alone; 80% use Microsoft Word instead
78% use Google Docs to write papers in a group collaboratively; just 13% use Word for group work

So you may want to follow in the footsteps of today’s millennials and use Word for your personal work and Docs for your teamwork.

Our winner: Google Docs shines in collaboration mode with its universal access and real-time editing features.

Is there a better mobile candidate?

Google Docs started and lives online so you’ll always have access to its full features when you’re signed in on the browser version. Though the mobile apps have fewer features, you can still write and edit docs on-the-go without any hiccups.

Since the mobile-based Word app isn’t Microsoft’s core business, it’s not as robust or comprehensive as their standalone program or what Google offers their mobile users.

While you can insert charts, drawings, and even spreadsheets with the online version of Docs, you don’t have these abilities with Word Online.

Mobile users will have their documents saved to OneDrive, Microsoft’s version of Google Drive, so working remotely is just as secure as when they’re in the office.

Our winner: Google Docs was made for the web and mobile working; MS Word is stronger offline.

Google has more third-party app integrations

Visit the Google Apps Marketplace for add-ons from third parties that fit your and your business’ needs.

Missing something from Word?

Check the marketplace and see if you can not only replace it, but find a better version.

From label merge tools to automatic contact plugins, these apps can be seamlessly integrated with Docs for a fully customizable program.

The most popular add-ons for Google Docs include those that replicate Microsoft Word features, such as:

Extensis Fonts which adds thousands of free fonts to Docs
Template Gallery an add-on that gives you additional templates for Docs and Sheets
Styles apply styles to jazz up Docs to give them a more sophisticated look
Insert icons for Docs imports icons to help you illustrate your Docs

Microsoft has their own Office Store with integrated third-party apps, but it’s not as stocked with choices.

Additionally, Google Docs works with the other programs in the G Suite. So you can create or access files from your Google programs right from the File menu in Doc:

Each document or app will open in a separate tab within the browser you’re already working in so you don’t have to wait for all those separate programs to load on your computer like you would with Microsoft.

Our winner: MS Word doesn’t need as many add-ons because it’s bursting with features, but Google’s basic skeleton allows for total customization with add-ons you specifically choose.

So are you a loyal Windows fan or a new Google devotee?

Microsoft Word has been the only name worth mentioning in the world of word processors for the last 30 years, but now Google aims to knock the crown off its head.

With its easy-to-use features cleverly designed for the growing cloud-based workforce, many people find Docs easier to use on a daily basis than Word.

Others in the business realm who rely on Microsoft’s constantly evolving features will be let down by Google’s basic approach and slim tools offering.

So after assessing the specifics of both companies, you’ll need to decide what’s right for you.

If you have a Gmail account and take your Chromebook coffee shop hopping to work remotely with your team, Google Docs may be the best choice for your limited hard drive space and high collaboration needs.

But if your business does everything using Microsoft and you have an Outlook email, you may not want to rock the boat by switching from Word.

We think you should give each program a test run for a week to try them out yourself.

You’ll learn which features you can’t live without (and which you could use less of), work out the kinks and quirks between them, and have a solid answer based on your own real-world use.

If you need help getting started with Microsoft Word or Google Docs, we can point you in the right direction. Take a Word online course to learn the basics or refresh your knowledge, then master the advanced features and become a bona fide pro.

Learn more about Word

Download our print-ready shortcut cheatsheet for Word.

A comparison of Google Docs (Drive) and Microsoft Office Web Apps is a lot like comparing two different flavors of cupcakes. While both essentially fall in the same category of tools and can do the basic tasks quite efficiently, both have features unique to themselves. Also, just like you’d have your own reasons for liking or not liking a particular cupcake flavor, you might prefer Google Docs over Office Web Apps or vice-versa depending on the ecosystem you are more dependent on.

Today we will compare some of the basic aspects of both the products and leave the rest to you. Turns out that almost all of us would only be concerned with these aspects of both the products so it is only fair to talk about them first when doing a comparison. Rest, once you start using one of them, diving deep into its features shouldn’t be a problem.

Compatibility

Google Drive Windows

The first and the most important thing we will be talking about is compatibility. By compatibility I mean how well the two web-based editors can handle a complex document that contains images, tables and rich-text. For the test, I uploaded some of my college project documentation and presentations edited in Word and PowerPoint to both of them.

When I viewed and compared the files side by side, Google Docs did provide all the necessary text but in a messed up formatting. The word art and table formatting just disappeared which in turn hampered the document alignment. Office Web Apps on the other hand did a decent job. It not only retained the rich text formatting, but it also displayed the images and tables that were cantered and right aligned. To make things clear I found this live online demo that shows you how a rich document would look at either of the services. Have a look.

Interface

If you come from a Windows background where you use Microsoft Office 2007 or above, you will always feel at home while working on Office Web Apps. Just like any other application, Microsoft provides Ribbon and buttons that are available readily to the user while editing a document. Google Docs on the other hand can be compared to Office 2003 or Open Office which has all the features but are hidden in menus. However this in-turn makes Google Docs simple and easy to use.

If you are a Windows user who loves to work with keyboard shortcuts with a simple interface, I am sure you will love Google Docs.

Storage and Sharing

Another great aspect we can talk about is the ease of document sharing and the storage space both of them provide.

Both the services provide almost similar sharing features. The only difference here being how both of them provide the real-time collaboration feature. In Google Docs, two or more authors can see all the edits made by each collaborator in real-time. However, Office Web Apps locks a particular paragraph when any one of the collaborators is working on it and reflects all the changes, and removes the lock only when the document is saved by the collaborator.

Talking about the free storage space and paid pricing, Microsoft is a clear winner. Microsoft provides a 7 GB free storage space on every new account which is 2 GB more than what Google Drive (Docs) provides. When it comes to paid storage, SkyDrive bills $50 for a full year while Google Drive bills few cents less than $60. But if you are looking for anything more than a 100 GB of storage, Google Drive is the only option available.

Backup And Sync

File Support

When you want to download a document from Office Web Apps, the only option you got is to download it in Microsoft Office format. Google Docs on the other hand supports many useful formats such as PDF, HTML, and RTF. Therefore, if you are planning to compose your document and later share it as a PDF file, Google only can help you with that. It also supports download in Open Office formats.

Conclusion