Frequently Asked Questions

It’s free. No purchase or credit card information is required. Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta may eventually include advertising, but we’re still testing different designs. At some point, we may also offer additional features or services at a charge.

A workspace is an online place where you can save, access, and share documents and files. Use it to group related information for work, school, or personal projects. Sharing is easy – all you need is a person’s e-mail address and you can invite them to your workspace. You decide if they can edit or simply review. You can access your workspace from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser.

Anyone who uses Microsoft Office can benefit from this service. If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the following questions, this service is for you:

• Do you save information on a flash drive or send yourself documents via e-mail to work on later?
• Do you need to access work files when away from your office?
• Do you need to access school documents when away from your desk (at the library, home on break, etc.)?
• Do you share documents via e-mail and then manually merge all the comments later?
• Do you use e-mail to coordinate and share information with your sports clubs, PTA, study group, etc?
• Are you planning an event and coordinating with multiple people or vendors?

Click here to see examples of how you can use Microsoft Office Live Workspace

Your files have the benefit of virus protection from Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint, and they can only be accessed with a Windows Live ID and password. You control who can view, comment on, and edit your documents. You manage permissions and decide whether someone has access to a single document or an entire workspace.

We’ve had an extraordinary number of pre-registrations and at this time we are inviting US pre-registrants into the beta on a first-come, first-served basis as quickly as possible. We plan to open up the English-version of the service to the world next year and roll out Office Live Workspace in other localized languages later in 2008. You’ll receive an e-mail from us as soon as your workspace is ready. Thanks for your patience.

You only need an Internet connection, a Web browser, and a Windows Live ID with a valid e-mail inbox. Office Live Workspace works with the most commonly used browsers, including:

• Internet Explorer 6.0 or later on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista
• Firefox 2.0 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista
• Firefox 2.0 on Mac OS X 10.2.x and later

Some features may require a browser that supports ActiveX.

No downloads are required. There’s nothing to install, so just sign up and go. All you need is an Internet connection and a Web browser (see requirements above). For a better experience with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, an Office Live Add-in is available for the Microsoft Office suite. If you want to do real-time screen sharing, you can download the Microsoft SharedView beta for Windows here.

You can upload many file types, from Microsoft Office documents to pictures and PDFs. In fact, you can save over 1,000 Office documents in your workspace, based on the average file size and use of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint by students, work, and home users. For your protection, we don’t allow the uploading of files that could cause security issues such as .exe files.

Currently, it’s available in English only and optimized for use in the United States. For example, it will support only English characters, and dates will be displayed in U.S. date formats (mm/dd/yyyy). We plan to roll out Office Live Workspace in other localized languages later in 2008.

The term ‘beta’ means this is the first version of the service that we release to the public. We are still refining the service to ensure it meets your needs. You should feel confident using the service, and know that it will continue to improve over time.

Our goal is to deliver a service that offers easier access to your documents and better collaboration, whether at work or at home. However, we do encourage you to confirm your company’s corporate security policies before saving work documents on Office Live Workspace. All files will have virus protection from Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint, and they can only be accessed with a Windows Live ID and password. You control who can view, comment on, and edit your documents.

Your workspace comes with 500 MB of storage, which means you can save more than 1000 average sized Microsoft Office documents. Individual documents can be as large as 25 MB.

You can share individual documents or workspaces with up to 100 people.

Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business are complementary services. Office Live Workspace is for all Office users—it’s your online place to save and share documents and files for work, school, or home projects. Office Live Small Business provides everything a small business needs to take their business online, including a professional Web site, domain name, company-branded e-mails, and online tools for managing customers and projects.