Difference Between Microsoft Office and Google Docs (With Table)

Quite a similar platform, yet one takes over another. We are talking about Microsoft Office and Google documents. They might look similar but carry some differences. Capturing the market for a very long time was Microsoft Office, while now, when Google Docs has entered the scene, it is giving a tough competition. 

Microsoft Office vs Google Docs

The main difference between Microsoft Office and Google Docs is that the design of Microsoft Office is good but is not catchy because it includes a lot of ribbons which sometimes becomes confusing, while in Google Docs, there are enough features that are needed by an individual working on any article or document. The overall design is also quite simple and easy to use.

Microsoft Office is the first-ever processor which came in front of the world by Bill Gates, who is a billionaire now. It keeps changing and modifying itself day by day. These days Windows 10 is in a fashion that is a bit problematic to use, and we always need an internet connection to work on Microsoft Office.

The reason for Google Docs being famous is that on one side, it is simple and easy to understand, and on the other side, we don’t always need to be online to create and edit a document in Google Docs. Here, we can easily collaborate and invite others to rectify our document by just changing the setting from viewer to editor.

Comparison Table Between Microsoft Office and Google Docs

Parameters of Comparison

Microsoft Office

Google Docs

Synchronization

Being online, user synchronization is okay otherwise of no use

Saves document at every step

Access

We need to buy the whole package

No amount is required just an internet connection

Use

After purchasing online also if it is not for 2-3 computer you can just use it on one computer which becomes a problem sometimes.

It can be used everywhere without any fee.

Cost

It cost a large amount and it varies by month and year.

It is free for all its users unless and until you are not buying a business plan.

User friendly

Not much

Yes

What is Microsoft Office?

Microsoft Office is a whole family of software and services. Microsoft announcement was first made by Bill Gates in Las Vegas on 1st August 1988 full stop when the first person was launched. It contained MS Word, MS Excel, and PowerPoint. Slowly there are changes in its features, and advancements are being made. The most common version of the office is the desktop version available on a PC or a laptop running Windows Linux or Mac. Microsoft Online is a recent feature of Microsoft that does all its work online.

It is available in various languages. So far, in 35 languages, it is known. The main parts of it are MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint, One Note, Outlook. Each of them has its unique function, and they collectively work under Microsoft Office.

  1. MS Word- Its extension is .doc, and it was released on 25th October 1983. It can be used in writing articles.
  2. MS Powerpoint – This helped in making an audiovisual presentation and was released on 20th April 1987. It’s extension is .ppt
  3. MS Excel – Its extension is .xls, and it has rows and columns. It is used to group large amounts of data at one place in a perfect manner and even help in big calculations.
  4. One Note – To organize notes for studying or taking a summary of something, one note is used. It was released in 2003, and its extension is .one
  5. Publisher – For publishing market materials, it is used.

What is Google Docs?

A good competitor of Microsoft Office, Google Docs is a reliable service giving its best in today’s world. It is reliable because it works offline and has almost similar features to Microsoft Office. It also has an online platform called G Suite.

This is a word processor where we can work on something to create a document and edit it. We can work on our personal computer and laptop, and even it works on android and IOS platforms.

The basic difference is that we come across the Microsoft Office Word document and Google docs. In Google docs, we can share our documents and edit them whenever necessary and also we can collaborate easily and let others also rectify our mistakes. Google docs are the same as Microsoft Word, but only Google docs become a priority because it does not always need an internet connection to work on it.

 How to start working?

  • First of all, log in with your Google account docs dots google Dotcom.
  • Next, choose a blank document or template to work on
  • Open the file and then new after that document.
  • The same process is repeated, and instead of blank documents, we can choose from templates.
  • If one wishes, they can change the orientation as per the requirement.

The best thing is that here we don’t need to save the document. Every minute the document is saved, we just need to copy it and send the link. The main point to keep in mind when we want to share our document with someone who will rectify the viewer to be changed to the editor. When we want to download the document, there are many types of extensions in which we can download it. The extensions are .docx, .pdf , .txt, .html etc. There are many other features provided in Google Docs which we can make use of to make our document appealing to everyone.

Main Differences Between Microsoft Office and Google Docs

  1. Microsoft Office doesn’t save our work every minute while Google documents save it now and then, and even if our computer shuts down suddenly for any reason, still we won’t lose any of our files.
  2. In Microsoft Office, PDF editing is easy, while Word documents in online mode can be downloaded as pdf, Docx, oct file.
  3. Doing work in collaboration with Microsoft Office isn’t much of help, whereas Google Docs is a saviour.
  4. Microsoft Office has more features than Google docs, while in connectivity and comfortability, we call it more friendly.
  5. Microsoft Office might have a lot of tools, making it complex, while Google Docs has simple and attractive tools.

Conclusion

Overall we can conclude that both are rich in features. In the case of Microsoft Office, purchasing the office pack is necessary for a hassle-free experience, and that is very costly for any individual, while Google documents just rely on an Internet connection.

There are few functions that only the office has, while Google document is no less and comes with all necessary functions needed by any individual for doing work on Google docs. On the one hand, Microsoft Office is not that easy to use because of its complexity, whereas Google Docs is user-friendly and easily accessible for everyone.

Coming to a conclusion, we saw the difference between Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and it depends on us whichever suits us we can use that because both of them are almost similar and have their advantages and disadvantages. It is up to us which type of processor we want to work with.

References

  1. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00518
  2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10494820.2015.1041398