You have a desktop or laptop PC, with a connection to the Internet. You still use earlier versions of Microsoft’s Office tools such as the word processor Word, the presentation tool Powerpoint and the spread sheet Excel. You have not upgraded to the latest — 2007 — versions of MS Office. May be you could no longer afford to do so.
Thirty Indian engineers based in Bangalore have created a suite of online productivity tools that enables such users to enjoy the look, feel and much of the functionality of the newest edition of the three main Microsoft Office tools by downloading for free, a 5-megabyte chunk of software. What’s more, they can work on their files, from any machine anywhere by accessing them from a 100 megabyte storage space that is provided to them on the Web; they can switch seamlessly from desktop to Web and back; they can share their files from chosen friends or colleagues; they can collaborate on a single document, deciding who can share what, and exchanging comments live through text pop-pops… all this on any platform, Windows, Linux, Unix or whatever.
The application is called Live Documents. It was unveiled a few days ago to a lot of global interest and critical scrutiny. It is the work of the Bangalore-based InstaColl, a wholly Indian Internet-driven company whose Chairman and inspiration is Sabeer Bhatia, the man who co-developed Hotmail, the world’s first Web-based e-mail service, which he subsequently sold to Microsoft.
While the ability to use Live Documents is free for individual users (You can apply for an invitation to join at www.live-documents.com but due to the huge number of requests in the last few days, the company is having to beef up its infrastructure and it might take 3-4 weeks to receive your authorisation.)
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