Microsoft Announces Public Availability of Office Live Workspace Beta

Microsoft has announced the public availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta (http://workspace.officelive.com), the new Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.

Currently, Office Live Workspace is only available in English and anyone can sign up for free at http://workspace.officelive.com

“Today’s announcement moves us further down the path of bringing a software plus services experience to people at home, work and school,” said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “By combining the rich client experience of Microsoft Office with flexible, intuitive service offerings, we’re providing seamless computing experiences for our 500 million Office users worldwide.”

Microsoft is also unveiling a number of new Office Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multifile upload.

Office Live Workspace lets people organize documents and projects online. Office Live Workspace also features:

Activity panel. A new activity panel shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance.

Notifications. People can now receive e-mail notifications about changes made to their workspaces or documents.

Direct links. People can now bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window.

Multi-file upload. People can now upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop.

Improved sharing. New sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses.

Microsoft is also launching a $100,000 sweepstakes for U.S.-based Office Live Workspace users. The sweepstakes will award more than 30,000 prizes, including $100,000 that the winner could use to fund a college education, Read more about it here.