I'm looking to migrate to a new suite of productivity apps for my small business, and the Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides) is one consideration.
I've used MS Office for many many years, but it's starting to become a little bloated and expensive for my needs. I want to move away from 365 altogether.
My two main questions are;
- How does the file compatibility (i.e converting a Google Docs to .DOCX, vice versa) fare?
- What is the difference in performance running these apps through Safari, compared to local Office apps? (i.e RAM, CPU)
Many thanks!
For basic business productivity needs, I've found Google Workspace capable of a high degree of file compatibility with MS Office file formats. There are plenty of caveats with that statement though (such as using standard fonts, basic-to-moderate document layouts, etc.)
Regarding performance, Google Workspace functions very well on all hardware platforms. Even the lowest of chromebooks can handle those documents with ease. Issues arise when documents are large. I'm currently working with one Google Doc document that is 120 pages of formatted text. Regardless of the system I'm using and with excellent internet speeds, it takes just as much time to load Google Doc and the document as it does to locally start MS Word and load the same document (in .DOCX format)
In contrast, loading Google Doc with a smaller document is nearly instantaneous.
At the college where I work, we make equal use of MS Office and Google Workspace. I prefer Google Workspace and show by example how better suited it is for the work we do. I'm winning over converts one at a time... the only resistance I've encountered is primarily due to a deep familiarity with MS Office.
Walking them through the handful of features they use in Office and showing them where to find it in the Workspace apps is enough to get them to try it...and they end up staying with it. The only holdouts are those who work with particular MS Office docs that are not easily workable in Workspace. So they stay with Office for those, as they should.
