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In recent years, Microsoft Word and Google Docs have been quietly waging a war for the title of best word processor. While most of us have been using Word for decades to draft everything from school essays to resumes to important work documents, Google Docs web-based platform is a total game changer for editing and sharing documents in the connected age.

16 secrets of Google Drive. Search Google Docs and Gmail. If you use Google Drive, it’s probably a safe bet you also use Gmail. Quickoffice can read and edit Microsoft Office files but. May 13, 2016  How to Work with Microsoft Office Files on Google Drive on a Mobile Device. You can also open and edit Office files using the Google Docs app for iOS or Android (for Word files), the Google Sheets app for iOS or Android (for Excel files), or the Google Slides app for iOS or Android (for PowerPoint files).

So which is better? That depends entirely on what you need from a word processing program or mobile app. Today we’re going to cover the benefits and downsides of both Microsoft Word and Google Docs so you have the intel you need to decide for yourself.

Learn more about Word

Download our print-ready shortcut cheatsheet for Word.

How to use and access Microsoft Word and Google Docs

You cannot purchase Microsoft Word as a standalone program.

Mar 13, 2020  It’s not possible to access Google Documents straight from Office for Mac. To edit these files using Office, you’ll have to save them locally. For more information on. Apr 30, 2019  If Google decides to take their time resolving this problem, Microsoft can bypass them altogether and create a new rule for the docs.google.com URL and use Chrome's useragent string so.

It comes as part of the Microsoft Office 365 package, which includes other programs like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.

Once you purchase this suite, you can only install Word on a select number of computers, depending on the plan level you choose.

So if you install Word on your desktop, you’ll need to bump up your plan to get a copy for your laptop, which can get pricey.

It wasn’t until 2010 that Microsoft finally launched Word Online as part of its Office 365 package.

Though Word Online boasts enough features for casual users, it is not the full version of Word by any means.

Select ribbons and toolbars were removed from the online version to help it load and run faster. It offers a more streamlined experience though it leaves others wanting more.

For instance, Word Online isn’t able to handle large or more complex documents and users find it clunkier to work around these bugs than using their regular Word program from the start.

All of that is different with Google.

As an internet-based company, Google Docs started out as a cross-platform word processor that works entirely online.

You don’t have to download any software or purchase a suite of programs you don’t want/need to use it.

Simply log in to your Google account from any browser and head over to docs.google.com.

That’s it.

Unlike Microsoft Word, which can only be installed on Windows and OS X computers, you can use Google Docs from any computer and browser, including:

• Windows
• Mac OS X
• Linux
• Chrome OS

The Google Docs app is available for both iOS and Android devices—but not on Windows-based phones like BlackBerry.

The Word app comes pre-installed on Windows Phone devices and as a free (very bare) app for iOS and Android.

Our winner: You can access the full version of Google Docs, with all its features, from any browser.

You have to purchase the entire Microsoft 365 software package just to receive a full version of Word. And the online version of Word lacks certain features which may render it useless for you.

Unlike Microsoft Word, Google Docs is free to use…

Google Docs is free for the average user.

If you want to purchase a “Business” version of G Suite, monthly plans start at $5 per user.

It’s going to cost you more to get started with Microsoft Word.

You’ll need to pay either a:

• One-time fee of $149.99
• Yearly fee of $69.99 / monthly fee of $6.99 (for an install on 1 computer)
• Yearly fee of $99.99 / monthly fee of $9.99 (to install on up to 5 computers)

Business plans are priced differently.

Most of these packages include the desktop versions of all the Office apps and online access for their web-based counterparts.

Our winner: You can’t beat free — Google takes the cake here.

… But free comes with limitations and a lack of control

We know Google Docs is entirely online.

You access your docs online, you write and edit in-browser, and your documents are saved to your online Google Drive cloud.

But what happens when your internet goes out thanks to a big thunderstorm?

Or Google’s servers go down right before your huge AM presentation?

Though you can work in Google’s offline mode (after following a series of steps), you can’t normally access the platform when Google’s servers are in chaos or when you lack Internet.

Google lets you check for outages using their G Suite Status Dashboard tool.

At the time of this screenshot, all the Google apps were running without problems:

But when there’s a service outage or reported service disruption, you’ll see a bar like in this example:

The most commonly reported problems with Google Drive, according to Down Detector, include:

• Not being able to access files online (53%)
• Apps (like Docs and Sheets) not loading (36%)
• File syncing (10%)

This could cause major stress if you’re unprepared.

You’ll need to download or email physical copies of your documents for times you won’t be connected to the internet.

Microsoft may have the upper hand here since you can get your work done in the offline desktop version of Word.

Plus, your Word documents will be saved locally on your computer or device instead of in the cloud so you’re always in control of them.

Our winner: MS Word removes the “what if” factor of relying on Google’s servers and lets you work without an internet connection.

Similar layouts and interface: Google wins on user-friendliness, but Word has tons of features

Seasoned Word vets know there are SO many options and features built into Word that it can be exhausting navigating all the ribbons and toolbars just to find the one button you need.

After all, you’ll probably click on ribbons like References, Mailings, and Acrobat, which will replace your toolbar with even more buttons, maybe twice in your whole life.

Google Docs solves that problem by drastically simplifying the layout and toolbar situation to create a more user-friendly, easily manageable workspace.

Just check out the differences to see what we mean.

Here’s what Microsoft Word’s ribbon looks like in both Windows and OS X versions:

Now check out the Google Docs toolbar:

Pretty big difference, right?

Google places all your most frequently used buttons right in your easy-access toolbar. Everything else, like inserting images or tables, can be found in one of the dropdowns.

With Word, any time you change one of the ribbons, like if you clicked on Layout, all the buttons in your toolbar change as well.

Though Word does let you customize your toolbar so all your most-used buttons are in reach, narrowing down these options can be overwhelming for a novice or casual users.

The less time you have to spend hunting for the exact tool you want, the quicker your work will be accomplished.

Our winner: An easy-to-use interface doesn’t mean much if the tools you need aren’t available. Choose Google if you need light word processing features; stick to Word if you’re on a more advanced features level.

Google saves the day when it comes to saving your files

Ever forget to hit the save button on your Word doc before you lose power or accidentally close out of the program?

Though you’ve crossed your fingers and recovered several Word documents in your lifetime, wouldn’t it be great if you never had to replay this terrible nightmare again?

Google Docs not only automatically saves your work every few minutes or so, it also continually saves as you’re working.

This means you can log in on your desktop and see the changes made live from your smartphone at the same time.

Plus, Docs backs up your saved files to Google Drive instead of your local hard drive.

So Google saves your work — and backs up your work — to give you extra protection should you spill coffee all over your laptop and wreck your hard drive.

Our winner: Google is the automatic save hero you never thought your docs needed.

Comparing document compatibility and file formats

You can use Google Docs to open and edit Microsoft Word documents. You can even download your Google doc as a Word document so it has a standard Word extension (.docx).

But that’s not the only file format Google Docs will let you export.

You can download your docs with the following extensions: ODT, PDF, RTF, HTML, TXT, EPUB.

However, you can only download your Word Online documents as PDF, ODT, or DOCX files.

And if you want to open a Google doc in Word, you’ll need to convert it first.

One area Word has Docs beat is PDFs.

You can open PDFs in Word on your desktop, edit them, and then save them as PDFs again; you can’t do this in Google Docs.

Our winner: Google gives you more file format compatibility. But Word may be your go-to if you require PDF editing.

Collaborate remotely using real-time editing and doc sharing

We live in an ever-connected world, which means many of us have to collaborate with teams and coworkers remotely.

Both word processors will let you track the changes made by editors you shared your document with.

While you can download your Word doc and email it to others for collaboration, you can invite collaborators directly from your Google doc or send them a link to access your document.

When you’re in Google’s “Suggesting” mode, all the edits made are merely suggestions which accompany the highlighted text as comments in the sidebar.

You can choose to accept these changes (and they’ll happen in the doc) or ignore them without harming your original text.

If someone deletes part of your text during editing, Google will strikethrough the text in the document like this:

Edits made in Word will remove the original text from the document and place it in the sidebar along with the other comments:

You’ll be able to read an edited version of your document without your original copy to distract you from the final product (unless you click into the sidebar).

Here’s the best perk about Google Docs: real-time collaboration.

When your recipients click the link to your document, you’ll be able to view their name (or anonymous Google-assigned animal avatar) and their unique identifying color in-doc live.

Watch your collaborators mark up your doc or open up the Google Docs messenger feature and chat with each other — right in your document — about the changes you want to make together live.

Google will track the changes — along with who was responsible for them and the time they made them — so contributions are always recognized.

You could literally have an entire department working on the same doc together in real-time wherever in the world they happen to be working from.

While you can email your documents to your collaborators with Word, you can’t actually work together on it at the same time like you can with Docs.

You can only do this in Word with Microsoft’s Office 365 online Word app, which isn’t a full version of the program anyway.

Plus, you’ll need an account or subscription for Word online and your teammates might not have one.

Here’s an interesting study to note:

When Creative Strategies surveyed over 350 college students across the country, they discovered:

• 12% use Google Docs to write papers alone; 80% use Microsoft Word instead
• 78% use Google Docs to write papers in a group collaboratively; just 13% use Word for group work

So you may want to follow in the footsteps of today’s millennials and use Word for your personal work and Docs for your teamwork.

Our winner: Google Docs shines in collaboration mode with its universal access and real-time editing features.

Is there a better mobile candidate?

Google Docs started and lives online so you’ll always have access to its full features when you’re signed in on the browser version. Though the mobile apps have fewer features, you can still write and edit docs on-the-go without any hiccups.

Since the mobile-based Word app isn’t Microsoft’s core business, it’s not as robust or comprehensive as their standalone program or what Google offers their mobile users.

While you can insert charts, drawings, and even spreadsheets with the online version of Docs, you don’t have these abilities with Word Online.

Mobile users will have their documents saved to OneDrive, Microsoft’s version of Google Drive, so working remotely is just as secure as when they’re in the office.

Our winner: Google Docs was made for the web and mobile working; MS Word is stronger offline.

Google has more third-party app integrations

Visit the Google Apps Marketplace for add-ons from third parties that fit your and your business’ needs.

Missing something from Word?

Check the marketplace and see if you can not only replace it, but find a better version.

From label merge tools to automatic contact plugins, these apps can be seamlessly integrated with Docs for a fully customizable program.

The most popular add-ons for Google Docs include those that replicate Microsoft Word features, such as:

• Extensis Fonts which adds thousands of free fonts to Docs
• Template Gallery an add-on that gives you additional templates for Docs and Sheets
• Styles apply styles to jazz up Docs to give them a more sophisticated look
• Insert icons for Docs imports icons to help you illustrate your Docs

Microsoft has their own Office Store with integrated third-party apps, but it’s not as stocked with choices.

Additionally, Google Docs works with the other programs in the G Suite. So you can create or access files from your Google programs right from the File menu in Doc:

Each document or app will open in a separate tab within the browser you’re already working in so you don’t have to wait for all those separate programs to load on your computer like you would with Microsoft.

Our winner: MS Word doesn’t need as many add-ons because it’s bursting with features, but Google’s basic skeleton allows for total customization with add-ons you specifically choose.

So are you a loyal Windows fan or a new Google devotee?

Microsoft Word has been the only name worth mentioning in the world of word processors for the last 30 years, but now Google aims to knock the crown off its head.

With its easy-to-use features cleverly designed for the growing cloud-based workforce, many people find Docs easier to use on a daily basis than Word.

Others in the business realm who rely on Microsoft’s constantly evolving features will be let down by Google’s basic approach and slim tools offering.

So after assessing the specifics of both companies, you’ll need to decide what’s right for you.

If you have a Gmail account and take your Chromebook coffee shop hopping to work remotely with your team, Google Docs may be the best choice for your limited hard drive space and high collaboration needs.

But if your business does everything using Microsoft and you have an Outlook email, you may not want to rock the boat by switching from Word.

Can You Use Mac For Microsoft Google Docs Word

We think you should give each program a test run for a week to try them out yourself.

You’ll learn which features you can’t live without (and which you could use less of), work out the kinks and quirks between them, and have a solid answer based on your own real-world use.

If you need help getting started with Microsoft Word or Google Docs, we can point you in the right direction. Take a Word online course to learn the basics or refresh your knowledge, then master the advanced features and become a bona fide pro.

Learn more about Word

Download our print-ready shortcut cheatsheet for Word.

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Summary: This article describes how you use DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) with Office 365 to ensure that destination email systems trust messages sent outbound from your custom domain.

You should use DKIM in addition to SPF and DMARC to help prevent spoofers from sending messages that look like they are coming from your domain. DKIM lets you add a digital signature to outbound email messages in the message header. It may sound complicated, but it's really not. When you configure DKIM, you authorize your domain to associate, or sign, its name to an email message by using cryptographic authentication. Email systems that receive email from your domain can use this digital signature to help determine if incoming email that they receive is legitimate.

Basically, you use a private key to encrypt the header in your domain's outgoing email. You publish a public key to your domain's DNS records that receiving servers can then use to decode the signature. They use the public key to verify that the messages are really coming from you and not coming from someone spoofing your domain.

Office 365 automatically sets up DKIM for its initial 'onmicrosoft.com' domains. That means you don't need to do anything to set up DKIM for any initial domain names (for example, litware.onmicrosoft.com). For more information about domains, see Domains FAQ.

You can choose to do nothing about DKIM for your custom domain too. If you don't set up DKIM for your custom domain, Office 365 creates a private and public key pair, enables DKIM signing, and then configures the Office 365 default policy for your custom domain. While this is sufficient coverage for most Office 365 customers, you should manually configure DKIM for your custom domain in the following circumstances:

• You have more than one custom domain in Office 365

• You're going to set up DMARC too (recommended)

• You want control over your private key

• You want to customize your CNAME records

• You want to set up DKIM keys for email originating out of a third-party domain, for example, if you use a third-party bulk mailer.

In this article:

How DKIM works better than SPF alone to prevent malicious spoofing in Office 365

SPF adds information to a message envelope but DKIM actually encrypts a signature within the message header. When you forward a message, portions of that message's envelope can be stripped away by the forwarding server. Since the digital signature stays with the email message because it's part of the email header, DKIM works even when a message has been forwarded as shown in the following example.

In this example, if you had only published an SPF TXT record for your domain, the recipient's mail server could have marked your email as spam and generated a false positive result. The addition of DKIM in this scenario reduces false positive spam reporting. Because DKIM relies on public key cryptography to authenticate and not just IP addresses, DKIM is considered a much stronger form of authentication than SPF. We recommend using both SPF and DKIM, as well as DMARC in your deployment.

The nitty gritty: DKIM uses a private key to insert an encrypted signature into the message headers. The signing domain, or outbound domain, is inserted as the value of the d= field in the header. The verifying domain, or recipient's domain, then use the d= field to look up the public key from DNS and authenticate the message. If the message is verified, the DKIM check passes.

Manually upgrade your 1024-bit keys to 2048-bit DKIM encryption keys

Since both 1024 and 2048 bitness are supported for DKIM keys, these directions will tell you how to upgrade your 1024-bit key to 2048. The steps below are for two use-cases, please choose the one that best fits your configuration.

1. When you already have DKIM configured, you rotate bitness as follows:
   1. Connect to Office 365 workloads via PowerShell. (The cmdlet comes from Exchange Online.)
   2. And then execute the following cmdlet:

Rotate-DkimSigningConfig -KeySize 2048 -Identity {Guid of the existing Signing Config}

1. Or for a new implementation of DKIM:
   1. Connect to Office 365 workloads via PowerShell. (This is an Exchange Online cmdlet.)
   2. Execute the following cmdlet:

New-DkimSigningConfig -DomainName {Domain for which config is to be created} -KeySize 2048 -Enabled $True

Stay connected to Office 365 to verify the configuration.

2. Execute the cmdlet:

Get-DkimSigningConfig | fl

Tip

This new 2048-bit key takes effect on the RotateOnDate, and will send emails with the 1024-bit key in the interim. After four days, you can test again with the 2048-bit key (that is, once the rotation takes effect to the second selector).

If you want to rotate to the second selector, your options are a) let the Office 365 service rotate the selector and upgrade to 2048-bitness within the next 6 months, or b) after 4 days and confirming that 2048-bitness is in use, manually rotate the second selector key by using the appropriate cmdlet listed above.

Steps you need to do to manually set up DKIM in Office 365

To configure DKIM, you will complete these steps:

Publish two CNAME records for your custom domain in DNS

For each domain for which you want to add a DKIM signature in DNS, you need to publish two CNAME records.

Can You Use Mac For Microsoft Google Docs Free

Run the following commands to create the selector records:

Create CNAMEs referenced in Get-DkimSigningConfig output

Office 365 performs automatic key rotation using the two records that you establish. If you have provisioned custom domains in addition to the initial domain in Office 365, you must publish two CNAME records for each additional domain. So, if you have two domains, you must publish two additional CNAME records, and so on.

Use the following format for the CNAME records.

Important

If you are one of our GCC High customers, we calculate domainGuid differently! Instead of looking up the MX record for your initialDomain to calculate domainGuid, instead we calculate it directly from the customized domain. For example, if your customized domain is 'contoso.com' your domainGuid becomes 'contoso-com', any periods are replaced with a dash. So, regardless of what MX record your initialDomain points to, you'll always use the above method to calculate the domainGuid to use in your CNAME records.

Where:

Can You Use Mac For Microsoft Google Docs Download

• For Office 365, the selectors will always be 'selector1' or 'selector2'.

• domainGUID is the same as the domainGUID in the customized MX record for your custom domain that appears before mail.protection.outlook.com. For example, in the following MX record for the domain contoso.com, the domainGUID is contoso-com:

• initialDomain is the domain that you used when you signed up for Office 365. Initial domains always end in onmicrosoft.com. For information about determining your initial domain, see Domains FAQ.

For example, if you have an initial domain of cohovineyardandwinery.onmicrosoft.com, and two custom domains cohovineyard.com and cohowinery.com, you would need to set up two CNAME records for each additional domain, for a total of four CNAME records.

Note

It's important to create the second record, but only one of the selectors may be available at the time of creation. In essence, the second selector might point to an address that hasn't been created yet. We still recommended that you create the second CNAME record, because your key rotation will be seamless and you won't need to do any manual steps yourself.

Enable DKIM signing for your custom domain in Office 365

Once you have published the CNAME records in DNS, you are ready to enable DKIM signing through Office 365. You can do this either through the Microsoft 365 admin center or by using PowerShell.

To enable DKIM signing for your custom domain through the admin center

1. Sign in to Office 365 with your work or school account.

2. Select the app launcher icon in the upper-left and choose Admin.

3. In the lower-left navigation, expand Admin and choose Exchange.

4. Go to Protection > dkim.

5. Select the domain for which you want to enable DKIM and then, for Sign messages for this domain with DKIM signatures, choose Enable. Repeat this step for each custom domain.

To enable DKIM signing for your custom domain by using PowerShell

1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

2. Run the following command:

   Where domain is the name of the custom domain that you want to enable DKIM signing for.

   For example, for the domain contoso.com:

To Confirm DKIM signing is configured properly for Office 365

Wait a few minutes before you follow these steps to confirm that you have properly configured DKIM. This allows time for the DKIM information about the domain to be spread throughout the network.

• Send a message from an account within your Office 365 DKIM-enabled domain to another email account such as outlook.com or Hotmail.com.

• Do not use an aol.com account for testing purposes. AOL may skip the DKIM check if the SPF check passes. This will nullify your test.

• Open the message and look at the header. Instructions for viewing the header for the message will vary depending on your messaging client. For instructions on viewing message headers in Outlook, see View e-mail message headers.

  The DKIM-signed message will contain the host name and domain you defined when you published the CNAME entries. The message will look something like this example:

• Look for the Authentication-Results header. While each receiving service uses a slightly different format to stamp the incoming mail, the result should include something like DKIM=pass or DKIM=OK.

To configure DKIM for more than one custom domain in Office 365

If at some point in the future you decide to add another custom domain and you want to enable DKIM for the new domain, you must complete the steps in this article for each domain. Specifically, complete all steps in What you need to do to manually set up DKIM in Office 365.

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Disabling the DKIM signing policy for a custom domain in Office 365

Disabling the signing policy does not completely disable DKIM. After a period of time, Office 365 will automatically apply the default Office 365 policy for your domain. For more information, see Default behavior for DKIM and Office 365.

To disable the DKIM signing policy by using Windows PowerShell

1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

2. Run one of the following commands for each domain for which you want to disable DKIM signing.

   For example:

   Or

   Where number is the index of the policy. For example:

Default behavior for DKIM and Office 365

If you do not enable DKIM, Office 365 automatically creates a 1024-bit DKIM public key for your default domain and the associated private key which we store internally in our datacenter. By default, Office 365 uses a default signing configuration for domains that do not have a policy in place. This means that if you do not set up DKIM yourself, Office 365 will use its default policy and keys it creates in order to enable DKIM for your domain.

Also, if you disable DKIM signing after enabling it, after a period of time, Office 365 will automatically apply the Office 365 default policy for your domain.

In the following example, suppose that DKIM for fabrikam.com was enabled by Office 365, not by the administrator of the domain. This means that the required CNAMEs do not exist in DNS. DKIM signatures for email from this domain will look something like this:

In this example, the host name and domain contain the values to which the CNAME would point if DKIM-signing for fabrikam.com had been enabled by the domain administrator. Eventually, every single message sent from Office 365 will be DKIM-signed. If you enable DKIM yourself, the domain will be the same as the domain in the From: address, in this case fabrikam.com. If you don't, it will not align and instead will use your organization's initial domain. For information about determining your initial domain, see Domains FAQ.

Set up DKIM so that a third-party service can send, or spoof, email on behalf of your custom domain

Some bulk email service providers, or software-as-a-service providers, let you set up DKIM keys for email that originates from their service. This requires coordination between yourself and the third-party in order to set up the necessary DNS records. No two organizations do it exactly the same way. Instead, the process depends entirely on the organization.

An example message showing a properly configured DKIM for contoso.com and bulkemailprovider.com might look like this:

In this example, in order to achieve this result:

1. Bulk Email Provider gave Contoso a public DKIM key.

2. Contoso published the DKIM key to its DNS record.

3. When sending email, Bulk Email Provider signs the key with the corresponding private key. By doing so, Bulk Email Provider attached the DKIM signature to the message header.

4. Receiving email systems perform a DKIM check by authenticating the DKIM-Signature d=<domain> value against the domain in the From: (5322.From) address of the message. In this example, the values match:

   sender@contoso.com

   d=contoso.com

Next steps: After you set up DKIM for Office 365

Although DKIM is designed to help prevent spoofing, DKIM works better with SPF and DMARC. Once you have set up DKIM, if you have not already set up SPF you should do so. For a quick introduction to SPF and to get it configured quickly, see Set up SPF in Office 365 to help prevent spoofing. For a more in-depth understanding of how Office 365 uses SPF, or for troubleshooting or non-standard deployments such as hybrid deployments, start with How Office 365 uses Sender Policy Framework (SPF) to prevent spoofing. Next, see Use DMARC to validate email in Office 365. Anti-spam message headers includes the syntax and header fields used by Office 365 for DKIM checks.