<p>Microsoft Office has long been the gold standard for creating, editing, and formatting serious documents. Google Docs and other Web-based competitors, however, have outpaced Office by making it easy to share and coedit documents in real time.</p><p>Enter the new Office suites. Released earlier this year, they make up lost ground by letting you collaborate with other people through a mixture of desktop and browser applications. The features are a step in the right direction, but Microsoft's new take on collaboration ultimately fails to be as easy as it should be.</p><p>Whether you're thinking about purchasing an Office 365 subscription or buying Office 2013 desktop softwareor are already using either oneread on to learn about the agony and ecstasy of coediting.</p><p>I tested collaboration for Word, Excel, OneNote, and PowerPoint, both with colleagues on an Office 365 Small Business Premium account and with people outside our company who didn't even have Office 2013.Collaborating with outsidersTo share a document with collaborators, first you must save it online to SkyDrive.</p><p><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033437/collaboration-in-microsoft-office-painful-but-not-impossible.html">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.arnnet.com.au/slideshow/458313/v8_supercars_roar_tasmania_microsoft_office_365_40_photos_/">V8 Supercars roar at Tasmania Microsoft Office 365 (+ 40 photos)</a> (ARNnet)</p><p><a href="http://usmarketbuzz.com/msft-v8-supercars-adopted-microsoft-corporation-nasdaqmsfts-cloud-based-office-365-3291">V8 Supercars Adopted Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)&#039;s Cloud-Based ...</a> (US Market Buzz)</p><p><a href="http://www.newsfactor.com/blog_article.php?aid=4795680">Technology Tribe: Microsoft Gambles on Subscriptions in Office 365 and Office ...</a> (NewsFactor Network)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=duGTOZgLxMmFGEMRrNto2XGWaYX8M&ned=us">15 additional articles.</a></p>