When quickly creating documents that can be shared with Google Drive and be almost instantly distributed worldwide if need be, Google Docs has the edge. It is a bit unwieldy, however, and users foreign to it may find it confusing. Word includes editing and markup tools for sharing and editing among teams, and the latter Office/Microsoft 365 versions of the program do allow for web-based editing and sharing. Microsoft Word has notable limitations on doing the same, as many editing elements like layout and formatting can be lost in translation. Google Docs files can be downloaded in some of the same formats as Word documents, but they excel at immediately publishing documents as webpages. While both Word and Docs are compatible with the most commonly used word processing formats like Word, PDF, and rich text, Word can import its files much more quickly and is much better at displaying complex file formats consistently across different programs of the Microsoft family. Word’s advanced features also include better incorporation of images and graphics, more exceptional options over text styles, easy addition of footnotes and citations, and better table controls and formats. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.įrom the primary placement of images to advanced techniques like macros and mail merge, Word is the breakaway winner for more technical writing. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability.

How does each word processing program compare? Will Google Docs’ low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let’s break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs. However, Google Docs still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word’s features - Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all. How does each word processing program compare?.

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