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Microsocft MVP: Tablet PC
What is: Microsoft Office Groove?
25 April 2007Posted By: WilliamPosted in: Organization, Software Info
I don’t think many people know exactly what Groove is… It popped up in the Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Microsoft Office 2007 and I think it has largely gone unnoticed. When asking my friends if they knew what Groove did, they had no idea. When I come to think about it, I only stumbled over Groove out of sheer curiosity.
The name gives nothing away. Who would know that under the cheesy title lies a great content management & syndication tool with lots of potential for students.
From my experiences, Groove has 2 really good uses. The first is a super easy automatic way to syncronise files between two computers (your desktop and tablet for instance). The second is a great way of sharing content between a group of people.
When you fire up groove and have gone through the rigmorol of creating your account, you are greeted with an MSN Messenger style window called the Launchbar [right].
The launchbar is where you can control what content is being shared. There are 2 ways of sharing content, by sharing a folder or by creating a workspace.
When you create a workspace or add a file sharing folder, the files are automatically uploaded to a MS server. I’m not sure if there is a limit on how much they will let you upload but I assume they have some pretty serious storage. Shared folders will be automatically updated as the files are changed, provididng you have the Groove window open.
Workspaces are very useful for groups of people who are working together on a project or topic. I have a uni workgroup which I share with all of my uni friends. 
You can add many kinds of modules to the workspaces such as chat, message board, file sharing, whiteboard, calendar and even a chess game.
While editing or accessing the workspace or file sharing folder it will appear as active in your launcher. Once you are done, the changes are uploaded to the server so that other users (that you have invited to share your workspace) can see them. Similarly, if someone has made a change to a workspace or files, the other users of your workspace will have the changes automatically downloaded and moved to the unread section in the launcher.
My main usage of Groove has been through synchronising data between my tablet and my desktop workstaion. I have the same groove account running on both computers and when I add data to the documents folder on my tablet it is updated on my desktop. I don’t have to be on the same network, just as long as they both have internet access. I find this much easier than working with network shares or having a thumbdrive stick out the side (I snapped one off in my old iBook).
It’s obvious to see that Groove was created with business oriented applications in mind. Fortunately, Groove has a number of other useful applications and could prove invaluable for students working on a group project. The security protocols used in groove make it easy for people across any type of system to work together as well. Groove’s main use has found itself in emergency relief coordination where different agencies and organisations rarely share the same infrastructure and offline access is crucial.
If you have Office 2007 Enterprise or Ultimate, give it a go. I would be very interested in hearing any further uses as it is rather flexible depending on your application.
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April 25th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
[…] one of the new writers at Student Tablet PC, has an interesting article on using Microsoft Office Groove to sync documents between computers. […]
April 25th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
[…] one of the new writers at Student Tablet PC, has an interesting article on using Microsoft Office Groove to sync documents between computers. […]
April 25th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Just an FYI… the data isn’t actually stored on MS servers.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
@ John - My bad, shows that you should never trust info from wikipedia. Perhaps you can indulge us in the storage process.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I think that this latest incarnation of Groove is using the FolderShare technology (http://www.foldershare.com). This is neat tecnology that allows for the real-time, P2P synchronization of a folder tree across multiple computers. It works in Windows versions going back at least to Win2K, lets you synchronize across teams, and is completely relaiable. I’ve been using it for years. Worth checking out if not everyone has Office 2007.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
It seems that MS is buying out the whole content synchronisation market. Another good one is PowerFolder [http://www.powerfolder.com/] which is opensource.
April 26th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Is there a subscription cost to have a groove server? I don’t really follow how this works, but I’m very interested in synchronizing with fellow classmates.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:10 am
The only cost is the MS Office Ultimate package. Give it a go.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I think Groove (FolderShare on steroids) is very, very impactful to the IT world.
I did not get P2P at first. I originally thought P2P meant kids sharing music, blah, blah, blah. Neat, but of no real importance.
Then along came Groove (FolderShare) and a light bulb went off on P2P. P2P really has a true use.
I use FolderShare to sync my tablet with my desktop at home. Both my tablet and my desktop use Windows OneCare and OneCare backs up my desktop nightly to an external hard drive. Perfect … tablet is therefore backed up … feel secure … hooray for P2P!
I am not a believer in storing things on the web … I am not always connected … I don’t believe everyone will always be connected if if we can be … I am not a believer in centralization … I am a huge believer in decentralization and replication … should the first not fulfill its duties, nor worries there is a second, and a third, and so on. It’s the ultimate in ensuring continuity.
With FolderShare/Groove, everyone can work separately on their own machines. Everyone can work regardless of the web. Then, if we want to interact we can interact … but we do not have to be connected to the grid.