The first time you open your new workspace at Office Live Workspace (http://workspace.office.live.com) you don't have any files set up and you need to use the New menu to create new documents or save Excel, PowerPoint or Word documents from your desktop.

However, if you want a set of documents for a particular task, all you need do is choose to create a new workspace and make your choice from a wide range of options.

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In general you'll get a set of documents including a note file to jot down ideas, a to-do list, contacts list for working with others in a group, a PowerPoint presentation file, a Word document and others.

At this stage it's worth pointing out that you can share your new workspace, that is, all the documents that are set up, with other members in a group so your team members can contribute. As leader of the team, you decide whether other members can edit documents or are restricted to simply viewing them. Once you've chosen your team members, they'll receive an email notification to go to their new workspace and all the necessary documents are automatically at their disposable.

A real bonus is that members of your team don't all need Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook or Word installed on their own computers to take part in your group's work. Your team can contribute online through the workspace Note document, log when they've completed a task in the To-do list or view what other team members have written up in a Word document or PowerPoint presentation.

webDotWiz chose a Project workspace and after the document list page loaded he changed the title of the project to WNews articles and entered a short description.

Here's the list of files that are automatically created as part of this new workspace:

Documents now available to webDotWiz include a notes file for brainstorming and comments, a Word document to type up the proposal for this project, two PowerPoint documents to use for before and after presentations, a contacts list, a schedule for important dates and events during the life of the project and a to-do list.

A similar list of documents is created for you if you choose one of the other workspaces when you choose to create a new workspace.

If you're the leader of a group that's going to work together, now is a good time to click the Share button and have Office Live Workspace send off an email to those in your group (remember to choose those members who can edit and those who are only allowed to be viewers).

Once they've clicked the link in the notification email they receive, they can sign in with their Windows Live ID and see that they have their own workspace with all the required documents.

If you've allowed others to edit documents then any changes they make and save in their workspace become available to other members of the group (the Modified by column records the email address of the person who last made a change).

As well, over on the right-hand side of a workspace page is the Activity pane which also keeps you up-to-date with what changes have taken place to documents. As well, you can leave a comment, using the Comment button, in the Activity pane.

The above is just an introduction to the different workspaces you can create in Office Live Workspace either for yourself or a group to work together. Once you start spending some time in a workspace you'll come up with plenty of ideas of how you can make best of the service. By the way, it's free!

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