Microsoft has announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta, the new Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.

Currently it is being offered in English but Microsoft plans to offer the beta program later this year in various languages for international markets. The company expects to release the final public version of Office Live Workspace later in the year.

"Today's announcement moves us further down the path of bringing a software plus services experience to people at home, work and school," said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division. "By combining the rich client experience of Microsoft Office with flexible, intuitive service offerings, we're providing seamless computing experiences for our 500 million Office users worldwide." Microsoft is also unveiling a number of new Office Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multifile upload.

Office Live Workspace features an activity panel that shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance. It notifies users about changes made to their workspaces or documents and allows them to bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window. People will be able to upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop and the new sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses.

Microsoft is also launching a $100,000 sweepstakes for U.S.-based Office Live Workspace users.