Microsoft has released a public beta of Microsoft Office Live Workspace, a web-based extension of Office that lets users access and share documents online.

The company has also unveiled several enhanced Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multi-file upload.

"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.

The company said that hundreds of thousands of users have signed up since the private beta was launched last October, thousands of whom have been invited to provide feedback on the service.

The Office team has also been working with a number of US academic institutions, including Florida Community College and the universities of Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin-Parkside and Vanderbilt.

Office Live Workspace lets users organise and edit documents and projects from almost any computer, and bundled storage space allows users to save more than 1,000 Office documents to one place online and share them via the web.

Users can view and comment on documents in the browser, create simple web lists and web notes, and share documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView.