The competition between Google’s Docs and Microsoft’s Office Live just got closer as Google announced that its word processing application will soon allow users to edit their documents when both online and offline.

”Cloud computing is great, but you need the cloud to make it work,” Philip Tucker, software engineer for Google Docs, recently wrote in a Google blog. ”On an airplane, on the shuttle commuting to work, or at home when my cable modem goes down, I want to work on my documents. And, until now, that usually meant saving a copy and editing on the desktop.

"Now there's a better solution. With Google Docs offline, I can take my little piece of the cloud with me wherever I go. Once enabled, I have a local version of my document list and editors, along with my documents,” Tucker added.

Currently, not all Google Docs users have access to the new feature. The company has selected a limited number of users for now, and in the weeks to come it is expected to be made available publicly.

The Google pack is continuously evolving; earlier this month “gadget support” was introduced to Google Docs (a feature which allows any number of third-party developers to create their own add-ons capable of pulling data from users’ stored documents and afterwards display it anywhere) and last year a presentation application was added (intended to complement Google Docs' spreadsheet applications and word processing functions).

Meanwhile, another player, Adobe, is getting ready to enter the game with its AIR platform.