Storing versions of microsoft (or open office, etc) documents

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

We are in the process of moving code to Git. However, after our development team completes the move, they are thinking of moving other teams (like Requirements team) that use documents. Does it seem that Git would be cumbersome for those types of files? Would it be hard to pull up a previous version of a spreadsheet to compare it (visually) with the current version?

Also, I wonder if having a "non-technical" team setting up ssh to commit their (shared) work will be a drawback.

What is your opinion?

[Tapas Chand]

I am not sure about the comparison, whether it will be easier.
But as far as commit is concerned, Git has 'Bash' and 'GUI'. So 'GUI' option would be easier for non-technical persons, because they can see the files which they are going to commit.

[Rick Umali]

Git can handle binary files (such as spreadsheets, MS Word files, and image files). It would not be hard to pull up previous versions of a spreadsheet, for example, but comparing it to the current version is tricky because Git relies on third-party tools for displaying the differences. I'm not aware of any third-party tools for displaying the difference between two spreadsheets, but if one did exist, you could configure Git to use that tool. (Git for Windows sets up the third-party tool antiword for taking the difference between MS Word files.)

As for having a non-technical team set up SSH keys to commit work, I'd say that would be hard. GitHub supports username/password authentication, and this could be used at the start.