Googledocs

23Things#18 Online Office Applications

This post is also a document publicly viewable at googledocs I would be interested in your comments here or there.

I tried out Writely (ok) and Google Spreadsheets (neat) before I discovered PLCMC's 23 Things. I've used Google spreadsheet to prepare a table of appropriate prices for in-between level Silkroad items. Writely didn't present any particular problems but then wasn't given a proper tryout collaboratively because the team for whom I thought it might be useful decided early on to leap into a different tool, and I moved to different projects.

I'm a little tired today, but if I can stay awake (or perhaps another time), I might try out the features Helene Blowers thought were good about Zoho , and then check whether Writely (now google docs) also offers them.

--- Update 12Jan07: This review was first created at and posted from Zohowriter on the 7th January, preceding this one. Thanks to a nasty persistent layer (no, arvind right click and 'cut' did not remove it) which also persistently sits/?sat at the top of my blog I plan to delete that post, which will unfortunately lose a pleasant comment from Jonathan Crow suggesting I try thinkfree. Which suggestion led to a later review composed at thinkfree from which I copied the table below, because the first posts from googledocs and zoho did not scale the original table.---

Features	ZohoWriter	Google docs	thinkfree
Saves online	Y	Y automatic	Y
save, email or export as .doc, .pdf, .html, .rtf, OpenOffice	not .rtf or OO	html (zipped)	?.rtf ?OO
publish as Blogger post	Y	Y (republishing replaces post)	to blog but not 'as' post - more a link also Wordpress, Type-pad, SquareSpace
sharing / collaborating	Y	Y	Y
publish publicly	Y	Y	Y
templates	Y	N	N
revert to earlier saves	Y	Y (greatly assisted by regular auto-saves)	Y
No software to install	Y	Y	updates JVM
Free	Y	Y	Y
icon layout similar to Word	Y	less so	very in Power Edit
options (insert images, special characters, tables, bookmarks/anchors) available from main page	Y	from tabs or dropdown menus	Y
right click offers relevant options	Y	Y	Y
emoticons	Y	N	N
comments	? layers	Y
table functions	basic	basic	still checking
offers symbols beyond special characters including tick (though I don't know if blog will show them answers are N, N, Y)		✗	✓
Find and Replace	?	?	Y

Layouts:

Zoho has more icons: one click formatting etc

Google's is very simple.

Conclusion: I like Zoho's layout better, and though I don't use emoticons much yet (not being into IM) I like the fact that I could. For collaboration I like being able to use comments in Google docs and can easily remove them. I created a 'layer' in Zoho but couldn't remove it. I use tables a lot and they worked a lot easier in Zoho. However I like the automatic saving procedure in Google docs.

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Copy of comment from Jonathan Crow posted to first publication of this review since deleted:

Hi,

I am wondering if you have tried ThinkFree Online. Inc. Magazine recently voted us the best bet to replace Microsoft Office

We have a full office suite that offers robust functionality including a full print interface and functions that allow you to create full MLA format documents with footers and headers. We operate in two modes, Quick Edit, for when you need to work and run, or Power Edit when you need to take the time to create a richly formatted document.

Our Power Edit mode has the highest level of functionality around. Because we started building our application in 1999 based on MS Office formats, we also take pride in the fact that we have the highest level of MS Office compatibility available. We handle documents that other applications just don't open.

We have collaboration features, version management, publishing live documents to blogs, mash-ups with Flickr, del.icio.us, Creative Commons, and let you share documents using your own email application.

I'd be interested in knowing what you think.

Thanks,
Jonathan