Written by Quakeboy on Tuesday, March 04, 2008
If you are unaware of Zoho and Google Docs, let me Welcome you to the world of Online Office Applications. These are some of the super innovative Web 2.0 applications which serve as replacement for regular Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point.
The best thing about these applications is that, they don't require you to install anything on your computer except your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.) All you need is an internet connection, and your browser.
I decided to try out both of them and make a comparison. Before that let me summarize some of the common features that make these online applications more appealing to users.
- Easy PDF Generation. Converting and downloading to other formats. (e.g. Open office formats)
- Easy to E-Mail and Share with users on the web.
- Online Storage, so access from any where on the web.
- Easy publishing to Blog options.
- Allows you to upload existing standard formats like RTF, DOC, DOCX(Zoho Only), XLS, PPT and then edit them.
Google Docs Vs Zoho Writer
These are the online versions of Word Processors they have created. First I tried out
Google Docs and Spreadsheets- UI is very simple and minimal.
- No Skins available.
- Okay for small editing.
- Docs Looks to be like a typical Rich Text Email editor.
- Still has table, special symbols, image insertion.
- Spreadsheets application is good with the options for formula, formatting and styles.
- Biggest advantage is the integration with Google Account.
- Still makes you miss Word & Excel.
- PDF and Zipped HTML generation is relatively much faster than Zoho.
Zoho Writer and Sheets- UI looks appealing with lot of options, resembles your regular Word Processor a lot.
- Very intuitive UI for options, especially the Table tool, bordering etc.
- Has a variety of Skins to suit your mood.
- Has Adjustable Click-Drag Page Margin option, Page View and Page Setup.
- Very rarely makes you miss MS Word.
- Spreadsheets are also relatively much better than Google spreadsheets with a lot of options.
- No Zipped HTML File generation option. Relatively Slow PDF generation
- Has Latest DOCX Office 2007 format support.
- Allows you to customize toolbars (Now thats a real WOW !)
- Unlike Google Docs, Zoho apps allows you to edit files with Side Bar visible at the same time and I love that !! :)
- Relatively super fast DOC and DOCX format generation.
- You can use it offline too with Google Gears !!!
Talking about their Online Powerpoint replacements, I used the Zoho Show and Google Presentation tools, and found that Zoho show wins in that also. Zoho provides more cliparts, auto shapes, templates etc.
As final words, I would like to say it was amazing to see a not much familiar tool Zoho package beats the Tech Giant Google's tools with a vast difference. But still both the tools are yet marked as BETA and I hope Google adds more and more colors to their suite.
Link to Zoho, Google Docs
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