January 17, 2007 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp.'s radical overhaul of Office 2007, already available to businesses and due for consumer release at the end of January, has left many users wondering about the alternatives. If we have to learn a new interface, why not try a whole different product? While we're at it, why not investigate some of the new online-only office suites that everybody's talking about?
It's no wonder online suites are appealing: They offer the ability to have documents stored online and available anywhere you can access the Internet, no matter what operating system you're using. There's no software to download and install, no upgrading hassles when new features are added or bugs eliminated, and no upfront or ongoing expenses. The ability to share a document with several users without your own server is equally tempting, as is the price tag for many of these services: absolutely free.
We tested four popular online office suites -- Ajax13, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, ThinkFree Online and Zoho Office Suite -- focusing on the word processor and spreadsheet functionality of each suite. (A fifth candidate, gOffice, was disqualified. Though promoted as a free suite, it requires a 99-cent-per-month payment, which we didn't learn about until we opened the registration page.)
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Review: Four Free Online Office Suites  |
We were looking for a good mix of features, speedy response and compatibility with Microsoft Office. All the suites in our roundup except Ajax13 let you publish your document on a public server, and most let you invite others to collaborate on the same document.
Online applications can be a mixed blessing, however, as these four suites show. If any server is stressed, you can't necessarily access the application when you need it. This happened with both Ajax13 and Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Google was able to create a new document, but responded with, "The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request. Please try again in 30 seconds" when we tried to create a new spreadsheet. It was finally available 15 minutes later. That's 15 minutes too long for most of us.
None of the suites in our roundup offers all the applications and features of Microsoft Office. But if you're looking to use the core office applications in an access-anywhere format, at least two of the suites in our roundup are surprisingly sophisticated. From the pitiful to the powerful, here are the four suites we tested, presented in alphabetical order.
Ajax13
The Ajax13 suite includes ajaxWrite (a word processor), ajaxXLS (a spreadsheet viewer), ajaxSketch (a graphics editor), ajaxPresents (slideshow presentation software), and ajaxTunes (a media player). Thirteen is, unfortunately, an unlucky number.
True to its Web-site claim, ajaxWrite loaded in under 6 seconds (it was closer to 3 seconds the few times it worked, though sometimes it never would open), and it has a clean, if sparse, look. That and its price are about all it has going for it.
The company's Web site says that "ajaxWrite has been designed to look like Microsoft Word, making it easy for anyone to start using it without needing to learn a new program." What it should really say is that ajaxWrite is more like WordPad than Word -- a toolbar and some menus are the only similarities in design. You can align text, choose from a selection of serif and sans-serif fonts, pick text colors and sizes, and create numbered and bulleted lists. There's a built-in, always-on spell checker that offers correct spellings and the ability to add words to the dictionary.
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| AjaxWrite's interface is the most basic of the four suites. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Then you run out of word-processing power. AjaxWrite offers no support for columns, bookmarks and tables (we found that we could add a bordered text area, but not a true table) or even the simple ability to use a "paste special" function -- that is, paste text but not the text's formatting.
AjaxWrite's user interface stands apart (and not in a good way) from every other word processor you've seen. Somewhat disconcerting, for example, is how a new document appears only as a small white page area bounded by a thin black border, which expands as you type, instead of a traditional full-screen work area. Though it sports menus, they don't work with the familiar Alt + letter key shortcuts. Worse, there's no help system; you're directed to the Ajax forums, which is a poor substitute for finding out basic information.
Ajax13 requires Firefox 1.5 or higher. The word processor supports Word, Open Office, RTF, text and PDF output formats, but it kept crashing with Java input/output errors when we tried to save our files. In our initial round of testing, we were unable to open or save our work as a Word or Excel file, despite trying the programs on several systems and with Firefox 1.5 and 2.0. Whenever we tried to open a file on our hard drive, we simply received "Please Wait" messages, but our files never opened.
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Review: Four Free Online Office Suites |
After reading the Ajax13 forums, it appears our difficulties were due to problems with the company's servers, which lasted for a full week of testing. Testing after the holidays proved more successful -- file loading was still extremely slow, but at least simple files loaded.
Unlike the other applications in the roundup, Ajax13 can't save files to an online server, thus negating one of the attractive benefits of online suites -- anywhere, anytime document editing. It also means that you can't easily share your files, as with the other products. Worse, ajaxXLS, the spreadsheet module, is merely a viewer. You can't create a spreadsheet from scratch or modify an existing file. Given that Microsoft already provides a free Excel viewer, we just don't see the point of ajaxXLS.
There's so little of value in Ajax13 that we can only say it simply isn't worth the bother.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
When Google Docs & Spreadsheets first appeared on the scene in October of 2006, we took a close look. Since our initial full review, we have found no significant changes.
There is much to like about this application pair. Editing is simple and straightforward. Each application sports a revision tab that helps you compare different versions of your word processing document or spreadsheet. Furthermore, it's the only one of the four word processors in our roundup that allows you to edit text as either a word processing document or as HTML and neatly switch between the two. While Zoho and ThinkFree can save your document as HTML, only Google Docs lets you actually create an HTML document and edit the tags from the get-go.
In both apps, inviting others to edit or view your work is straightforward and easy, and we found no problems with any of the 100 Spreadsheets functions we tested. Both modules are very responsive; with the exception of File Open and File Save commands, there's little evidence you're working live online.
Google Docs' formatting chops are sufficient for any business correspondence, such as letters or invoices. High-end documents don't render properly because Docs isn't 100% Word-compatible, nor does it claim to be.
For simple list-keeping and number-crunching, such as to perform a quick trial run of a budget or to do some fancy calculations on a limited set of data, Google Spreadsheets easily fits the bill. It's quick to launch, and if you know Word or Excel, you should have no problem understanding what to do. Spreadsheets has a few compatibility issues with Excel (array formulas aren't supported, for example), and its lack of charting support is a disappointment, but the application is fine for managing lists or creating ad hoc worksheets in a hurry (you know -- the kind when your boss asks a what-if question and needs the answer in 10 minutes).
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| Google Spreadsheets handles simple calculations and short workbooks with ease. (Click image to see larger view.) |
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Review: Four Free Online Office Suites |
ThinkFree Office Online
ThinkFree has three main components -- Write (a word processor), Calc (a spreadsheet), and Show (presentation software) -- all of which are listed on the site's My Office page, along with your most recently edited files. If you're concerned about document compatibility with Microsoft Office, you want ThinkFree. There's simply no contest.
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| ThinkFree's opening page shows your most recently used files. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Right from the start, you know things are different. ThinkFree Write offers two modes of operation when you open a file and see a preview screen. Quick Edit mode offers a minimal interface -- a few toolbar buttons for simple editing, reminding you more of WordPad than Word. Power Edit looks more like a full application: menus, a rich toolbar, a ruler bar and even a drawing toolbar similar to Word's for inserting elements such as AutoShapes, text boxes, clip art, and pictures.
In fact, ThinkFree's Power Edit menu reveals a startling number of word processing features, from columns and drop caps to AutoCorrect and table manipulation, such as merging cells, distributing cells evenly across the page, repeating header rows. Though it lacks support for wild cards, the find feature can highlight all occurrences of your search term. You can add bookmarks, create table of contents entries, choose styles for your numbered lists, insert page breaks and use fields (including formulas).
ThinkFree Write allows you to insert images from clip art, from an image file, or directly from Flickr, a popular photo-sharing service. Right-click on a misspelled word (which is underlined with a red squiggly line) and ThinkFree Write offers properly spelled alternatives. There's undo and redo, zoom levels and the ability to save files as PDFs. You can also publish your documents to your own Web site using HTML that ThinkFree generates, attach ThinkFree or Microsoft Office documents to articles in your WordPress blog or other options.
The downside: loading Write or Calc can take up to a minute, and saving a small file takes about 10 seconds. The upside: ThinkFree hides your browser's menu bar, so when you use familiar keyboard shortcuts (such as Alt+F, O for File/Open), you are operating within the ThinkFree interface, not your browser. Other similarities to Microsoft Office are downright eerie -- the charting wizard in ThinkFree Calc looks just like Excel's and supports all of Excel's chart types.
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| Creating charts is quick and easy in ThinkFree Calc. (Click image to see larger view.) |
ThinkFree isn't 100% compatible with Office. For example, you can't create a PivotTable, and conditional formatting -- in which the background color of a cell varies by its value using settings you provide -- is not supported in Calc, though it did properly handle array formulas (both on existing worksheets we imported and on those created within Calc itself). To its credit, Calc opened the charts we created in Excel accurately and quickly; however, "template" and "macro" are concepts ThinkFree Write and Calc applications don't understand.
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Review: Four Free Online Office Suites |
The spreadsheet module suffered none of the lag time of Zoho Sheet. It imported a test worksheet (with 330 rows and 70 columns filled with text) in under two seconds, recalculations were speedy, and moving about from cell to cell was responsive. In fact, if we didn't know better, we'd have sworn we were working with native Excel on a slightly underpowered system.
In promoting Office 2007, Microsoft has talked a lot about helping users get the most out of features already in Office. ThinkFree's simple menus, fast response and wide range of features compatible with Office applications make it a good choice if you're looking for an Office work-alike that doesn't have all the high-end features you probably aren't using anyway. The suite also comes with a presentation module for creating PowerPoint-compatible files, an application we did not test.
To share a file, you pick the mail client for sending the invitation -- ThinkFree Mail, Google's Gmail, Hotmail or a local e-mail client such as Outlook or Thunderbird -- and specify if the invitee can edit the document or just view and download it. It worked smoothly. An extension to ThinkFree allows you to view documents on other Web sites by simply right-clicking a link to a document, then choosing the appropriate ThinkFree application (it supports files with .doc, .rtf, .txt, .xls, .csv, .ppt, and .pps extensions).
ThinkFree's speed is due, in part, to a mix of technologies: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML for simple functionality and faster access, and Java for more complex functions and deeper Microsoft compatibility. The suite will soon be updated to use Flash to display presentations with animation.
Currently, ThinkFree hosts only a free version. By April 2007, the company will make available a Premium Edition that will offer offline and online access, synchronization between offline and online files, bulk archiving of documents in your online folders and priority tech support (with 24-hour response). Following the release of the Premium Edition will be a version for small and midsize businesses that will add group and user access.
ThinkFree worked without a hitch. It was responsive, worked perfectly saving new documents and importing those created in Office 2003. Its surprisingly well-rounded feature compatibility makes it the suite of choice for online work.
Zoho Office Suite
Zoho's suite is our second choice, though it runs a distant second to ThinkFree. Even so, it's a spry little collection of modules, taking only two seconds to launch the word processor (Writer) and spreadsheet (Sheet). The suite is extensive: it includes Projects (project management software), Show (presentations), Virtual Office (groupware with a calendar, e-mail client and more), Creator (database manager) and Planner (an organizer for reminders and notes).
Zoho Writer does a fine job of covering the basics you need most days: check spelling, align text, create bulleted or numbered lists and control fonts (size, style, color). Don't go expecting much beyond the basic features, however. It's not as rich as Word or ThinkFree: The spell checker will underline mistakes, for instance, but you can't right-click and find the correct spelling from a list.
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| Zoho Writer's toolbar puts dozens of word processing functions at your fingertips. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Among the highlights: Zoho Writer includes several dozen templates -- everything from student IDs to medication forms, arranged in no particular order -- and you can save your own documents as templates. Zoho Writer can also compare two different versions of the same document (your current document and the version you saved an hour ago, for example), but like Google's suite, it only highlights differences. Zoho Writer doesn't use different colors or a strike-through font to differentiate additions from deletions.
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Review: Four Free Online Office Suites |
While most of the features are self-explanatory for any beginning word processor user, help is weak when you need it. For example, there's an "Insert Anchor" feature, but nowhere could we find an explanation of how it worked.
You can add a table with a button click, then click within a cell to format it (change the border style, color and thickness, plus choose a background color and cell padding) or choose the "Table" tab from the Format dialog box to set the cell borders. Zoho Writer trumps the formatting features of Google Docs -- more fonts and font sizes, for example, plus easy find and replace.
As with Google and ThinkFree, if you want to share your document, you can send invitations to others (they'll need their own online accounts, of course). The program will also supply you with a script if you want to insert your document on a Web page or in a blog.
Everything is by default stored in your 1GB online library, provided without charge. You can export in Word, PDF, RTF, text, HTML, SXW (StarOffice), ODT (OpenOffice), .sxw (StarOffice) and ODT (OpenOffice) formats. We had problems running Zoho Writer under Internet Explorer 6, with frequent crashes; it worked fine under Firefox 2.0.
Zoho Sheet choked when trying to open large worksheets (including one with 500 rows) -- even those that contained only a few columns, simple SUM formulas and four-digit numbers, but no charts or graphs. When a worksheet with 350 rows and 70 columns did open (after a 90-second wait), it was painful to navigate. Screen refreshes slowed things to a crawl. Even when working with a fresh worksheet and adding a column of 10 values, response was sluggish.
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| Zoho's charting features are simple but effective. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Zoho Sheet does have one thing going for it that we like: column, bar, line and pie charts -- both 2-D and 3-D -- are undeniably easy to create. No, they aren't fancy, but the results are pleasing and suitable when all you need is a simple illustration of your numeric data. You won't get stymied the way you can with Office's myriad charting features you never use, let alone understand. Among Zoho Sheet's oddities: When you open a new worksheet, you're placed in cell C3 by default, not A1 as you might expect.
On the plus side, Zoho offers an Office plug-in that lets you edit your Zoho-hosted files directly from within Excel or Word.
It's not a perfect suite. Some advanced features, such as using wild cards in a find-and-replace operation, aren't supported. Neither is conditional formatting in Sheet. Even so, if your editing needs end with the five percent of Office features most of us use most often, Zoho may be all you need.
Richard Ericson is the reviews editor for The Office Letter, a weekly newsletter devoted to Microsoft Office tips and tricks.