Investigating Online Office Suites

jcatcw writes "Computerworld reviewed four online office suites — Ajax13, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, ThinkFree Online and Zoho Office Suite. None has all the applications and features of Microsoft Office, but if you're looking for the core office applications in an access-anywhere format, at least two were surprisingly sophisticated. The article weighs the ability to save files to a centralized server quite heavily in its ranking. The winner is ThinkFree Office because it provides the most sophisticated features and has the best Microsoft Office compatibility. Zoho's suite is the second choice."

Comments

Doesn't Matter

[jkiol]

I still prefer emacs *Awaits bashing from VI users*

Re:Doesn't Matter

[ruben.gutierrez]

:s/\(.*\)emacs.*/\1vi/

Re:Doesn't Matter

[davek]

VI r0cz!

Hell will freeze over the day a modal editor becomes web-enabled. VI will still be the best editor in 20 years, and it will STILL be used over a serial line.

Re:Doesn't Matter

[dgatwood]

I suddenly have the urge to write a JavaScript port of vi. Something like this:

• Take over the keyboard. You can read key up/down events in JS, so this shouldn't be too hard.
• Each line is a separate XML element.
• Within each line, it maintains two copies: the raw data (as an attribute) and the display version.
• The display version highlights a single character by wrapping it in a CSS tag that makes it inverted.
• Arrow keys change which character is highlighted and on which line.
• Floating div that hovers at the bottom of the window to provide the status line.

From there, the rest of the implementation should be relatively straightforward. :-)

Re:Doesn't Matter

[deathy_epl ccs]

Arrow keys? You, sir, are obviously not a serious vi user. heheheheh

Re:Doesn't Matter

[vakuona]

If we are nitpicking, I think that makes it internet based. Web based would be WWW (World Wide Web), and I think you are almost necessarily talking about http et al then.

So ssh'ing to a computer with emacs will nto make it web based, unless you somehow rig the PC to offer you emacs in a web browser. Actually, no, no http, no web based app.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

[klenwell]

I've been satisfied with Google D&S, mostly because it's now well integrated (bundled?) with my Gmail account. Then I tried to print a hard copy of a Google Doc for the first time yesterday. Now I'm less impressed. (Google's definition of a 'pt' and Word's are way off.)

Still, the sharing feature is cool. But the Gmail integration is the main reason I'm loathe to try any alternatives.

Re:Google Docs and Spreadsheets

[rowama]

I've also been using Google docs for a while now. Not the word processor, but the spreadsheet s/w. It suffices, but there are limitations that I would not be able to live with for most spreadsheet needs. For example, no simple way to address a full column or row, no way to do range intersections, no range naming, etc. I've lost data on more than one occasion when the backend lost contact with the server. It reverts back to the previously auto-saved version. I use it for one reason now: keeping track of billable time. I can live with the limitations in this case because I need to access it from several computers in several locations. Evenso, I may soon move the spreadsheet to openoffice.org and use a thumb drive for portability.

A good thing about the article is that it made me realize there may be a better alternative in ThinkFree.

Website Bugged

[NotoriousHood]

Read the first page and then any pages on that site after that had an error message.

I would have grabbed the article text. Maybe someone else can post it if they get through for others that get bugged.

Unwise to use them for confidential data

[davidwr]

It's very unwise to use a hosted-server solution to store confidential or private data unless it's encrypted and you hold the only keys or you've got a contractual agreement that the hosts will never look at the data absent a court order and that they are liable if an adversary breaks in for any reason other than your negligence.

Keep this in mind when you use services to create or save documents. It doesn't matter if it's a spreadsheet, email, or what-not.

And for heaven's sake don't store my credit-card number on Google. CowboyNeal's maybe but not mine.

Re:Unwise to use them for confidential data

[sporkme]

Google: Confidential "not for public release" - optionally add filetype:pdf, doc, etc.

I completely agree with your statement. Swapping convenience for security is the name of the game. I used Writely.com before it became Google D&S. I found it mainly useful to leave lasting notes-to-self from work, and when I needed to whip up something with a little more shine than wordpad. For anything professional, OOO + [distribution system of choice] is the way to go.

Explain to me please....

[hasbeard]

I can see where these services would be useful for collaborative projects involving people in far flung locations. But for regular business use how many companies want to store their data on someone else's server?

what about...

[spoop]

Virtudyne/Simdesk???? http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Best_of_2006_0x3a_ _The_Virtudyne_Saga.aspx

ThinkFree FTW

[AKAImBatman]

Unsurprisingly, ThinkFree was chosen as their preferred "online" Office Suite. FWIW, ThinkFree is an amazing piece of software that blasted onto the scene back in '99 - '00. The most amazing part of it was how it so closely resembled Microsoft Office. Given it's age, it's no surprise that it "won" this comparison.

Of course, there is a caveat. Thinkfree uses client-side Java rather than being pure-Ajax. This gives it a distinct advantage as the Java GUI tools are far more mature than the embryonic Ajax GUIs. Basically, it was a bit of an unfair fight. Which would bother me, except that Thinkfree Office is an excellent product, and deserves the exposure.

So if you find yourself with a need for a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software on the go, keep Thinkfree in mind. It may cost money, but it's quite a bit more convenient than a Linux LiveCD. :)

Re:MS Office Compatability?

[AKAImBatman]

Don't they all use the same Open Office conversion code underneath to read .doc files?

You would be AssUMe-ing too much. For the purposes of Ajax13, I'm fairly certain (based on their serverside messages) that they're using Jakarta POI to read Microsoft Documents. Thinkfree's development actually predates the general availability of OpenOffice and, I believe, uses their own in-house API. (Though I may be incorrect about that last part.) Google uses... whatever Google uses. I don't think the information on their backend is really available.

Long story short, there are more APIs out there than just OpenOffice.

The Java stuff causes problems

[dilute]

I just tried it. The client-side Java wanted to mess with all the security stuff in place in the corporate environment. It just wasn't going to fly. Maybe it will load at home. Anyway, gonna stick with Google docs & spreadsheets. As someone above said, a big feature is its integration with gmail.

Anyone who wants cheap I.T.

[Colin Smith]

Lets see... Desktop PCs, servers, Office Suite, Accounts package, RDBMS, web servers, application server, security software, Windows administrator, server administrator, database administrator... It all adds up.

Now imagine Google does it all for you, all you need is a client application and a network connection. They guarantee performance, security and that your data is yours when you want it. All for $20 per month per seat.

COMING SOON: Google Office Appliance

[Bastardchyld]

disclaimer - this is entirely speculation

You are very correct, however here is the beauty of this whole scenario, after the kinks are ironed out with all of this, then I anticipate that they will release an appliance with the Web/App and storage included (or SAN attachable), allowing for corporations to have their own Office Solution. The real bonus from this comes from the ability to archive and search all from the web/app. Imagine being to be able to search all of the companies documents (assuming your position allows) to find that essential piece of data. This gives you all of the bonuses with minimal pitfalls.

Except of course the single point of failure.

Remember Google and these other companies have to be able to make money some way. Ad supported is fine, but eventually they need to be able to expand.

It could be a LOT better.

[Kadin2048]

The ability to integrate Gmail and D&S could be a big advantage, but frankly I've been a bit disappointed that they haven't leveraged it more obviously.

Case in point: a few days ago someone emailed me a DOC file. Why isn't there an option to open it in D&S? It'll view it as HTML, or Download it, but what I'd really like would be one-click to turn it into an editable, publishable document. As it was, I had to download it, then re-upload it to D&S in order to produce an editable version. Not a huge problem, but if I had been on a computer where I wasn't allowed to save documents, it would have been. It's just stupid to make me pull a document down to my local machine from one Google server, only to upload it back to another Google server a minute later.

Also, when you do have a document open in D&S, why isn't there an option to email a copy to someone? Okay, I know I can invite them to edit it online, and I could always publish it and send them an invite, but why not something where I can send them a DOC version as an email attachment? That's a lot easier for many people to deal with. And while we're at it, how about some form of change tracking that would let me email a copy to someone, let them edit it offline, and then a way to re-import it to D&S (via the one-click, above) so that it would be change-tracked, as if they had logged-in to edit it? Expecting everyone to have a Google ID to edit documents is ridiculous. I can't convince everyone in my family to get Google IDs, much less everyone I'd like to share documents with, everywhere.

I think it's a great service, and a great start. But it has a long way to go, even within becoming part of Google's "suite" of services.

standalone/local

[radarsat1]

I wonder if these could be easily turned into standalone/local versions by bundling a customized web server and browser into an "application".

Or maybe that would be a waste of time.

real-time versioning

[wordsthatendinq]

I've only used Google Docs (which I still prefer to call Writely because it has fewer syllables) though I'm sure the others are similar.

The one feature that I find novel is the way it does revisions, especially for multi-author documents. The Writely revisions interface is looking more and more like MS Word's "track changes" but with the additional benefits that (a) many people can edit at the same time, and (b) you can see all revisions ever made, whereas in Word, once an author overwrites his own revisions you can't see the old version anymore.

What's worked pretty well with a lot of my colleagues these days is to do everything on Writely until the text is complete, then one person downloads it and does the formatting in Word. (Then submit the paper and get rejected, but that happens with or without Writely.)

That said, I still think LaTeX looks the best but I don't know as many people who use it.

Heavy as a schoolbus

[gerf]

Comparing compatibility to MS Office is the same as articles claiming something was "as large as a VW car," "as heavy as two schoolbuses," or "as long as two and a half football fields." It's not a freaking standard, and we shouldn't have to abide by it.

Unfortunately, though, we do. :/

Good for on-the-go people

[RealGrouchy]

At any given time, I could be at home, at one of three offices, or at a random public terminal. (My laptop's broken screen means it's stuck at home :( )

If I need to update one of my tracking spreadsheets, I don't need to worry about whether the computer has a USB outlet (and remember to take it out!), which SD card my file is on, which version of the file is most recent, or whether that computer has the right software to read my file. (Not to mention that office suites tend to take a while to load up)

Every computer that I use has an internet connection and firefox, and I can quickly and reliably log on to Google Spreadsheets to update my spreadsheets.

Now that Google spreadsheets also has a "history" function, I also don't have to worry about constantly saving local backups, either (although my spreadsheets tend to be too big for it to be of much use).

- RG>

Only really good for small-scale use

[compupc1]

I believe these types of thin-client office suites will never move beyond a novelty, at least with the current architecture of the web. Some random reasons why:

• Privacy. Do you really want all your personal, private documents being stored on some remote server?
• Reliability. Not only do you depend on your computer being up, but you also depend on the remote server being up and your network connection being up.
• Mobility. While on one hand, a web-based application does offer greater mobility, it also requires an Internet connection. I can't count the number of times I've worked in a car or at some other location without connectivity.
• Responsiveness. There will always be a latency involved that far exceeds that found on fat clients.
• Capability. I'm sorry, but the whole web 2.0 phenomenon has pushed HTML, CSS, and JavaScript far beyond what they were intended for. As long as we're relying on these technologies, documents created with web applications will never be as capable of the expressiveness of a documents created with a fat client. Using applets or ActiveX or something like Flash would probably mitigate this.
• Development. Thin clients are arguably easier to develop than fat clients. However, as soon as you introduce things like AJAX and complex scripting into the picture, things balloon out of control at an alarming rate. You spend most of your time fighting the basic request/response nature of the web. AJAX is really just one big hack to overcome this. AJAX is nice for adding bits of dynamic functionality to web sites, but it shouldn't be used for stuff like this. In fairness, I should note that better tool support and frameworks like the GWT and RAP will go a long way twoards addressing this.

Say it with me class, "you pick the right technology for the job". Thin clients have their place. Office suites is not one of them.