After covering some free offline suites in the last post, it's time to look at the free online alternatives to the over priced Microsoft Office. These services are a great way of safely storing your important documents online, even if your computer crashes or something. Some come with additional perks like direct blog publishing and instant document sharing. They do have certain limitations on the maximum uploading size for documents, maximum free online storage etc. Thankfully, these limitations do not matter most of the time.
Google Docs (Google Inc.)
Google Docs is presently the most popular online office suite out there. It
includes a word processor, a presentation tool and a spreadsheet, all three being sufficiently packed with features. With Google Docs, you can open and edit Office files already present on your computer, or the ones you receive by mail. The best thing about Docs is it's clear and self-explanatory interface which makes your work all the more easier.
The options may look minimalistic, but there is almost everything packed in there. The organizing facility in Docs is great - you can create separate folders to store your files, bookmark the important ones and instantly share them with your Gmail contacts. There are some limitations like:
Ajax13 (Ajax13 Inc.)
Ajax13 is a combo of basic office and entertainment applications i.e, a word processor (ajaxWrite), a presentation tool (ajaxPresents), a spreadsheet (ajaxXLS), a drawing tool (ajaxSketch) and a web-based music player (ajaxTunes). The apps load in a jiffy and include all important features. You can create a free account at Ajax13 to avail the 1GB online storage capacity - enough for most to store all their documents. Ajax13 supports only Mozilla Firefox (1.5+) and other Firefox based browsers, as of now.
Ajax13 Home
ThinkFree Online (ThinkFree Corp.)
ThinkFree is one of the "wow-it-looks-great" online office suites out there, and an online word processor (Write), presentation tool (Show) and spreadsheet application (Calc). A ThinkFree Online account will give you 1GB free online storage. However, only file sizes within 10MB can be opened / edited with ThinkFree Online.
ThinkFree goes a step ahead of Docs and Ajax13 by providing a premium version of it's suite (currently in beta). You can download this version to your computer and use it as any other normal offline suite. All the documents created offline via ThinkFree Premium will be automatically synchronized with your online account. ThinkFree also features ThinkFree Docs, an online community of publishers who share a variety of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can search the Docs database, download the files you want / like and upload your own files to the server. Other features include maximum compatibility with Microsoft Office, direct publishing to blogs and direct export to PDF format. ThinkFree is neither as easy nor as fast as Google Docs or Ajax13, but it's definitely worth the try if you are looking for something more than just an office suite.
ThinkFree Online Home
Zoho (AdventNet Inc.)
Zoho has the most extensive application tools of all mentioned here. It has got everything you can possibly want for official work - from the basic word processor to a database manager to a collaboration groupware to a chatting client. This snapshot shows all the 20 tools that you can avail with a free Zoho account (some of them with limitations):
The Zoho application tools are feature rich and support all the major native formats. There is also a single click publish button, with which you can directly publish to your blog from Zoho Writer.
Zoho is the one for you if you aren't someone to compromise.
Zoho Home
--- Zoho has recently released iZoho, an iPhone version of it's popular suite.
Thus ends the list of ten excellent suites that can completely substitute your Microsoft Office. None of these cost a dime, so just try them out and stick with the one you like.
:)
[Note]
I am not aware of the the limitations on upload size, storage capacity etc. in Zoho and Ajax13. Please inform me by a comment or by mail if you do know them. :)
Google Docs (Google Inc.)
Google Docs is presently the most popular online office suite out there. It
includes a word processor, a presentation tool and a spreadsheet, all three being sufficiently packed with features. With Google Docs, you can open and edit Office files already present on your computer, or the ones you receive by mail. The best thing about Docs is it's clear and self-explanatory interface which makes your work all the more easier.The options may look minimalistic, but there is almost everything packed in there. The organizing facility in Docs is great - you can create separate folders to store your files, bookmark the important ones and instantly share them with your Gmail contacts. There are some limitations like:There is a limit on how much a user can store on his/her account. Each document must be under 500k plus 2MB for each embedded image. Each spreadsheet must be under 10,000 rows, 256 columns, 100,000 cells and under 40 sheets. A user can have a total of 5,000 documents and presentations, 5,000 images and 1,000 spreadsheets. The maximum number of spreadsheets that one can open at one time is 11. Only presentations under 10MB can be imported. User access to Google Docs is currently supported through Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Safari. (Source : Wikipedia)
You need to have a Google account (your existing account will do) to access Google Docs.
Docs Home
Ajax13 (Ajax13 Inc.)
Ajax13 is a combo of basic office and entertainment applications i.e, a word processor (ajaxWrite), a presentation tool (ajaxPresents), a spreadsheet (ajaxXLS), a drawing tool (ajaxSketch) and a web-based music player (ajaxTunes). The apps load in a jiffy and include all important features. You can create a free account at Ajax13 to avail the 1GB online storage capacity - enough for most to store all their documents. Ajax13 supports only Mozilla Firefox (1.5+) and other Firefox based browsers, as of now.
Ajax13 Home
ThinkFree Online (ThinkFree Corp.)
ThinkFree is one of the "wow-it-looks-great" online office suites out there, and an online word processor (Write), presentation tool (Show) and spreadsheet application (Calc). A ThinkFree Online account will give you 1GB free online storage. However, only file sizes within 10MB can be opened / edited with ThinkFree Online.
ThinkFree goes a step ahead of Docs and Ajax13 by providing a premium version of it's suite (currently in beta). You can download this version to your computer and use it as any other normal offline suite. All the documents created offline via ThinkFree Premium will be automatically synchronized with your online account. ThinkFree also features ThinkFree Docs, an online community of publishers who share a variety of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can search the Docs database, download the files you want / like and upload your own files to the server. Other features include maximum compatibility with Microsoft Office, direct publishing to blogs and direct export to PDF format. ThinkFree is neither as easy nor as fast as Google Docs or Ajax13, but it's definitely worth the try if you are looking for something more than just an office suite.ThinkFree Online Home
Zoho (AdventNet Inc.)
Zoho has the most extensive application tools of all mentioned here. It has got everything you can possibly want for official work - from the basic word processor to a database manager to a collaboration groupware to a chatting client. This snapshot shows all the 20 tools that you can avail with a free Zoho account (some of them with limitations):
The Zoho application tools are feature rich and support all the major native formats. There is also a single click publish button, with which you can directly publish to your blog from Zoho Writer.Zoho is the one for you if you aren't someone to compromise.Zoho Home
--- Zoho has recently released iZoho, an iPhone version of it's popular suite.
Thus ends the list of ten excellent suites that can completely substitute your Microsoft Office. None of these cost a dime, so just try them out and stick with the one you like.
:)
[Note]
I am not aware of the the limitations on upload size, storage capacity etc. in Zoho and Ajax13. Please inform me by a comment or by mail if you do know them. :)
