Technical Reviews and Free Cellphone / Mobile downloads

In my previous post we saw Google Docs and Google Spread sheets, today I wanted to review another online word processor or a what you can call an online ‘document’er : Zoho Writer. If you want to use Zoho as a regular user, then the features offered by Zoho is more than what you can ask for. It has a broad set of of editing features. But if you want to use it as a power user, then these features may not be enough, so we can say that Zoho is a mixed bag

If you have your files in the form of Microsoft Word documents, or OpenOffice files or even some snippets from  web, you can easily import them into Zoho. This along with the ability to view any of these documents in tabs (just like in Mozilla Firefox), is a neat touch to the look and feel of Zoho.

But once you start using it, you’ll notice that all the buttons in Zoho are designed very much like Microsoft Word’s, but the functionality handled by them does not equate to the same as that of Word. This, for me was a bit confusing as I’m used to Word and then was trying Zoho. May be for those who try Zoho Microsoft word, it might make sense, but I really doubt if we’ll find any soul who’s never come across Microsoft word ;).

Like all other online document processors, so called Zoho’s competitors (Google Spread sheets is definitely one), Zoho allows multiple people working on the same page at once and allows user to share the documents. Other users can read, edit or create new documents in your network.

One strong feature, which keeps Zoho different from most of its competitors is the fact that we can export the created document into number of formats. On the top of my list is I could export the document I created to PDF format. We can also achieve cross-platform support without looking for any other expensive software. Some of the other formats we can export the document as Word, HTML, RTF file or OpenOffice.

Some of the drawbacks of the Zoho Writer are:

1> The layout isn’t as appealing as some of its competitors. Its document menu isn’t intuitive. You’ll probably have to do some searching to find what you need.

2> Zoho’s failed miserably as they try to mimic Microsoft Word but most of the functionalities are not same.

Also, help features are somewhat lacking. You’ll have to learn how to use the program through experimenting, as a help menu is non-existent.

But one feature many will appreciate is the ability to customize menus. You can hide the buttons that you don’t use, leaving more room for working on your document!

Description

• File Support: Word files, HTML, XML, plain text, RTF, and Word templates. Graphics also supported.
• File Support (saving): Saves as Word files, HTML, RTF, PDF, and plain text.
• Blogs: You can publish documents to your blog, although only limited blog types are supported.
• Help: Support needs improvement. Instead of consulting a help menu, you’ll have to experiment.

Pros

• Free online word processing software
• Support for multiple document types
• Export documents to PDF
• Tabbed viewing of documents
• Customizable

Cons

• Limited help
• Confusing buttons