The fact that Microsoft has been talking about releasing the next version of Office for oh so long, it’s not like we don’t have options anymore. We used to need Office in order to be productive, but not so much anymore with suites like Open Office, Zoho, and Google Docs available.

Now, I love Google Docs, and I have to admit, I’m not using it nearly as much as I should be considering how much I adore it. I suspect it’s that ‘old habits die hard’ axiom.

Don Reisinger has introduced me to a new suite that I wasn’t aware of yet – ThinkFree Office Online.  It sounds fantastic, and I actually can’t wait to check it out.  What impressed me about ThinkFree Office Online is the praise Don heaped on it:

ThinkFree Online offers all the “must-have” features available in Microsoft Office like a rich toolbar, a ruler bar, and an interface that offers simplicity and delivers the same feel as Word, Excel, or Powerpoint. Creating a document is simple and working with spreadsheets is a treat thanks to the tens of thousands of rows it provides, along with just about any formula that comes to mind. [source]

I’m thinking at this point, it might be time to switch. I’m pretty sure Microsoft Office has something to be concerned about with all the online, open source and free options out there. Maybe Google Docs has something to worry about in ThinkFree as well….

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Microsoft’s Stranglehold on Office Suites

And now, Zoho has opened themselves up to an SQL database. You can now:

• Use SQL to interact with your business data stored across Zoho services
• Use any major SQL dialect (ANSI, Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2, MySQL and more)
• Support for JDBC and ODBC drivers for transparent and easy connectivity
• Implement in both traditional in house software and hosted/SaaS (Software as a Service) applications

Essentially, you can now access your business data stored on the zoho cloud through an SQL database, which means that your data will rarely be unreachable and Zoho shouldn’t go down. Shouldn’t.

Post from: EveryJoe

Zoho Goes to the Cloud

So what is Gears and where can you get it to work? It’s this fantastic little plug in that Google created, which serves up offline content or provide you with content based on your geographical location. I use Gears primarily for offline use of  Google docs and Google Reader (the most recent 2,000 items). Gears was designed to be used on both Google and non-Google sites. Remember the Milk and the Zoho Office Suite have been using Gears since it’s launch. Personally, I don’t think I could live without Gears now, it’s simply just far too useful.

Installing and using Gears is super fast and easy.  You’ll have to be connected to the internet when you do this of course, because it does require a download. You can get Gears here, and then simply save the file somewhere you’ll remember it. Then, open the file and install it like you would any program.  You’ll need to restart your browser for Gears to activate.

Once you’ve got the plug in installed, you’ll see a little green down arrow like this:

That indicates that you’ve got Gears installed, and when you click on it, you’ll start the download of offline content. I’m actually going through this for Google Reader, but Gears is a pretty intuitive plug in. When you use a site that plays nicely with Gears, you’ll be asked if you want to allow the site to use Gears. If you’d like to enable Gears for the site, check ‘I trust this site. Allow it to use Gears,’ and click the Allow button.

So, if you’re in Google Reader, and you ask the site to go offline, you get this box.

Wait for the download to finish, and Presto! You’re offline. (Ok, I totally stole that from Boingo, but that made me giggle yesterday when the box popped up and told me that Presto! I was online!).

Once you’ve got all the sites you want set up for offline use, simply open your browser and go to the site to use. Gears will serve up your offline information and you’re good to go.

One note of caution: when you’re using Google Docs (and I’m guessing it’s the same for Zoho) offline, you won’t be able to create new documents. You’ll only be able to edit and work on the documents you created when you were online.

(image source: Google Reader via screenshot)

Post from: EveryJoe

Google Gears

Introduced during the Office 2.0 Conference recently, Zoho Docs now allows users manage Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations created using their tools. Now, it can be stored and manage in a central place insid ethe Zoho Docs environment. Still, with this upgrade, you can share your documents for collaboration, label your documents, and allow control access.

With  Zoho Docs, your Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show are now integrated in one environment which makes you easy to move around and edit files.

Zoho Docs gives you 1GB of storage space and allows unlimited users.

Here’s a video preview of Zoho Docs:

[ via Zoho Blog ]

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A Centralized Zoho Docs

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Some Zoho Show Updates

[ via Zoho Writer Blog ]

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Zoho Writer Update: Import Documents from Google Docs to Zoho Writer, Equation Editor, and LaTeX Export

You have Lotus Symphony from IBM, a free office suite, available for Windows and Linux users. Also, you can try OpenOffice.org, an open-source office suite and can be tweaked with add-ons to it.

If you find it time-consuming to download and install these software, you have the choice to try out online office suites like Google Docs and Zoho. Both allows online collaboration and document sharing, making it more easy to work online.

There are many reasons to try out these tools but if you are looking to reduce licensing costs or avoid piracy, try them out.

Post from: EveryJoe

Choosing the right Microsoft Office Alternatives

Choosing the right tools for your virtual office is really a crucial tasks. I must admit it was not easy but with proper tuning and selection of tools, you will arrive to your desired virtual office. It won’t be that expensive, most of the tools are free actually.

What exactly do you need?

Since you will mostly interact with clients online, you need to setup your communication tools. Common communication methods used are email, IMs, voice chats and conferencing. If you have corporate email account, you can set it up with MS Outlook or Thunderbird.

For IMs and voice conferences, you can use Skype, GTalk, or Yahoo! Messenger. All are free for download and is easy to setup. Please get your headset and microphones ready anytime; accessible when needed.

For your suite tool, you can try the online office suites like Google Docs and Zoho; try also to use Google Apps for you to have an small enterprise appeal. Both suite offers a lot of features like project management tools, scheduling, email solutions, backup, etc.

Well, with the right internet connection speed, you will find these tools easy to work with; with nothing much to spend but download it for free. There are more tools online fore free, just explore. Enjoy!

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What do you need to build your Virtual Office?

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A Zoho Writer Screencast

If you’re phone runs on a Window Mobile platform, then try this one. With your mobile phone’s Internet Explorer, go to http://mobile.zoho.com to access your Zoho Account. Currently, it is for file viewing documents only and will soon come the editing features.

Since it has Google Gears functionalities added to it, now you can do offline editing with Zoho Writer Mobile. A video is presented below, demonstrating the functionalities of the Zoho Writer Mobile offline support.

[ via ]

Post from: EveryJoe

Zoho Writer now with offline mobile support via Google Gear