Mark Mahoney e-mailed me about a week ago and told me I should check-out the ZOHO website. I was familiar with it as a site, but have never really used it. I’ve always just considered the investment cost of having the latest version of Office just one of those expenses that would pay back through a variety of different avenues. I’ve also been lucky enough to win copies of Office 2000 Premium and Office 2003 at some tech conventions or Microsoft events. If that weren’t the case though, checking out some free options for office productivity suites would enter more boldly into my realm of reality.

Mark said this about ZOHO though.

I think you should do a post on some free sites like http://www.zoho.com, an online word processor, slide show creator and much more that allows you to write a paper, with spell check and all, and access it online from any computer. This saves you from having to attach a Word file to your emails, which some computers can’t even open correctly.

Mark, I’ve done as you suggested and taken a look at the ZOHO website. All I can say is that this site seems to have added loads of new features and applications to its list of available solutions for users.

Just look at this list of features:

web-based email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, document management, notes, wiki, file share, organizer and planning, chat, CRM, invoicing, web-conferencing, database apps, reporting and business intelligence, recruiting and HR management, and more.

I’ve not used any of these services, but I can tell you this, the next time somebody asks me about some alternatives to Microsoft Office, I’ll think about ZOHO first now instead of Google Apps.

Even if you already own Office though, there are plug-ins that are available that allow you to integrate some of the features and functionality into Office from ZOHO. It also works with your iPhone, Facebook or Windows Mobile device.

What’s been your experience with ZOHO apps? Have you loved it? Too many problems to mention? What do you think?

Post from: Uncover the Internet