Sunday, February 22, 2009

Web-based productivity applications: Interesting, but of limited use to me

As directed in Thing 18, I tried to use Zoho Writer, but there was something wrong with it. No toolbars appeared and there was no option to save the document. I tried Zoho (Spread)Sheet, which worked a lot better as a very simple spreadsheet. I also tried the Zoho Show, which seemed like a dumbed-down and temperamental PowerPoint. (Not that PowerPoint can't be temperamental, too.)

I guess the best feature is document sharing, although I don't know with whom I would collaborate with enough gusto to warrant use of these web-based productivity applications. My serious collaboration happens inside the firewall, where Microsoft reigns supreme.

Therefore, I have no real use for Zoho, as I am covered inside the firewall and, outside the firewall, there are so many other ways to share information with friends: Facebook, Blogs, etc. However, it's nice to know about. One never knows what the future will hold!

BTW, I am writing this in and publishing this post from Google Docs because of my difficulties with Zoho. I suspect I would be more likely to use Google for this type of thing than Zoho anyway; it's just easier and, in my mind, a very trustworthy tool.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,

Sorry about the issue faced by you.

Believe you were accessing your documents in view-only mode from Zoho Docs and that could be the reason for the toolbar not showing up.

Can you please try accessing Zoho Writer directly from the url : "http://writer.zoho.com" and let us know your observations.

Do send us the browser details and screenshot of the Writer UI to support(at)zohowriter(dot)com, in case the issue continues to persist.

Warm Regards,
Ahmed
http://zoho.com