Online word processors: ajaxWrite, ThinkFree Online, Writely, and Zohu Writer

[mandy]

The last year has seen the first appearance of online word processing applications such as ajaxWrite, ThinkFree Online, Writely, and Zoho Writer. Online office applications are an unproven product in a new market. To see how worthwhile they were, I compared their interfaces, basic and advanced features, and their document export and administration capabilities. The results are not only a summary of the four applications' strengths and weaknesses, but also an indication of how far online word processors still have to go before they can match their desktop counterparts...

Conclusion

In most ways, online word processors have still to prove themselves. While they ought to be attractive to users of proprietary software, they offer few if any advantages over free software equivalents for the desktop. Moreover, although they advertise that they are available from any location, all are dependent on Internet access, which none can guarantee will be uninterrupted. Nor do any of them provide any guarantee of privacy.

As for features, in many cases, the usability of online word processors depends largely on what you can do without...

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