Best sites for taking Office files online

Both Office and OpenOffice are tied to a specific computer. Where Incompatible operating systems are a problem plus if you long to store your office suite documents in the Internet cloud — where you can reach them any time from any Internet-connected PC try:

1) Google Docs with the recent addition of Google Gears offline caching, you can even view and edit your Google Docs when you board a flight or are otherwise unable to access the Net. Share the files with other Google Docs users. Publish documents to your blog with just a couple of clicks. And that Google Docs can also be seamlessly integrated with Gmail.

Create, edit and upload quickly
Import your existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, or create new ones from scratch.

Access and edit from anywhere
All you need is a Web browser. Your documents, spreadsheets and presentations are stored securely online.

Share changes in real-time
Invite people to your documents and make changes together, at the same time.

It's free
You don't pay a nickel.

As with OpenOffice, be sure to upload, open, and print a representative sampling of your existing documents in Google Docs to check for compatibility before you make a permanent switch. Google's Web-hosted document, spreadsheet, and presentation apps offer far fewer features than their counterparts in MS Office and OpenOffice.


2) ThinkFree Online View a document without opening it in the Office program. ThinkFree Online is a Microsoft Office compatible office suite launched within your web browser or desktop client. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations can be created online, or uploaded from your desktop V. It's a perfect solution for people who commute or travel and for people who use shared computers for their work. Overview.

3) Zoho Office a Web service that offers feature-rich word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. The online applications are free for individuals and some have a subscription fee for organizations. Zoho offers free versions of all its software including the business oriented applications uch as CRM for entrepreneurs and startups who need an immediate solution for tracking their sales activities.

Zoho Office matches Google Docs' offline support via Google Gears (in the Writer application only) and provides a dozen more free apps. Zoho even has a plug-in for Microsoft Office that lets you open, edit, and save Zoho-hosted files in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint themselves. You can do the same trick with an extension called OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs. This bit of software is available on the OpenOffice.org site. Despite its name, the OpenOffice extension also supports Zoho and WebDAV servers. Microsoft offers a similar tool through its free Office Live Workspace. The software giant reportedly also plans to make online capabilities a part of the upcoming Office 2010.

Mobility adds a new dimension in collaborative editing which are unique to online applications. Online office applications do have their limitations and they don't yet offer whatever their offline counterparts offer today. It is a matter of time you'll see greater improvements with Online office suites which are just 2 years old and probably can be compared to early versions of mobile phones vs wired line.

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