A new issue of attribute is upon us, and you know what that means. I get to bring you yet another gem from the endless repository of online and technical goodies! For July, I was really pondering a comparison between Google Documents and Zoho -- both of which are touted as online office productivity suites. It was a great premise, but the scope of the article made me realize that it could only work as a two-part series.

In August we’ll look at Google Documents, but for this month, I bring you my thoughts and impressions of Zoho -- specifically Zoho Writer.

Upon first glance at the webpage, it’s clear that Zoho offers numerous options for both the single user and organizations. You’ve got the standard fare one might expect: email, word processing, spreadsheets, & presentations, etc., but there are also applications such as database and wiki creation to be found for those looking for something a little more powerful and robust.

It should be noted here that most of the Zoho web suite is powered through the AJAX (Asynchonous Javascript & XML) programming language. This is advantageous for two very important reasons. First, AJAX is developed at its core to meet “web standard” specifications, meaning that it is designed to have complete functionality regardless of what browser environment (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) it is being used in. Secondly, the Javacript backbone of AJAX is relatively small in size compared to other weighty options -- say Flash for example. Therefore, Zoho’s apps load very quickly in the browser.

Now with that being said, try to imagine my disappointment when I log into my Zoho account in an attempt to create a new document in Writer and get this lovely message at the top of my screen:

“Zoho Writer is not supported in Safari. Please switch to IE 6.0+ or Firefox 2.0+ version for better experience.”

I don’t think this would have bothered me nearly as much if Zoho didn’t go to great pains to tout itself as an online suite that supports web standards. Why spend all this time telling me how great it is that you programmed everything in AJAX (which normally would be great to hear) only to contradict yourself immediately by eliminating my favorite browser from the mix? I very nearly stopped at this point out of frustration, but decided to press onward for the sake of the review.

So what does Writer have going for it? Tabs. I love the tabs. When working with multiple documents in this application, you will see them listed in tabs above your main workspace window. This makes for very quick and efficient switching back and forth between documents when needed. Another thing I liked -- and I can’t believe I’m saying this -- is the welcome document. I actually found it useful in navigating all the features that the application has to offer.

Collaboration is tricky at best. Sure, you can invite any of your contacts to collaborate on a document with you. The kicker, however, is that you can’t see the shared changes without refreshing the browser first. Changes from collaborators should appear in real time; there’s simply no excuse for this. AJAX supports the functionality, and other platforms (namely Google Documents) have successfully integrated this feature into their applications, so why can’t Zoho?

I also wish Zoho Writer had a wider selection of fonts to choose from. If you’re just looking for something quick and easy when it comes to word processing, then you probably don’t care that there are only 24 fonts in Writer. If you’re like me have a flare for the creative and use your word processor for more that just professional looking documents, however, you might have a hard time prying yourself away from your desktop client in favor of this application.

The ability to switch views is slick, though. I always prefer page view, over any normal view in a word processor, and I love that Zoho Writer gives me that option. The HTML view is nice as well if you want to use the application as a makeshift WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for your web content. Essentially, you can create and edit the document as normal and then switch to the HTML post the back-end code in your HTML file via cut and paste.

I’m not quite sure what they’re going for with this post-to-blog feature; Wordpress offers me so many options when it comes to posting and customizing my content. I just can’t imagine a scenario where I would choose Zoho Writer over the standard method of posting my blog entries. This one just confuses me.

The spell check and thesaurus seem to work well, but that’s like congratulating the sun for shining. These are features I expect any word processing software to include. Still, glad to see that at least go the basics right.

All in all, when it comes to Zoho Writer (and Zoho’s other apps) there are things to love, things to hate, and thinks to scratch your head about. Mostly, this is a byproduct of the fact that online productivity is an emerging concept. There are still tons of kinks to work out. Lack of support for Safari is nearly unforgivable. Zoho really has to fix this pronto, especially given its promotion of AJAX as the backbone for the platform.

Stop by next month for my thoughts on the current state of Google Documents. See you next time.