Online tools are relatively new and still have some kinks to work out, but for the most part work well for everyday use.  They generally do not have all of the features as Microsoft Office, but still do a reasonably good job.

Three very good online tools are Google Docs, Zoho, and ThinkFree.  The nice thing with each of these is that your files are kept on the company’s server, so as long as you have internet access, you can access your files.

Google Docs is a nice alternative to Office, but don’t expect to be writing long reports or crunching lots of data in spreadsheets with it.   At this point, I feel that it is more suitable for small spreadsheets or documents that don’t require a lot of formatting.

Zoho is actually a large suite of office productivity tools that extend far beyond spreadsheet, word processors, and presentation software.   The spreadsheet and word processors are a notch above Google’s in my opinion, but they lack the web infrastructure and ability to easily connect that Google has.

ThinkFree also offers an online spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation software.  From my tests, I think that ThinkFree does the best job at converting Microsoft Office documents and also offers the most robust of the three online office programs.

There are actually several other online spreadsheet/office productivity suites on the market, but I have not played around with them very much.  We will have to wait to see how Products like SkyDrive, Smartsheet, Sheetster, Feng Office, and Contact Office fare.

Overall, I feel that online office suites are still in their infancy, but are getting better and more robust everyday.  For light spreadsheet and writing medium sized memos or reports, they work pretty well.

One of the things I hope to do with this blog is to provide additional information on the details of online office suites – so stay tuned!

-TW