Some Background

Online office tools are rapidly gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional desktop office productivity tools such as Microsoft Office.  In my last post, I compared several popular online spreadsheet programs.  For this post, I focused on reviewing online word processors.

There are several online word processors available on the market today.  For this comparison, I focused on 4 of the more popular online word processors; Google Docs, ThinkFree Office, Adobe Buzzword, and Zoho Writer.

The main focus of this comparison was to see how each of the online word processors were able to import a small Microsoft Word document that included some advanced items like headers and footers, graphics, and bullets and formatting.  You can download the file that was tested here.

For the comparison, I looked at the following word processing elements:

• Header/Footers
• Fonts
• Paragraphs and Spacing
• Bullets/Formatting
• Graphics
• User Interface
• Support of Advanced Features

The sections below describe the findings of my comparison:

The Comparison

Google Docs:
Google is the 800 pound gorilla of the online office suites.  I think this is mainly based on the pure size of Google’s user base though, because I

Google Docs Word Processor

don’t really feel like they have the best product.   Overall, the Word document that I imported did reasonably well.

Some of the problems I saw with the import to Google included only a partial import of the header and footers, image editing that was not as seamless or robust as the other programs, a user interface that was just average and did not include a large amount of features, and a lack of support for advanced Microsoft Word features like VBA, mail merges, and reviewing.

On the positive note, Google Docs did a good job importing the fonts, formatting, and bullets.  They also offer some additional features that are not found in the other programs like the ability to create JavaScript macros as well as translation functions.

Overall Grade: B-
Brief Quote: “Average import and user interface with some advanced features, but still feels like it’s a few years off from catching Microsoft Office”

ThinkFree Office
ThinkFree offers the most Office-like feel for a program (as was the case in the online spreadsheet comparison) and is what I believe to be the

ThinkFree Word Processor

most intuitive for users of Microsoft products.

ThinkFree did an excellent job importing the fonts, paragraphs, bullets, and graphics.  They also did the best in importing the header and footer formatting that was included with the Word document.   The user interface was very intuitive and offered several nice features, including a drop-down zoom button, good graphic editing capabilities, and a very intuitive feel for the menu file drop-down buttons.

Where ThinkFree lacked was in its advanced word processing abilities.  From what I could tell, ThinkFree did not have the ability to create mail merges, conduct reviews, or create any kind of macros.  The program is also very slow.

Overall, I feel that ThinkFree offers the best interface for standard word processing documents, but falls short when it comes to advanced features.

Overall Grade: B+
Brief Quote: “Most Office-like with best import, but is slow and lacks advanced features”

Adobe Buzzword
I actually wasn’t even aware that Adobe had an online word processor until I started to do research for this post.   I’m not sure how long it has

Adobe Buzzword Word Processor

been around, but I was pleasantly surprised with its features.

Overall, I would say that Buzzword is further behind than all the other online word processors, but they still offer a very nice, albeit limited, word processor.  They do have a very nice looking user interface as well as the best graphical editing capabilities of any of the programs, but they do not have a lot of features beyond the standard word processing features.

From a document formatting standpoint, Buzzword faired reasonably well, the header and footers, paragraphs, bullets, and graphics imported similar to all the other programs.  Their downfall is their lack of support for any advanced word processing features.

Overall Grade: C+
Brief Quote: “Nice interface and graphic capabilities, but almost no advanced features.”

Zoho
When I compared online spreadsheets, Zoho Sheet was the clear winner.  When it comes to word processors, I feel they still have some work to

Zoho Writer Word Processor

do.   Zoho still has some nice advanced features, an intuitive and nice looking user interface, and a strong user base so I’m still hopeful that improvements will push the program forward.

From a user interface and functionality standpoint, I would place Zoho Writer somewhere between Google Docs and ThinkFree.   The import capabilities are much more similar to Google Docs, but the user interfaces has more of an Office-like feel similar to ThinkFree.

One of the bright spots of Zoho is their ability to develop mail merges and conduct reviews on their documents, something I did not see in the other programs.  Overall, I think Zoho is a nice program, but still is a little bit clunky when importing or developing new documents.

Overall Grade: B
Brief Quote: “Nice Features and user interface, but still feels a little clunky.”

In Summary

Overall, all of the online word processors I reviewed had value and each had something unique to offer.   Based on the grading system I used, it is difficult to say if there is a clear-cut winter, but I do think that ThinkFree has the best user interface and import qualities, Zoho does not have as nice of a user’s interface as ThinkFree, but still offers something that is functional with some advanced features that cannot be found in any of the other programs.

Although Google Docs ranked third, it still is a viable option, especially if you want to incorporate JavaScript macros or are a heavy Google Apps user.   Adobe Buzzword has a good user’s interface and is a nice option for basic word processing, but lacks any advanced features.

The one program that I did not evaluate was Microsoft Web Apps.  This is due to the fact that the full version of Microsoft’s online version of Office is not released yet.  From the previews I have seen, it does look promising though.

If you notice from my grading, none of the online word processors received anything greater than a ‘B+’ grade.  I feel that all online word processors still have some work to do before they will be able to truly compete with Microsoft Office and all of its advanced features.   The desktop version of the Office suite still far and away offers the best user interface and advanced features.    Over the next few years, I feel this will change, but for now Microsoft still has some time to develop an online office suite that can compete with the others.

Related Articles:
A Brief Comparison of Online Spreadsheets
3 Reasons to Not Switch to Google Docs
Online Alternatives to Microsoft Office