THING #13  Web-based applications

ZOHO - I created this document in ZOHO writer. 

This is my first experience with ZOHO. Is that like SOHO - sort of rebellious and outside the norm? So far it looks just like any other word processor. It has all the same buttons and functions. I think any word processing application these days has to have the same capabilities in order to be competitive. It even has the spellcheck capability. This is good because there is virtually no learning curve in moving to a new application.

I guess the big advantage to ZOHO is that it is free. The cost of a MS Office software can be prohibitive, so I guess a free alternative is a benefit. The only caveat would be, if you're going to interact with the rest of the world, your files need to be readable by MS Word. Let's try . . .

Well . . . you don't "save it as" like in Word. You export it as a word document and it looks just the same. Good deal. 

The presentation program also looks just like PowerPoint - but very minimal functions. If you have the MS Office products, stay with them. If you can't afford them, these are a good alternative. 

GOOGLE DOCS    This is a Google docs presentation file with my comments.

Both of these freewares seem to be viable alternatives, but you better remember to save to a format the rest of the world can read.