The notebook applications – online and off

The next step in human evolution or just a good place to park your data?

In our previous discussion on how to organize information using outliners, mindmaps, files and even 3x5 cards, we discussed some of the advantages of using notebook applications which are, essentially, free-form databases. It might be an exaggeration to say that these applications are the next evolutionary step in human memory capacity, but they sure can be useful.

If you want to use a notebook application, there are some wonderful choices for you to consider. Here is my take of the advantages and disadvantages of the various offerings.

Springpad emphasizes social networking tools rather than just collecting data. It is primarily a web application which can also be accessed using Android and iPhones and iPads — no downloadable PC or Mac apps, yet. Springpad has some unique features, like the ability to scan a bar code with your phone to import the info on the product (say, a book) directly into Springpad. It also has a digital felt board area where you can arrange different pages in a notebook on a wall. (Unfortunately, this feature appears only to work in Chrome and Safari so far).

You can create notebook pages, tasks and add things to a “Look it up” area. You can also create both public and private RSS feeds. Presumably, other Springpad users can look through your public RSS feeds to see what you are following. This fits in with the “Friends Stuff” (which, grammatically, should be “Friends’ Stuff”), which allows you to choose which Facebook friends to follow to see their favorite books, movies, games, TV shows, and places. The interface facilitates sharing info (recipes, recommended books, films, restaurants), which makes it great for online communities. I never found Springpad a useful place for individuals. People who value privacy probably should avoid Springpad (and, apparently, Facebook, too). Some features may only work with Chrome browsers.

Springnote. Although the name is similar, Springnote takes a very different approach from Springpad. When you create a notebook you decide whether it will be private (personal, but allowing you to share with others) or a group notebook (which is more like a wiki environment where all members can view, create and add information). Since sharing information is an important part of Springnote, you can use your RSS feed application (such as Google Reader) to show updates to other members’ notebooks. You can add other members to your “watch” list, and use search tools to find content you are interested in. Once you visit another person’s notebooks, you can leave comments.

Springnote appears to have one of the best text editors of the notebook apps, allowing you pretty full formatting of text, including list and paragraph styles. You can also export a Springnote page to your blog – which might be particularly useful if you want a group to take a wiki approach to creating blog posts.

Likewise, Springnote’s wiki approach allows you to easily create workspaces for formal and informal work groups with other users around the world. You can allocate different permissions for reading and editing.

Among the other features are a Dashboard, similar to what you find on project management applications. You can easily see which pages have been updated, add tags, organize pages into a tree structure (like an outliner), view page histories and download HTML backups of files.

Membership is free and you get up to 2 GB free storage. In addition to working online, you can use iPhone and iPad applicatons, but there doesn’t appear to be an Android app.

If you need fairly complete word processing tools, want to connect your notebook to your blog, or want to create an ad hoc or permanent wiki-style work group, Springnote might be a very attractive option if you don’t have to work off-line or use non-iOS equipment.

übernote has fewer social tools and its main use is to take actual notes. (What a radical idea!) If you don’t need to share notes with others or create workgroups, überNote is a nice online option. You can create check-off lists, tag information, collect web references (with their übermark tool) or just import the entire page. There is a lightning tag you can use for important notes and reminders.

The main application is online, but you can access it from phones and use additional tools to collect information via browsers. UberNote includes free and paid levels, but will be adding a more expensive premium level which will include SSL secure connections, use of folders to collect different pages, more and larger files, and a new voice to note utility.

Zoho Notebook  Previously, Zoho’s notebook was a very basic and boring notebook application; it’s main attraction was that it was part of a large application suite. Today’s Zoho Notebook (in beta) has grown to include many of the features of OneNote and Evernote and beyond. It lets you store text, graphics, audio, video, HTML, and you can also embed URLs, RSS, lists, Zoho writer docs, spreadsheets, presentations, and files. You can also create well-formatted text files and spreadsheets directly within the notebook with its mini-Writer and mini-Sheet tools.

You can share notebooks with others and publish them, too. It does have a few features that Evernote doesn't have: You can embed videos in Zoho Notebook. (You can attach short videos in Evernote, but it doesn’t appear that you can watch them within Evernote.) You can create functioning spreadsheets in Zoho, Evernote just uses tables, and Zoho’s formatting tools are superior to Evernote.

If you use Zoho as your main office workspace, combining the Notebook and Zoho’s clipping bookmark might be a nice way to centralize all your research in one location. But there are no desktop or phone applications for Zoho Notebook as there are for Evernote. Individuals may use all of Zoho’s applications for free. Feature-wise, Zoho is creating an impressive multi-media data collection tool.

Microsoft OneNote is a well done but more complicated program with PC, online, and Windows Phone and iPhone apps (no Mac or Android versions). You must buy one of the Office 2010 suites for the latest version, it’s not sold separately. (OneNote 2007 does not sync with the newer online OneNote pages.) Like all Microsoft programs, it is feature-rich and allows you to select commands in many ways (ensuring a longer learning curve). The lack of tags is, in my opinion, a major weakness of the program as is its search function. However, with web, installed and Sharepoint tools, it can be a powerful information resource for teams in a business setting. If you already own Office 2010, by all means give it a look. For me, the lack of Android support and the necessity of buying an entire Office suite to upgrade are fatal weaknesses.

Evernote. One of the ways that Evernote blows its competition out of the water is its almost universal accessibility. There are downloadable desktop versions for both Macintosh OS X and Windows; apps for iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Palm, WebOS and Windows Phone 7, and it works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and other browsers, including various clipping and reading tools. You can also submit clips via email and send tweets to Evernote by adding “MyEN” to the tweet. (You can set up a circle in Google+ specifically to forward any of your messages to Evernote.) You can also share notes with your Facebook friends, and with Google contacts.

Evernote offers universal file synchronization for plain and formatted text, images, audio, photographs and PDFs. A great feature is its ability to search for and index text from within images and PDF files. So, for example, you can take a picture of a whiteboard presentation with your phone and send it to Evernote online. Evernote will search the photo for text and index that text for easy search. That picture and keywords will sync with your desktop app, too.

For free accounts: you can upload up to 60 megabytes/month free. (I’ve never exceeded it.) You can share access to your notes or publish them to the web with an URL. (Shared editing takes a paid account, however.)

Paid accounts cost $5 per month or $45 per year, and allow you to upload up to 1 GB of data per month. You can sync any file format as long as the file size is under 25 Mb. The paid accounts also add secure SSL encryption, priority tech support, priority image recognition (to find searchable text), and no ads. It will also search PDFs for text and index the text. Another paid advantage is the ability to store your complete Evernote collection on your smart phone, so you can access your notes even when not connected to the internet. Other premium services are collaboration capabilities and the option to allow others to edit shared pages. There are discounted memberships for three or more sharing an account for a workgroup.

In the past year, the company has begun developing additional programs to augment Evernote. Its first new app, Skitch, allows you to edit and draw on photographs which you can then send to Evernote or to other applications. Evernote Clearly is a browser app which allows you to read web articles in a variety of fonts and sizes without all the background ads and rigmarole (similar to Readability, but quicker). Clearly also works with Evernote’s clipping tools to allow you to save selections or entire articles in Evernote. Evernote Food is designed for foodies who like to photograph and write about their culinary experiences, so far only available for iOS. Evernote is also developing Hello, which is a people manager (much like a contact manager), but your contacts can help create their own profile. Rumors are that a new advanced To Do list manager is in the works for release sometime soon.

There is also a huge number of outside utilities designed to work with Evernote. One, Call Trunk, is an internet phone service to make phone calls, record them, and upload the sound files to Evernote, where you can add your own notes and even transcribe the files. It works with Android, iPhone and Blackberry phones and even integrates with your phone’s contact manager.

There are many other tools, including over 100 phone and tablet apps to connect info (scans, business card photos, handwritten notes) with Evernote – mostly for iOS but also Android and others, too. There are many other desktop and web accessible applications which connect your info with Evernote, including webcasting and groupware applications. Hardware manufacturers from scanners to smart pens, to Wacom tablets, to VAIO computers include software to connect with Evernote also. It’s hard to think of any net-based program that is better connected. You can find these apps on Evernote’s own web store called TheTrunk. There are also free applications and notebooks to share.

Evernote Essentials is a PDF book by Brett Kelly just on using Evernote. There are also a wide variety of tools and guides in Japanese – it appears that the program is well received in Japan as well as in the U.S. Like its competitors, Evernote has its own blog and community. In addition, Evernote has its own Ambassadors — people who create blogs, webcasts and videos on how to use Evernote in the home and in business. Evernote is well represented on blogs and YouTube videos.

My Evernote Wish List.

If you, the reader, haven’t already figured it out, Evernote is my favorite of this group.

However, even with all these features, I do have a few quibbles with Evernote. First, its universal green interface reminds me of some old institutional green color schemes, which is not a great psychological boost. A choice of colors or even skins would be nice.

Its text formatting options could add styles for characters and paragraphs as well as formatting rulers and better tabs. (Zoho and Springnote have better text formatting tools.) Evernote’s tables are quite limited. Evernote could really benefit from embeddable spreadsheets to replace tables, like Zoho Notebook. (Zoho uniquely has the advantage of actually having its own spreadsheet program to embed into its Notebook.)

Evernote really, really, REALLY needs a good To Do / Task List manager to add to its notebooks. I would have gladly foregone many other features for this. (I’ve been waiting years for this, Evernote.)

It would be great if Evernote allowed you to encrypt notes for greater security online. You can encrypt text in Evernote’s Windows and Mac clients, but not online. Since you can create private notebooks that are not shared online, that is not a bad option, but it limits accessibility. (None of the reviewed programs above appear to encrypt pages online. For this reason, users need to beware putting sensitive, personal, student data, legal, medical or proprietary info or passwords online, no matter which notebook they use.)

Finally, as an Android user, I would like to see more programs come out in Android before iPhone and iPad, naturally. Also, it would make life simpler if The Trunk put iOS and Android apps on separate pages or otherwise showed which was which without clicking to read the description.

In conclusion, your choices:

So if universal connectivity, lots of ways to submit notes, and a galaxy of add-on apps appeal to you, Evernote is probably your best choice. If you are more interested in what your Facebook and other friends are reading, watching, cooking and listening to, Springpad may be the better tool.

If you want an app with wiki features for a workgroup, you should compare Springnote and Evernote to see which has the features you want. (Zoho also offers a wiki application plus its notebook and all its other applications, but they are separate programs. Google offers free wiki tools, but is discontinuing its notebook app.) Springnote and Zoho Notebook appear to have the best word processing features, too.

If you are a spreadsheet maven and like or need to embed spreadsheets in your notes (say, for a blog on using spreadsheets or for data analysis), I’d give Zoho Notebook a good look. It can also export its pages in XHTML to add to a web page.

If you are a student and use your notebook or netbook computer to take all your notes where there is a universal Internet connection, UberNote might be all you need, but frankly, I’d try Evernote, too.

If your office already uses Microsoft Office and Sharepoint, OneNote is probably already installed and ready for use, online and off. The problem there is training the staff how to use the program features and how to work in groups. Macintosh users are left out in the cold, though, and are probably already using Evernote.

But Evernote is the über-program to compare all others to, and it’s growing new features and apps quickly.

Coming soon: The Seven Types of Evernote Users

Key words: Evernote, Springpad, Springnote, UberNote, OneNote, Zoho, notebook, wiki, workgroup, notes, apps, phone

Part 11, Free and Cheap Software for the SOHO Office

Zeal for Zoho for SOHO

Part B - Looking at the basic applications

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In Part A we examined the extensive list of Zoho applications and how Zoho can coordinate with Google apps. Now we review some of Zoho's specific applications for individual, small office, nonprofit and frugal workers.
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Zoho Writer


​Although Zoho’s Writer has been around for years, the newest version is still in beta testing , so it has more features, but they might not all be well documented. One apparent bug is that the Zoho menus on top of the page disappear when opening an older document, but reappear when you select a new document (at least in Chrome).


One of my favorite features in Writer is that the interface combines both icon-based ribbons (similar to those in Microsoft Office since 2007) plus the option of accessing the same features from a drop-down menu. This is something many users wish Microsoft had done when they rolled out their 2007 apps.


Another distinction from Google's Writer, is a bottom-of-the-screen bar which tells you the number of pages (and which page you are on), the version number, the author, how long since last modified, creation date, word and character counts, all updated whenever the document is saved (which is automatic or manual). This could make it easier to track versions to revert to an earlier one. The bar also has three icons: click on the cloud and it lists your collaborators and offers a chat box; another for contextual comments, and a third for tags. Zoho allows you to sort documents into folders (like Microsoft) and by assigning tags (like Google). 


There's also a small chat bar available, if you want.


Writer offers 27 English language fonts plus the graphical Webdings, equations, headers/footers, footnotes. You can directly insert HTML or view the entire document as HTML (which you can't do now on Google); you can also import or create HTML CSS stylesheets. Watermarks are a nice new feature, and you can select emoticons, which seems a little odd for a service geared towards business. Like Google, you can email the file directly if you don’t want to use the email app.


One of the few features Zoho doesn't include is a paragraph (or character) style sheet (which MS Word and Google Docs have). This may be an issue if you regularly work on long, heavily formatted documents.


The REVIEW menu includes spell check, a custom dictionary, word count, and a thesaurus, and accesses your history, too. (There is no grammar checker.) The SHARE options include a Post to Blog command. 


You can publish any document so anybody on the internet can access it, or invite selected users to read and/or edit it. (They don’t have to register with Zoho to read a document, but they must register to edit it.) 


The Doc Roll creates a embeddable link so you can post a link on your blog or website for a published document. There is a facility for Digital Signatures, and a separate Lock command so nobody else can work on your doc until you say its OK. 


VIEWS includes options for viewing the HTML code. The Page Format option lets you also assign some font and paragraph level spacing for the entire document.


Mailings lets you create mailmerge (or other merge) documents. Individuals are limited to sending 500 email documents per day. Enterprise accounts are unlimited.


There is a shared templates area, but there's not even a fraction of what you’ll find in Google or Microsoft. (But you should be able to open a template in Google Apps or Microsoft, save it, and import it into Zoho!) There are no graphic art search options as there are in Google or Microsoft and no word art (as in Microsoft -- but I find most of Microsoft's word art styles to be ugly).​


​​​You can export the documents from Zoho Writer to the following formats:

• Microsoft Word - both .doc and .docx files 
• OpenOffice Writer files 
• RTF (Rich Text Format) files, which you should be able to open in virtually any other word processor 
• Text only files 
• HTML (including links to your blog) 
• PDF creation (but not editing of imported PDFs)

You can import all the same formats plus graphics, up to 10 MB in size. Modern MS Word documents import fine, but some of the graphics may shift position.
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There is a bookmarklet you can add to your browser toolbar to take any text you find online and clip it to your Zoho Writer account. This appears to work similarly to Evernote's bookmarklet. 
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Currently, you cannot use Right to Left languages in Zoho Writer, but they say it is part of their road map for the future. ​
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Other Zoho applications
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In other Zoho apps, their Spreadsheet has a decidedly different interface than Google’s although (with a cursory look) it appears to support most of the same features. There is one toolbar for basic functions plus menus for publishing, sharing, and other tasks. It also let you embed a link in your blog or website to access a published spreadsheet.  You can create Macros and use VBA editing, too.


Zoho Mail is a good email hosting site. It’s main advantage over Gmail and Outlook is that it let’s you assign emails to folders, like Outlook, and also assign tags (like Gmail), so it’s very flexible. You can create rules for sorting, filing and responding to email. I like the fact  that, when sending an email from Zoho, you can attach any document from Zoho Docs, your own hard drive, and even from Google Docs! (I wish Gmail would let you do that.) Another nice feature is that you have links to all your available Zoho applications on the left hand side of the page, so you can switch back and forth easily. 
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Zoho Notebook has grown to include many of the features of OneNote or Evernote. It lets you store text, audio, video, HTML, and embed URLs, RSS, lists, Zoho writer docs, spreadsheets, and presentations, and files. You can also create text files and spreadsheets directly within the notebook with a mini-Writer or -Sheet interface. You can share notebooks with others and publish them, too. If you already use Evernote, you might not need Zoho Notebook, but it does have a few features that Evernote doesn't have: You can embed video in the free Zoho Notebook -- you need the paid version of Evernote to do that. You can create real spreadsheets in Zoho, Evernote just uses tables.
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If you use Zoho as your main workspace, combining the Notebook and the Writer clipping bookmark might be a nice way to centralize all your research in one location. But there are no desktop or phone applications for Zoho Notebook as there are for Evernote.
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Zoho just recently updated its CRM application, which you could use free as a contact manager on steroids. The new version includes the ability to import data from your LinkedIn contacts. I haven't had time to experiment with it, but it would be interesting to see if you could use the free individual version of CRM as an alternate LinkedIn database. (If any readers try it, please let me know how it works.) You can import and attach Google docs to Zoho's CRM records as well.
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Freelancers might like the Invoice application. Freelance HR professionals might want to take a look at Zoho'sRecruit and People applications if you're not already committed to another system.
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Conclusion
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If you are ready to take all your creative and business activity to the Cloud, Zoho has a lot to recommend it. If you prefer some of Google's applications (say, perhaps, its spreadsheet or Gmail), there's no reason not to have a Google application in one browser tab and Zoho apps in others. You can try all of Zoho's apps for free, and most stay free for up to three users. Some of the workgroup and internet communications features may not be feasible for that small a group, but Zoho's rates should be reasonable. Zoho also offers discounted rates for nonprofit corporations.
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If I was forced to select only one web app site for my online work, I'd probably chose Zoho, although the ability to mix and match other apps is great. With Google, Zoho, and many other software and specialized online applications available, corporations, web workers, telecommuters, and small and home office entrepreneurs  have many more usable choices than ever before.​​
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Keywords: Zoho, Writer, apps, office, SOHO, collaboration, business

Part 9, Free and cheap software for the SOHO office.

The Mahlerian World of Google.

Earlier, we discussed the pros and cons of cloud computing for the home and small office. We will later look at Zoho and Microsoft’s online offerings, but today, we Google.

In our musical and dramatic representations of software companies, we earlier gave Microsoft the role of Wotan, the King of the Gods in Der Ring des Nibelungen for its need for world domination. In another article, we cast Microsoft as Falstaff in the opera of the same name because of its tendency to gobble up computer resources and tech companies. If there is any company which can rival Microsoft for world domination, it’s probably Google, which I think of in Mahlerian terms. So I give Google both vocal roles in Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), the ultimate singer + big band combination, which requires lusty voices and full orchestra.

However, in memory of Google Labs, now being dismantled by Google, I dedicate a full-throated performance of “The Anvil Chorus” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, as reward for all their good work in hammering out experimental apps.

Google offers a wide range of software applications and services for individuals and businesses and continues to develop new projects. For the novice, Google's main weakness is that there is not a single place to see all of their offerings, although this comes close. When you create a free Gmail account and password, you also get access to other Google apps. Beginners should start at Google Docs. (You can also create a personal iGoogle home page with links to all your online tools.)

Part of the confusion is that Google has more services than just about any other entity on the web, including social media (Google+ and Orkut), YouTube, Picasa, Music, Reader, Google Maps and Earth, and Blogger. Also, Google invented and supports Android for phones and tablets, and is developing its own computer operating system, Chromium (not to be confused too much with their browser, Chrome) optimized for web applications. There are lesser known services, such as the simply named "Books" (which feels like walking into a huge library), Google Music, News and more. ​

Of course, there are a lot of services you can use for your home or small office, including:

• Gmail
• Google Apps (for Documents (word processing), Spreadsheets, Presentations, Form creation, and Drawing tools),
• Docs - your online file storage area
• Calendar - create different calendars for different uses, share some, keep others private, import and export to your heart's desire.
• Voice - create one phone number that connects to all your phones, schedule which ones to ring when, get text messages of your voicemail, and more.
• Sites - create your own websites
• Translate - works with over 50 languages
• Wallet - pay with your phone
• Groups - you can create your own business mailing lists, chat and more
• Talk - Internet messaging
• Blogger - you're on it now!

Google Apps offers quite serviceable office applications. Serviceable enough that many companies and schools see Google’s Apps as a useful substitute to Microsoft Office. Google also has sharing tools to invite other people to read or edit your files. Up to 50 people can edit the same file simultaneously (which is useful in classroom situations). Those people can also use Chat to discuss their work at the same time. You can share the document with up to 200 people. Google’s apps are free for individuals

Gmail may be the most full-featured email tool online, with tools to automatically sort your mail and present you with a prioritized mailbox, and other personalization features, if you set them up. If you’ve used Outlook, you will notice that Gmail allows you to sort mail by tags, not folders, which might take a bit of getting used to. You can add several tags to a single email, so the system is actually much more flexible than Outlook. Gmail is the only web email application that has a number of add-on tools from third parties, including social media tools.

Google’s Calendar is the most popular calendar tool on the web and many other online tools will connect with it, too. Google’s Reader is probably the most popular RSS and Atom feed reader – go to almost any website, click on the RSS feed icon, and you get updates any time a new article is posted.

Google also has great online support, with lots of tutorials in written and video format. The most difficult part of using Google apps is learning what is available and experimenting with new tools as they are made available. (Not such a terrible thing.)

We’ll look a bit more at some Google Apps, concentrating on the word processing ​features because it is the most basic of apps, and bloggers (like me) use word processors all the time.

Google recently updated its Document writer tools. The number of English fonts has been expanded to 19. If you switch languages, appropriate fonts for that language show up.

Google has all the usual character formatting options. Styles are more simple than on Microsoft’s online apps, as is line spacing, but fonts are now set in points rather than HTML categories, which is a big improvement in formatting your document.

You can insert web links, equations, and pictures (with options for uploading a picture, doing a Google search, using Picasa, or looking for stock photography). You can add comments, footnotes, headers, footers, bookmarks, a table of contents, and page breaks.

Google will even translate documents into other languages. It has a new Web clipboard to exchange graphics, text, tables and more between Google Docs (click on the clipboard icon). You can create tables from scratch or copy them from a spreadsheet. You can keep the docs private or share with individuals (read only or edit) or publish to the web.

Mention should be made of Docs, the online storage area for all your files. Google advertises 1 GB of storage online, but it’s really more than that because the 1 GB doesn’t include your e-mail storage in Gmail, or your actual Google Docs. Whenever you upload a non-Google file to Docs, it does, indeed, count. But you are also given the option of translating the file into Google formats when you upload it. That 1 GB doesn’t include storage in YouTube, your photos in Picasa, or your Google+ files, so Google actually offers you much more than 1 GB.

Do you want templates? How does thousands and thousands of Google templates sound to you?

All in all, in the past year or so, Google has made some nice improvements to the Document interface, added some features, and made the entire experience a bit more like using a regular word processor. The Web clipboard is a nice new feature.

For most people, this is as much word processing as they need. For collaborating via the web, this may be as good as you get.

Is it better than Zoho or Microsoft Web Apps? I like Google’s cleaner interface compared to Microsoft. If you like the ribbon interface, Google only has 1 ribbon plus menus. For word processing, though, I prefer Zoho’s Writer, which combines both ribbons and menus.

​Some not-so-good changes: The newer version of Google Docs doesn’t let you edit HTML anymore, so Docs is not the tool to use to create and edit HTML You cannot now edit Google docs on your own computer like you could using Google Gears in the older version – Google says they’re fixing that.

Google’s Spreadsheet now includes pivot tables and has some nice formatting and table tools. Will it blow Excel out of the water? No. But it has most of the features that light spreadsheet users (like me) would need.

You can also create presentations. The Forms tool allows you to create forms for other people to fill out and then you can just import the data. Other tools include Drawings and use a new Tables application (in beta).

Ever since the creation of Google+ last summer, Google has been modernizing and unifying its interface across all its products. The changes appear to be mostly for the better (unless you just hate selecting icons instead of text).

Can you do real business with Google Apps? A study last summer  found that almost 20% of all the companies surveyed were using at least some Google applications. The largest implementations appear to be with very large corporations (of over 10,000 employees) and education (including many universities – which may be due to the fact that Google offers the service free for schools).

Do these companies stop using Microsoft Office products? Not likely. Accountants and number crunchers will still want the advanced features in Excel. Desktop publishers might prefer Word and page-layout programs. (One of the big holes in online offerings is the lack of a true desktop publishing application.)

There’s only one place that beats Google for the sheer number of different applications for online business. That’s Zoho.com, which we’ll look at in the next post.

Keywords: Google, Apps, applications, word processing, spreadsheet, Mahler, Verdi

Part 8 - Free and Cheap Software for the SOHO Office

Pro and Con: Cloud applications vs. Installed applications

So far, in our discussions of office software we have discussed programs that you download to your computer (or, in a few cases, to your USB memory stick) and install. However, unless you've been living under a very large rock for the last five years (or haven't had internet access, which is about the same thing), you've heard about online software that exists "in the cloud" rather than on your computer. So, which is better for you?


Before we answer that, we should address: What exactly IS the cloud? Although the term suggests visions of an ethereal, heavenly all-encompassing internet, the cloud is simply a large computer with lots of internet connection capability. You can argue that it's not one computer but many, networked together, but it's basically the same. When you want to run some software, your browser connects to that server, and gives you the interface to do work. 


You can save your work on that computer, download it, or share it with others in a variety of ways. (This is not a new concept. Before desktop PCs became ubiquitous, most companies had servers and employees used “dumb terminals” to connect to the server and run applications. The Cloud is the same thing except the servers are off-site and the interfaces are much better.  Plus that terminal might even be a wireless phone, now, with much more computing power than that dumb terminal.)


What browsers work well for these services? Well, these days, almost all of them. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, is still the most popular browser, since it comes with nearly every installation of Windows, but Microsoft has been losing ground, particularly to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox and Google's Chrome (all for Windows and Macs and sometimes Linux). Safari specializes in the Macintosh. Opera is designed for speed, and is fun, but doesn't have as many features, and there are many others. All of them are free.


If you are comparison shopping, another factor is the existence of a large library of plug-ins or extensions. When I joined Google+ last summer, there were many more extensions to deal with G+ in Chrome (which was natural, since Chrome is another Google product). So I switched from Firefox to Chrome. Now, I'm toying with the idea of going back to Firefox (but I'm NOT leaving Google+).


Whichever browser you use, make sure you update to the latest version of that browser!!! It will have the latest features in security protection, the best speed, advanced HTML capability and other fancy internet tools. Using that three-year-old Internet Explorer on Aunt Lizzie's computer could leave you open to viruses and other malware attacks, and it's slower and some sites may simply not work with it. Note that the newest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer only works with systems going back to Vista. If you still use XP (or Aunt Lizzie is still using Windows 98 on her ancient, coal-fired Dell), you should switch to one of the other browsers.


So, why go online for your software? Here are some advantages:

1. You can access your work from any computer that has a browser and internet access,
2. Cross-platform usability (Generally, it doesn't matter if you use a Mac or PC or Linux computer as long as the browser is compatible.),
3. Free or low cost use,
4. Collaborators can easily work together on the same document, often at the same time,
5. Ease-of-Use: User interfaces are often cleaner (but with fewer features than some desktop software),
6. Easier sharing with colleagues, customers, users, and the public,
7. Fast, no-cost, no-fuss updates: bug fixes and new features are easier to implement online, you don't need to install them,
8. Tools now allow easier sharing between online and desktop applications,
9. Many applications now have smart phone and tablet access and can coordinate with social media services,
10. Many services (Google and Zoho, in particular) have enterprise tools which allow entire corporations, schools, even governments to work online.

Although  Google was not the first to offer Cloud (or Software as a Service - SaaS) applications, it has probably done more to popularize it than any other.


There are many online services that only offer one or two primary online products like SalesForce, or Evernote, or Slideshare, or specialty niche applications, like fundraising or email publishing.  Others, such as Google and Zoho, offer a wide range of products and most of them are free for individual users, too!


With online apps you can mix and match applications, tools and interfaces. For example, you might compose a report on Zoho Writer and add a SlideShare presentation, make a customized Google Map, and have the files available to business colleagues with SharePoint or a wiki. You can report on it using Google's Blogger or your free Microsoft small business website. You create your To Do list on Remember the Milk, which sends reminders via email to your Apple or Android phone, and use Tungle to check your work team's calendars to set up a web conference on Zoho Meetings. You can link to all of these with plug-in tools on your iGoogle homepage and your Firefox browser.The creative challenge is not just learning the tools, but learning how to combine them together to get work (or your job search) done effectively.


There are a few dark linings to the silver light of cloud computing you need to consider before going online for all your software needs:

1. You must have internet access to get to your work. (Some services have downloadable versions of some of their software to allow you to work offline and then update your online files.)
2. Telecommuters and freelancers, especially, need an emergency plan in case your home internet access goes down (such as using a public library, bookstore, coffee shop, or a friend's home).
3. For travelers, airport and hotel Wi-Fi access or Mi-Fi routers could be expensive.
4. Security needs to be considered, especially if you work with with proprietary, financial, legal, medical or personal information.
5. Some free online services are supported by advertising, which might be mildly annoying.
6. Different file formats may create some translation problems when going back and forth between different programs. You need to learn details about which programs have what features.
7. Technophobes and people who do not like change will not be comfortable online. There are lots of online resources for learning, though.
8. Just as on your desktop computer, you should backup your online files in case of disaster. Yes, cloud apps do automatic backups, but what happens if the company you use goes out of business and pulls the plug? It's rare, and that's not likely to happen to the more popular sites, like Google, but it could happen to some smaller ones.
9. If you deal with creative and intellectual property, be sure to check who has access to it on some services (especially video, sound and photo sharing sites). Read the user agreement to make sure you maintain ownership once you upload it to that service.

Many services offer free access to individuals or small groups of people -- making them excellent value for job hunters, consultants, freelancers, some telecommuters, collaborators, and very small businesses. When your needs grow, you usually can pay by the month (with an option for annual discounts) per user. Some databases, however, have a tiered structure depending on the number of records. Some services, such as Evernote, offer their services for free as long as you upload under 1GB of data per month or need advanced services.


Adding services is usually quite easy. If they are paid services, you do need to keep track of the costs because all those monthly costs can build up if you use a wide variety of services. Freelancers who may need to use certain services to work with each employer need to check those costs carefully when figuring out what to charge their clients.


If you are new to online office applications, the best places to begin to look are Google Apps and Zoho.com.


Microsoft also has some very good online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. These can be excellent for collaborating online or for after hours work from your home computer, even if you don't own those applications. But the online feature set is a bit more restricted and Microsoft generally assumes you also have an installed version to work on, somewhere.


We will look specifically at Google and Zoho applications next in this series.


Tags: Cloud, SAAS, apps, Google, Zoho, Microsoft