ZOHO Writer 2 Released

I’ve been primarily using Google Docs for my online word processing and sharing, but have been keeping a close eye on ZOHO.

With the launch of ZOHO Writer 2, it looks like it is now time to revisit this software.

The new interface has a tabbed toolbar very reminiscent of Office 2007. It is quite intuitive and easy to use. It has all of the other features you’d expect from an online word processor, including sharing and collaborating, import/export, and offline support.

There are a few major players in this market now, between Google Docs, Adobe, Microsoft and others and the feature sets are largely the same.

In many ways, it will come down to your personal preference for the interface design, and what you and your primary collaborators are most comfortable with. As much as I like the new ZOHO Writer, it will take a lot to get me to stop using Google Docs, move all of my existing files from Google Docs to ZOHO, and have all of my collaborators do the same

If I was just starting out though, I’d give ZOHO some serious consideration.

ZOHO also has a huge suite of free or affordable tools (see the toolkit), and I have been paying for a ZOHO Invoice account for several months now — it is simple, easy to use, but has all of the features I need. ZOHO Meeting has also been my main tool for online desktop sharing, but with the introduction of pricing for anything over one-to-one sharing, I’m in the market for something new (and free). More on this later.