We all know MS Office isn't the be-all and
end-all, but which of the alternative free cloud-based and desktop suites are
worth bothering with? Let’s find out!
ThinkFree Office 4 Online
Also available as a paid-for download,
despite the name, the ThinkFree office suite is also offered in free cloud
form. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations files can all be created,
uploaded and edited via ThinkFree Online, and while it might not necessarily be
the first suite you'll think of in the cloud sphere, it has a decent set of
features plus a clear approach, which makes it worthy of inclusion here.
What does it offer over, say, Office365?
Unlike Microsoft's limited feature set and advertising-fuelled effort,
ThinkFree is a fully featured package in its own right. In the presentation
stakes, it's quite a basic beast at first glance, featuring a functional and
fairly uninspiring home screen. We appreciate that we're talking about office
software here, but even so, this could do with a bit of pizzaz.
Naturally, the cloud offering is at the
heart of what makes ThinkFree an attractive proposition, being able to access
documents from any system, anywhere. On the downside to this, however, is the
1GB storage space, which is poor by any modern standards. With no obvious
upgrade path on the online storage front, if you're going to spend a
substantial amount of your time using ThinkFree, you'll have to find somewhere
else to store your work.
Where ThinkFree shows its hand is in the
wealth of advanced editing features. Font options in Write, for example, are
just as impressive as anything you'll find elsewhere, and the likes of
AutoCorrect, Autoshapes, PivotTables, Bookmarks and Track Changes are all here
alongside the basics. We also liked the option to edit a file from the
product's home web page without having to open up the full suite itself.
But, boy, is this sluggish. If the future
really is in the cloud, we'd be surprised to see ThinkFree as the standard-bearer.
Taking an age to open up even a blank document, ThinkFree becomes annoying very
quickly. Surely, cloud computing is all about working on the move, quickly and
efficiently? Somebody really should have told the ThinkFree developers,
although once open, testing of the suite proved stable and reliable. The Help
files aren't the best to sift your way through either.
The speed issue is a shame, because in look
and feel ThinkFree is much like MS Office, particularly Word, and it's easy to
forget that you're not using Microsoft's expensive package. Of course, all
packages have understandably adopted camp Redmond's approach, so ubiquitous has
its success been, but it's nice to see it carried out so effectively here. A
mobile application allowing for document access, editing and sharing is another
welcome inclusion (the viewer is free but the mobile office app is paid-for).
In the end, though, the feature set and
clarity of approach are irrelevant, because the performance problems will leave
you tearing your hair out and wishing you'd just stumped up the money Microsoft
wants.
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Details
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Manufacturer:
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Hancom Inc.
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Website
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www.thinkfree.com
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Required Spec
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Internet connection, 256MB RAM, Windows
XP or later
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Quality:
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5
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Value:
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7
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Overall:
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6
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Google Drive (incorporating Google Docs)
Google's own cloud-based suite has been
around in its fullest form for a few years and it's proven to be one of the
firm's more successful ventures.
Earlier this year, Google Docs was
superseded by Google Drive, a file storage and sync service incorporating the
Docs suite and upping free storage from 1GB to 5GB. The upgrade has paid off.
Take the brilliant but essentially simple
Research tool, added to the service earlier this year. Found under the Tools
menu, clicking on the Research option brings up a banner to the right-hand side
of the screen. Enter any term and you're presented with web results and images
pertaining to that search term, making note-taking on the fly a far more
organic and natural process.
Pitched as “software as a service”, Google
Drive allows for the creation, editing and sharing of docs, spreadsheets and
presentations (plus Google's Drawings and Forms tools) and document sharing is
provided for too, as you'd expect. Downloading the service to your PC makes for
simple syncing of files from your home system to the online space. Saving is
carried out on your behalf automatically and continuously, meaning you don't
have to worry about losing your work and it's all done without any noticeable
drag on performance.
Google's dominance of the market also means
that you can access your files on Android phones via a Google Play download.
Where Google Drive takes a slightly odd
turn is in presentation. While not exactly pushing the proverbial boat out,
this is the one suite on test that doesn't seem to take its cues directly from
Microsoft. All the core features are present and correct, but they've been
handed their own look on the toolbar at the top of each separate application.
It does lack in some features too, such as a small range of fonts and
relatively poor formatting options. For example, paragraph spacing within the
Word processor is clear enough but nowhere near as detailed as with other
packages on test.
Whether you need this level of detail is a
matter of opinion, of course. What you can't fault Google for is reliability
and efficiency. The user experience is so fast and smooth that you'd be
forgiven for forgetting you're working in the cloud at all, which is testament
to how well thought out this suite really is. Google's suite has a history of
working smoothly and efficiently and that hasn't changed. Also, it's worth
noting that as an overall collaboration tool, Google Drive is superb and the
inclusion of mobile support, downloadable from Google Play, is a further
positive on that front.
For the average user, all of the tools are
here to make Google Drive their cloud suite of choice. The speed of use will
keep you on board and the terrific sharing and collaboration options, delivered
in a clear, functional format, are worth the download alone. If only the core
suite could boast some further features, this would be tough to beat.
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Details
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Manufacturer:
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Google
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Website:
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drive.google.com
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Required spec:
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Internet connection, Windows XP or later
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Quality:
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7
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Value:
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7
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Overall:
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7 |
