Zoho Writer goes offline with editing capabilities

Stan Beer
Monday, 26 November 2007 04:01

Business IT - Technology

Online SaaS wordprocessor Zoho Writer is now available offline, giving users the ability to save documents and edit them when not connected to the Internet. The additional functionality, which will go live today, takes Zoho Writer one step closer to the ideal of having office productivity software that can be used equally well in offline and online environments.

The new offline functionality of Zoho Writer has implemented through Google Gears a beta open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using JavaScript APIs.

While the new functionality will enable Zoho Writer users to edit the documents they create online after they disconnect from the net, it is still not possible to create new documents when in offline mode.

The process of switching between online and offline mode is very simple: create a document online and when you're ready to work on it offline simply choose a "go offline" option from the menu. Once you're offline and have edited the document you can save and quit. If you go back online, you're presented with a choice to synchronise your offline file with the existing online document.

All of this functionality requires that you first download the beta version of Google Gears. It is not hard to see that Zoho Writer could be extended to enable the creation of documents offline. SaaS competitor ThinkFree already provides full offline capabilities but users have to pay for the offline product which is sold separately.

The release of the new Zoho Writer signals that further online office productivity suites with offline saving and editing capabilities could be on the way. The fact that Google Gears is involved with the Zoho move offline also suggests that Google's own online productivity suite Google Docs and Spreadsheets will continue its push into the offline space.

All this in turn is putting further pressure on Microsoft to take Office 2007 and future versions of its huge money spinner into the online world.