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The Zoho Office Suite is a web office suite which includes tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM and other applications.

Zoho an initiative of AdventNet which slogan is “work. Online.” Has extensuive tools for business using Web 2.0 technologies. They include Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho DB and Reports, Zoho Show, Zoho Projects, Zoho CRM, Zoho Creator, Zoho Wiki, Zoho Planner, Zoho Notebook, Zoho Chat, Zoho Mail, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Viewer, Zoho Polls, Zoho Challenge and Site 24X7.Zoho Office appears in PC World’s July issue as a winner of the 100 Best Products of 2007 Award. John Wilson, who’s with the London-based venture-capital firm Folio Partners, writes in his blog that “the combined quality and range of [Zoho's] online offerings is probably unequalled.”

Zoho Writer is a full-featured word processor which supports real-time collaboration between multiple users. It can import documents originated in a multitude of formats, like Microsoft Word (DOC), OpenDocument text (ODT), OpenOffice text (SXW), HTML, RTF, JPG, GIF & PNG files, embed photos from sites like Flickr or Zooomr, videos from Youtube, Vimeo..etc, and publish directly to major blogging platforms. Writer is also the editing engine used in several other Zoho products. Zoho Write also a plugin for Microsoft Word, Users can download the Zoho plug-in here.

Zoho Sheet is the name of the spreadsheet application in the Zoho Office Suite. Like Writer, it facilitates real-time collaboration, and it integrates well with other app’s like Zoho Notebook or Creator. Zoho Sheet has a plugin to integrate with Microsoft Excel.

Zoho DB and Reports is the name of the online database and reporting application in the Zoho Office Suite. It can also “create charts, pivots, summary and other wide-range of reports through powerful drag & drop interface”.

Zoho Show, the online presentation program allows users to create presentations from scratch or (as is often the case) import from their library of Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps) or OpenOffice (.odp, .sxi) presentations. The resulting online presentation can be shared, played as slideshow, collaborated upon, and be embedded in blogs or websites.

Zoho’s Project management software supports creating tasks, assigning ownership setting deadlines and tracking milestones; working with calendars, Gantt charts, reports, share supporting files - all the standard features expected in a project management package. The major difference is that while one can debate the merits of online/offline for individual productivity applications, project management by definition is team-work and as such a natural fit for the Web. Zoho Projects is free for one project, and has a scaled price structure above.

Zoho CRM offers Customer relationship management functionality. However, it also goes beyond with procurement, inventory, some accounting functions which are more in the realm of ERP than simply CRM. Zoho CRM is free for up to 3 users, and costs $12 a month for each additional user.

Zoho Creator is an online database / custom application development tool which allows users to create fairly sophisticated process logic without knowing how to code, simply by dragging & dropping script elements on screen. Users can import data from .xls, .csv, and .tsv files and create a variety of forms either from scratch or by using one of several common templates.

Zoho Wiki is a basic WYSIWYG wiki that allows users to create their own collaborative pages. It supports group pages as well as sub-pages, with features like tags, tables of contents, and custom themes and appearance. Zoho Wiki may also link to and work with documents the user has created with other Zoho services, such as slideshows from Zoho Show.

Zoho Planner is an online planner with a calendar, to-do lists, pages, and e-mail reminders. Like all other Zoho Products, these features may be shared with different collaborators or groups. Zoho Planner competes with Microsoft Outlook, and more directly, Google Calendar.

Zoho Notebook is a powerful application that enables the creation of content from many different types of media. It is somewhat similar to Microsoft OneNote or Google Notebook, but includes greater support for multimedia content. Users may include text, images, video, and audio in a “notebook,” and then share the notebook or individual pages with their friends. Zoho Notebook even allows integration of documents, full-fledged applications, and content via RSS. The content from the notebook may be uploaded or gathered from the web by using the Zoho Notebook plugin for Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.

PC World announced a list of 25 most innovative products for 2007 and we are honored to see Zoho Notebook included.

Zoho Chat is a chat application that can be embedded into pages or blogs. It also supports traditional private instant messaging.

Zoho Mail is web-based collaboration groupware. The product includes services such as email, calendar, document management, task management, and contact management. Zoho Mail also integrates Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show. Still in public beta, the service was renamed Zoho Mail because of the misperception that it was an integration of the other Zoho services.

Zoho Meeting is a web conference application that allows participants to see the web conference without downloading or installing any separate software. The current version requires the creator of the conference to be using Microsoft Windows, but participants can use any operating system. Zoho Meeting allows participants to see the screen of the presenter by using either ActiveX, Flash, or Java. Zoho Show and Zoho Chat are integrated into the meeting, and participants can choose to control the desktop of the presenter. The Meeting Viewer can even be embedded in a separate webpage or a slide from Zoho Show. Zoho Meeting is currently free in public beta and offers live support.

Zoho Challenge is an online test and evaluation application for employers and potential employees, It is free for up to 25 candidates.
Zoho Polls is a free surveying or rating tool that can be embedded in any page or blog.
24×7 is a website monitoring service that is free for up to two websites.

Add-ons

Zoho Plugin for Microsoft Office Download

Zoho QuickRead Download for IE Firefox

Zoho CRM Plugin for MS Outlook Download

vai wikipedia.org

Live Documents is a platform that marries the strengths of the desktop and the web into a synchronized solution that leverages the best of both worlds.

With Live Documents, you can:

• Access your documents on the web or on the desktop
• View and edit your documents from anywhere at any time in your browser in a rich user interface that provides the functionality and responsiveness that you expect in your familiar desktop applications.
• Use your existing desktop Office application (Microsoft Office currently and shortly Open Office) as a smart client that permits offline access to your document - the next time you go online, Live Documents automatically synchronizes all changes to ensure that there is a single version of the truth.

The Live Documents Plug-in is an optional client that you can download - the client converts Microsoft Office into a smart client that is web-enabled and provides collaborative capabilities within the context of familiar desktop applications।
System Requirements
Windows with Microsoft Office 2000/XP/2003

Store 1000+ Microsoft Office documents in one place, share files—you control who can view and edit. Works with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. or a better experience with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, an Office Live Add-in is available for the Microsoft Office suite.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business services allow you to create a professional online presence without the expense of buying a server, setting up a complicated infrastructure, and hiring technical staff to maintain it. Microsoft Office Live Small Business is a hosted service – all you need is a computer and an Internet connection.

Microsoft Office Live provides your company with its own free domain name, Web site, and e-mail accounts. Additionally, Microsoft Office Live offers expert business management applications, such as customer, project, and document management tools, and a security-enhanced Web site managed and maintained by Microsoft. These services are offered at three different levels: Microsoft Office Live Basics, Microsoft Office Live Essentials, and Microsoft Office Live Premium.

The product comparison chart can help you determine which product is most appropriate for your business needs.

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users.

Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files.

ZOHO’s office-type offerings include Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, and a collaboration tool called Zoho Virtual Office. Zoho also offers web-based business tools—Zoho CRM, Zoho Creator (for developing business and personal web apps), Zoho Planner—an online organizer with todo, reminders, and notes; and Zoho Chat—a group chat tool. The collaboration member of the suite, Zoho Virtual Office, includes an email client, shared documents, calendars and more.

ThinkFree Office is an office suite written in Java that runs on Windows, Linux, and Macintosh platforms. ThinkFree Office includes a word processor (Write), a spreadsheet (Calc) and a presentation program (Show). ThinkFree Office reads and writes to Microsoft Office file formats (.doc, .xls, and .ppt). ThinkFree Office has a look and feel similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, allowing users to switch over easily. ThinkFree suite include ThinkFree Desktop 3 for Windows/Linux/Mac, ThinkFree Online, ThinkFree Server, ThinkFree Portable.

CatalystOffice is an integrated suite of productivity software—email, document management, calendar, contacts, and instant messaging—created specifically to meet the needs of small businesses like yours. The best part is that all of this is quickly and easily delivered and managed over the web.

Younicycle is a powerful, user friendly general purpose web application that enables a Small Business without programmers to create websites, web forms, PDFs, applications, charts, databases, Chat and much more, all within a unified account. Younicycle is a low cost alternative to expensive desktop or server based, proprietary databases.
Younicycle is on the web but feels like your desktop.
A ‘Younified’, collaborative application built upon the legendary power of PostgreSQL, where you can create: Tables, Queries, Customized User Functions, Views, Roles, Privileges, Datasources, Applications, Websites, Charts, Chat, Drawings/Forms/Designs, Pdfs, Backups and a fair amount more. Complex code is automatically generated on the server by use of a comprehensive but simplified GUI built for ‘the common man’. Note that we have added a Demo of one of the Tools, so that it is no longer necessary to register in order to do a partial test.

Agree ? Disagree ? Leave your comment …..

Update:
Thanks to my friend Kevin, here is some more tools:-

FCKeditor is also an MS Word-like web app. It’s open source too.
gOFFICE - “a browser-based online word processor and desktop publishing program”
Num Sum - web-based spreadsheets - except only the author of a spreadsheet can edit it.
called S5 - web-based Powerpoint
Openomy - online file-system

If there’s one you like that’s not on the list, tell us about it in the comments.

Team Viewer is a remote automation utility that will allow you to easily share desktop and transfer files over the Internet. You can remote control partners desktop to give online assistance, or you can show your screen to a customer - all without worrying about firewalls, IP addresses and NAT.

It is so easy to use and install. All you do is download & install a small program size (1.02MB). To install Team Viewer no admin rights are required. Now ask you partner to install same program & generate a Session id & password for you. You get this id & password over chat/phone and enter in the ID and Password of the partner in you Team Viewer in seconds you see your partner’s screen. (more…)

One of site visitor of TBI, Mr. Dave N. commented on free web conferencing with 16 online suggested the online tool called Yakkle that is recently out in Beta.

Yakkle give you the ability to connect with multiple other users for 16 bit voice chat, file transfer, and real time desktop sharing with remote mouse and keyboard control.

Yakkle is the first product brought to you by ZenViva. Yakkle is currently supported on Windows XP and Windows Vista platforms & a high speed network connection.

To use the voice options, you should also have a USB Headset or a PC microphone and set of speakers. Yakkle is designed to integrate with a Google gmail or “jabber” Instant Messenger account (do not support AIM, Yahoo or MSN messenger accounts at this point)

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Microsoft is giving away copies of Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 etc. All you have to do is fill out a few surveys and allow Microsoft to monitor all your activities. According to Microsoft:

If you agree to join the program, a small amount of data will be collected using the Windows Feedback Program software. That data will be sent to Microsoft so we can monitor how your computer is working and better understand how you are using Windows and Office. This data is collected every time you use Windows and Office. We use this data to help make future versions of the software better and more useful for you and other users.

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Here are some best option for you to download YouTube Video, Google Video, Dailymotion, ifilm, Break, putFile, grouper, MySpace etc….

Web based

1. YouTubeX doesn’t have a lot of options, but it’s simple, and it works. It also enables you to share the YouTube video with your friends via e-mail. Unfortunately, all the files are called get_video, and you have to add the .flv extension manually.

www.youtubex.com

2. KeepVid is another simple site. No hassle, works not only for YouTube movies but for a number of other sites, including Google Video, MySpace Video, DailyMotion and others. Again, you have to add the .flv extension by hand.

keepvid.com

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