Zoho Writer Enhanced With Google Gears

So, you like Google Gears, do you? You like firing up that browser, logging into a service/Web app (the current list of GG-compatible sites is short, but generally is a good group nonetheless), syncing up with the latest info – be it in the form of RSS feeds or to-do lists or whathaveyou - and enjoy the luxury of a small little button conveniently placed atop your browser window that, when pressed, allows you to continue reading and making edits even when disconnected from the Net. So simply, yet so wonderful a solution it is.

Today, another product born of the Web 2.0 craze gets to show its mettle absent an upstream or downstream. It’s called Zoho, it’s an online office suite, it’s a great piece of kit, and one of its crucial components, Writer, is now available for operation offline.

Yes, before even a sign of so much as a public beta of a Gears-enabled Google Docs & Spreadsheets (which one would suspect would be the first online office utility to work with the open source Google Gears system), a third party has been the first to deliver a sought-after bridge for Web office users at a time when ethernet cables and WiFi signals are still less than entirely ubiquitous. It’s not MS Word for the Web 2.0 crowd, mind you, but it’s a heck of a big deal nonetheless, especially when one considers how quickly Zoho has managed to churn this update out for public use.

Some important things to mention about this new Zoho Writer enhancement, the most crucial of which will have your smiles turned to scowls in no time flat.

Firstly, no edits allowed. At least not yet. I know, I know, what a frickin’ buzz kill that is, but the folks behind Zoho promise to allow Google Gears fans the ability to manipulate their documents in about one month’s time. One would wish they wouldn’t have sprung this news on the world until the company was in fact ready to provide offline editing functions to its product, but what’s done is done. Just know that you’ll have to sit contentedly (or angrily, whichever) for 3 or 4 more weeks before you’re editing those essays without the help of an ISP.

Secondly, you won’t be allowed to download documents to your hearts content. A limit of 15 documents is put in place by default for users of the Google Gears-enhanced Zoho Writer. If you prefer a higher count (or even a lower one), the default can be changed (via a “drop-down” menu accessible with a click of the arrow affixed to the right of the ‘Go Offline’ button), but, once again, one shouldn’t expect MS Word-like features – not yet, at least. As wonderful as Web 2.0 is, things are done with baby steps in the growth world of Web apps.

Oh, and if you weren’t already aware of this fact, Google Gears only works with Firefox versions 1.5 or newer and IE6 or newer. Sorry to all you Safari, Opera, Camino, etc., user out there. It can’t be easy being left out in the cold like this.

So, those of you who can use Zoho at leisure are still grumbling about the inability to edit your Zoho docs, are you? Don’t worry, come September things’ll be looking a whole lot better. And if that’s not enough to put the smile back on your face, the added teaser of GG updates for other facets of the Zoho office suite may have you feeling a little happier for the time being. No? Oh well.

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