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Web Suites: Taking On Microsoft Office

The appeal of Web-based office suites is clear: Your applications and files are available anywhere there's a Net connection--at home, in a hotel, in an airport--but the first apps to appear have some ease-of-use, performance, and compatibility issues.

That's certainly the case with the online versions of Microsoft Office 2000 and Corel WordPerfect Office 2000. To use either of these programs, your PC must have a small Windows Terminal Services (WTS) application loaded on it. The application automatically downloads to your PC with the suite program, but the need for WTS means that you can't access the Web version of Office 2000 from an Internet appliance such as the Netpliance I-Opener. And to use it with a non-Windows operating system such as Linux, you need to have a product called MetaFrame, from Citrix.

The good news is that the next version of Microsoft Office Online (slated for release by mid-2001) won't require a WTS application on the client. That doesn't necessarily mean that all (or even most) Web-enabled devices will run Office applications remotely, but it is a step in the right direction. Corel has similar plans for its online WordPerfect suite.

Meanwhile, other software giants are Web-ifying their desktop suites, too. An online version of Lotus SmartSuite may be available from ASPs by the time you read this. And Sun Microsystems' StarPortal, a Web version of its free StarOffice suite, will go online by midyear.

Small but Sweet Suites

Since Web suites from Lotus and Sun weren't available for testing, and those from Microsoft and Corel will change soon, we turned to a trio of services from Internet start-up companies--some of which offer free, ad-supported versions.

We appraised each suite on speed, ease of use, cost, and compatibility with Microsoft Office, since that product is the overwhelming favorite among business and home users alike.

Speed is an especially critical issue because you run Web-based suites from a remote server. Generally, the faster your Net connection, the better a suite will perform--unless, of course, the program is really running from your hard drive.

That's the case with ThinkFree Office, which downloads its Java-based applications to your PC the first time you use them so you don't have to connect to the Net thereafter. Although one could argue that ThinkFree Office isn't really a Web-based program, we include it here because of its Internet hooks, which give it some of the advantages of a Web app. For instance, it lets you transfer your data to the Web for retrieval from another Windows-equipped PC. (You'll need to have ThinkFree or Microsoft Office installed on each PC to access the file.) ThinkFree also automatically downloads program upgrades from its server when you connect to the Net.

FreeDesk and NuoMedia, by contrast, require you to be connected to the Net when using them. They were slower and less reliable than ThinkFree Office, but both programs were still in beta when we tested them. They took 2 to 4 minutes to load via a 56-kbps dial-up connection, and sometimes didn't load at all (with no message explaining why).

NuoMedia also had an annoying one-second time lag between when we pressed a key and when the letter appeared on screen. Sensibly, NuoMedia recommends a broadband connection for its office suite. The same advice should apply to FreeDesk, although its maker advises only a 28.8-kbps or faster link. Granted, even with a fatter pipe you'll still encounter Internet congestion, but in most cases your Web-based apps and files will load faster.

Mimicking Microsoft

Since so many PC users are familiar with Microsoft Office, it makes sense for Web suites to mimic Office's interface. With its Microsoft Office-like toolbars and icons, ThinkFree Office does the closest impersonation of the pack. It's best at converting Microsoft Office files, and it provides many of Office's core features, including basic word processing, spreadsheet (in beta when we tested it), and presentation tools--though some features, such as Excel macros, didn't work in ThinkFree's applications.

FreeDesk's interface resembles Microsoft Office's as well, but we disliked the suite's clunky import/export feature for converting Microsoft files to FreeDesk's format. Eschewing the screen-cluttering icons of Microsoft Office, NuoMedia offers a radically different interface, with pop-up menus at the bottom of the screen and a streamlined look. But some major features--such as the spelling checker and the charting function--often didn't work.

Fee vs. Free

As you'd expect, none of these Web suites matches Microsoft Office feature-for-feature. You wouldn't want to use any of them as your primary suite--they're either intolerably slow or annoyingly incompatible with some Office features--but they'll do as a backup when your primary programs aren't available. The good news is that some of these applications offer free versions; the bad news is that free means you have to contend with banner ads flashing on your screen.

FreeDesk allows you to choose between two options: a free, ad-supported suite or a no-advertising version that costs $10 to $20 per month, depending on the size of your business. By the time you read this, the cost of ThinkFree's suite will rise to $50 per user per year, up from its current $30. NuoMedia's office suite is free (with no ads), but you will have to pay for additional features, such as its Web-based corporate finance applications.

Sun Microsystems says its forthcoming StarPortal suite will be free as well. Customers of the online versions of Corel, Lotus, and Microsoft suites should expect to pay between $10 and $20 per month.

How do Web-suite prices compare with those of their shrink-wrapped counterparts? We found some of the Web versions to be costlier. At Personable.com, for instance, Microsoft Office 2000 Professional rents for $27 a month, or more than $300 a year. By comparison, several Web retailers sell the CD-ROM version of Office 2000 Pro for about $220. (Note, however, that this is the upgrade price; if you don't already have a copy of Office 2000, the Pro version will cost you about $500.)

As for which suite among the three discussed here is best, at this point it's clearly not FreeDesk or NuoMedia--both are buggy and unreliable. That leaves ThinkFree Office. Although it's not free, it is reasonably compatible with Microsoft Office, it does a good job of mimicking the Office interface, and it comes with 20MB of password-protected storage. Also, it will soon run on Linux and Macintosh platforms. On the downside, it doesn't offer full-blown compatibility with every feature of its Microsoft counterpart.

Our conclusion: Web suites still lack the punch to KO hard-disk apps. Online apps may be contenders, but the shrink-wraps wear the crown.