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Docs and Spreadsheets

A host of new sites are eager to challenge Microsoft for a slice of Office's huge pie. My two favorites are Zoho's suite for documents and Google's Docs & Spreadsheets for spreadsheets. Both free services include storage space for your files (Zoho offers 1GB; Google limits the number and size of documents and spreadsheets you can store). Anything you create is autosaved to an online server, providing a de facto backup. You'll also be able to access all of your documents from any browser, without having to install software first.

Like many other advanced Web sites, Zoho and Google use Asynchronous JavaScript and XML--or Ajax--to present a desktop-app-like feel. Both offer hot-keys for common features, background autosaves, and other must-haves. Neither comes close to replacing Office if you need its full spread of features, and you may encounter an annoying though not game-stopping bug here and there in relatively new services. But for files you use at home, you probably won't miss a thing.

I love Zoho's sleek interface for documents, but I prefer Google's service

for spreadsheets. You can easily use both services side-by-side.

If you do have Office, Zoho recently released a great plug-in

that ties its service into Word and Excel. Install it, and a toolbar added to either app lets you open Zoho files straight into Office. When you make changes and click the Zoho Save button, the online document gets updated. You can also add Office-created documents and spreadsheets to your repository on Zoho.

Neither service is perfect, however. Both require a stable Internet connection for accessing your files (though the Zoho plug-in does mitigate that need). Also, while you can import Office files into either service (through a site option or the Add button in the Zoho plug-in), doing so typically messes up the formatting. And you can forget about using Excel formulas, Word macros, and page numbers, as well as several other advanced features; if you import a file that contains any of these, it will break.