Web Design & Development Guide

Online Office

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Online Office suites are offered by websites in the form of software as a service. They offer the ability to use the common office tools online. They can be accessed online from any Internet enabled device running any operating system. This allows people to work together world wide and at any time thereby leading to international web based collaboration and virtual teamwork. Usually, the basic versions are offered for free and for more advanced versions one is required to pay a nominal subscription fee.

Advantages

No software is required to be downloaded and installed.
No upgrading hassles when new features are added or bugs eliminated.
They can run out of thin clients with minimal hardware requirements.
They also provide the ability to share a document with several users without your own server.
No need to purchase or upgrade a software license. Instead these are available as software as a service.

Disadvantages

Data Security - All your data resides on a remote server.
Speed - Most of the currently available online office suites require a high broadband Internet connection.
Lack of all features available on the offline office suites.

Components

Typically online office suites include a word processor, a spreadsheet element, a presentation program, a Accountancy module, and a communications tool.