Thread: online applications

The online applications we've mentioned so far can be really useful for working on home documents such as letters or an insurance inventory, but they have another key advantage - they all allow you to collaborate with other people.

Buzzword, Google Docs and Zoho all allow users to share the work of creating documents, but the best system is found at Google Docs, which enables people to work on a document simultaneously, with the other users' changes appearing on screen as you work.



In effect, two or more people on different sides of the world can interactively edit the same document without worrying about who has the most recent version. Up to 50 people can work on the same spreadsheet simultaneously and when a sheet is shared, there's a useful Discuss tab. When clicked, this opens a panel on the right of the screen, allowing users to chat about the changes they're making.