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lebysassya — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:04:54 CDT

Learning Unit 8

Group #4: Leby Sassya, James Shuster, Looja Tuladhar, Jonathan Unger

Availability of the formatting choices within these programs

MS Word2003/2007: This program has 19 available options in its Formatting toolbar. For example, the user can adjust the style, font characteristics, font, font size, alignment, return spacing, bullets, numbering, borders, highlighting, and font color. Other features for editing are not shown in the immediate toolbar. To access more features the user must insert additional toolbars or navigate the menu bar and fly out menus. [JJU1]
Also, Word 2007presents a lot of the menus in tab-form. These tabs keep the features organized and allow for quick and easy access by the user. In addition to the normal font sizes, fonts, font color and other extremely common word processor features, MS Word incorporates picture, drawing, and chart features within the processor, too. [Shuster]
Another useful formatting feature that Word offers is the hyper link feature. This is very useful to documents that are intended to remain electric and not become printed material. As websites are referenced or documented in reports, hyper links allow the reader or review to quickly access the URL. [Shuster]
Also, Word allows users to export documents in various formats. Some examples include: plain text, pdf, html, rich text and Word document. [Shuster]
Google Docs: Very similar to MS Word, Google Docs has many of the same features as MS Word with the addition of viewing the document in HTML, the ability to export in various file formats (PDF, HTML, RTF, etc.), as well as the ability to publish the document to the web so that it is given an unique URL that is available in web searches. Google Docs also easily pastes text that has been edited in MS Word. [JJU2]
One really nice feature of Google Doc is the ability to import documents and spread sheets of a different file type. For example, one can open a .xls file with Google Doc. Thus, importing and exporting with common programs is a snap. [Shuster]
ZOHO writer: Is a very interesting word editor, it has many options readily available to the user on its editing page including ones that I did not see “displayed” on Google or MS Word. For instance, in Zoho, the user can insert html, insert layers beneath the text, use a find and replace function, toggle a table of contents, insert various emo-icons, tab various documents on the same webpage (handy when switching back and forth or copy pasting text). Also, a few of the extra features that sets Zoho apart is its ability to export files into multiple file types such as PDF, Latex, DOCX, SWX, etc. Zoho can also share, publish, email, and embed the text into a blog. [JJU3]
Wiki program: This site has far less tools to edit text and imbed features. It does have some of the standard tools such as the ones listed for MS Word. The EasyEdit Toolbar is very large and very hard to hide; you can simply close it but then you need to reopen everytime instead of making it small enough so it will not block half of the page. it is very wonderful to have access to all these feature with a click of a button without having to pay for expensive software. [JJU4]

Yes, the formatting choices with Wiki are few. Furthermore, the editing of a page is much more difficult. While editing and starting a new line in a different font and color, there seems to be a glitch that will not allow the user to change the font type. I just had that trouble while inserting this line. I could not get the font to go back to black and not underlined. [Shuster]

Grammar, spell checking and word count options

MS Word2003/2007: Acquires misspelled words quickly without having to click on the spell check icon. It also picks up on various types of grammar mistakes. The user can select what types of grammatical errors it wants MS Word to make an active search for while the user types. Word count can be accessed via the top menu or by toolbar.[JJU5]
Google Docs: GD has a similar spell check option to MS Word; however it does not actively search for words as they are written like MS word. GD also supports word count. It can be accessed through the file button on the left hand side of the screen.[JJU6]
ZOHO writer: Zoho is about the same as GD, however, the user can select what language they want to run spell check in. Zoho does not support word count.[JJU7]
Furthermore, ZOHO seems less effective at guessing the correct misspelled words. I purposely missspelled a few words ZOHO could not guess the correct word. It seems that the algorithm requires a significant portion of the first few letters of the word. [Shuster]
Wiki program: Wiki is probably the simplest online program for word editing. It supports spell check like GD and Zoho, but does not have additional features like the language availability like Zoho or word count like GD.[JJU8]

Importing the documents from different formats within the document writer program and then exporting these documents to different formats such as .doc, .pdf, .rtf, html etc.

MS Word2003/2007: Word will import files in the following formats: doc, xml, works, pdf, xps, html, rtf, word perfect, and text. It will export to all of those except the word perfect format.[JJU9]
Google Docs: Can upload files in the following formats: Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw). It cannot upload documents that are Adobe PDF. It will export documents into HTML, RTF, Word, PDF, Open Office, and text.[JJU10]
ZOHO writer: Zoho can import html, doc, sxw (Open Office) , odt, rtf, jpg, gif, png and text files. It will export files into doc, docx, PDF, txt, ODF, Latex, SXW, rtf, and Html.[JJU11]
Unless I am missing something, it seems that Wiki does not support exporting of different formats. [Shuster]

Cost of using these programs

MS Word2003/2007: May be installed on computer upon purchase, normally $ 229.00, Upgrade Price = $109.95. [Sassya]
Google Docs: Free after user sign-up.
ZOHO writer: Free after user sign-up.
Wiki program: Free after user sign-up.

Here, users will have to decide what features are important and necessary before they subscribe to a particular program. Three important questions will include: cost, convenience, and features. [Shuster]

Ease of use Including document sharing, collaboration, and ease of use

MS Word2003/2007: Word allows the user to export their document as html which can be embedded into a web site that allows social networking, however it does not allow users to subscribe to their document or share files without a Peer to Peer program. This program is relatively easy to navigate and use. At times it does not copy/paste material very accurately and is sometimes difficult to format material.[JJU12]
MS Word is very convenient with respect to sharing and collaboration. However, the program does require the users to have access to the Word file which is not inherently available online unlike GD, ZW and WP. Furthermore, MS Word is very easy to use, comes with a great self-help tutorial and is very intuitive. I've never taken a class read a manualon MS Word, but I am very proficient with the program. [Shuster]
Google Docs: A subscriber can submit email addresses of other people that they would like to view their documents as well as edit them. This is an easy program to use and carries many features that are easily accessible and understandable.[JJU13]
ZOHO writer: Is a fairly comprehensive word editing program. Unlike Google, this web site is solely dedicated to word processing while Google offers many other programs net users can take advantage of. With the submission of email addresses, users can let other subscribe to their documents for viewing and editing.[JJU14]
Wiki program: Takes the documents that are created and turns them into a website of documents that people can view and comment upon. It’s editing processor is not very powerful and does not offer the options that the other web sites do. [JJU15]

Additional Features worth mentioning…

MS Word2003/2007: Comments can be inserted next to paragraphs that were written by each user. This is useful in case you have multiple users working on the same document. Comments allow users to see who made changes or additions to the document. Word puts comments to the right of the page.
Google Docs: As far as comments are concerned, they can be copy pasted into GD; however, GD lists the comments at the bottom of the document and not next to the paragraphs they belong to. This can consume much space.
ZOHO writer: Comments are the same as GD.
ZOHO was a little frustrating to use. Our group had sharing/editing issues at the beginning. The program would not allow some of us to edit the document. However, this problem subsided. [Shuster]
Wiki program: Comments are the same as GD.

[JJU1]By Jon Unger

[JJU2]By Jon Unger

[JJU3]By Jon Unger

[JJU4]By Jon Unger

[JJU5]By Jon Unger

[JJU6]By Jon Unger

[JJU7]By Jon Unger

[JJU8]By Jon Unger

[JJU9]By Jon Unger

[JJU10]By Jon Unger

[JJU11]By Jon Unger

[JJU12]By Jon Unger

[JJU13]By Jon Unger

[JJU14]By Jon Unger

[JJU15]By Jon Unger

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