WORD PROCESSOR COMPARISON

Abstract:

This study reviews four different word processors: MS Word, Google Docs, Zoho Writer, and
Wiki Program, then compares all four based on their ability to import/export documents, ease of
use, their formatting and word count options, grammar and spell checking, and finally their cost.
The goal of this study is to define which Word Processor improves the quality of work being
done the most. More effective uses of word processing as an instructional tool might include
adapting instruction to software strengths and adding metacognitive prompts to the writing
program.

Introduction:

Word processing is a bridge that provides lifelong educational benefits to its users in a form of
rich and smooth flowing text. A word processor, previously known as “document preparation
system” is a computer application used for the creation of any sort of printable documents. These
Word Processors are divided in two types; Web based such as Google Doc, Zoho Writer and Wiki
Program; and non-web based like MS Word. The web based processors are fairly new on the
market compared to MS Word, however these companies has taken steps to broaden the reach of
its Web-based features in order to compete with Microsoft Corp. Word processors have
numerous purposes of employment in the business field, as well as for the educational and
personal use. In the business world, companies use some of the mentioned processors to write
memos, letterheads, and reference documents.

History:

Word Perfect, XyWrite, Microsoft Word (along with personal computers) competed in the 1980s
against dedicated word process machintes. Early word processing software required users to
memorize semi-mnemonic key combinations rather than pressing keys labeled "copy" or "bold."
Development of higher-resolution monitors allowed these programs to provide limited
typographical features such as bold and italics, indentation, justification and margins. The mid-
to-late 1980s saw the spread of laser printers, a "typographic" approach to word processing, and
of true WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) bitmap displays with multiple fonts,
Postscript, and graphical user interfaces. Standalone word processors tried to adapt by getting
smaller and replacing their CRTs with small character-oriented LCD displays. Some models also
had computer-like features such as floppy disk drives and the ability to output to an external
printer. They also got a name change, now being called "electronic typewriters" and typically
occupying a lower end of the market, selling for under $200 USD. Soon after the introduction of
MacWrite and Microsoft Word, the dedicated word processors became museum pieces.

Body:

MS Word is a program widely used by users around the globe. It has various formatting choices
that user can select in order to achieve wanted document design. MS Word 2003/2007 had the
biggest variaty of options to format, edit and insert different applications. In other words, MS
office in general is still a more complete program. The only disadvantage of MS Word would be
the amount of work and time a group has to put in to save documents then e-mail them to all
other group members. However, once you purchase the MS Office program, it is available on a
laptop or computer even if there is no wireless connection or if the internet gets disconnected. As
of now, MS Word remains the most widely used program opposed to the online programs
because it is cheaper and almost available at all times. Some of MS Word formating commands
were choosing font, font style, size and color, as well as bullets and numbering, borders and
shading, document themes, formatting of selected text are some of the choices offered by Word.

Zoho writer formatting palette offers a decent array of choices. It has more than 15 font
selections in addition to icons for special characters and emotions. Basically, offered selections
are very similar to those in Word, and it is easy to find them. However, there is a difference
between Zoho and Word. Regardless of the license cost, Word is still used widely. That is
because Word does not require internet connection, which is not situation with the Zoho.
However, if one wants to use Zoho, he/she will need decent internet connection. On the other
hand, Zoho frequently offers updates, and one of the recent offerings was offline editing
capabilities. That means that users are able to view and edit documents offline, but they need to
have Google Gears plug-in installed on their browser. So, one may choose to install plug-in and
use Zoho, or to stick to Word.
As a free program, Google Docs could be considered as a good substitute for MS Word.
Basically, Google Docs is an elementary word processor, which includes font control, seven text
sizes, highlighting, lists (using numbers or one of three bullet styles), indents and outdents, and
alignment (left, center, right). One can choose from among three heading styles; single, 1.5,
double, and triple line spacing; and superscript, subscript, and strikeout properties. In comparison
with Word, Google Docs is an online program, which requires a good internet connection.
Wiki program has only several formatting features that other programs have, such as font style,
orientation, bullets and numbering and they are limited (such as number of different fonts, colors,
etc.) in comparison to other programs. It also requires decent internet connection.

Grammar, spell checking and word count optionsMS Word has very good grammar and spell
checking and they work simultaneously. When the dictionary recognizes a word as misspelled,
the word is underlined with a wavy red line. One can correct misspelled text through the Quick
menu or through a dialog box. We can also turn this feature off, and Spell Check will not run as
we work on our document. The feature can be easily activated. The situation is the same with
Grammar checking. Word counting can be easily found under the Tools option. Zoho writer
offers spell checking option where questionable words are highlighted. By clicking the flagged
word, we can choose suggested alternate spellings. Unfortunately, there is no grammar checking.
Whenever we save a document, the word count is shown at the bottom right corner. It shows
number of words and characters. Google Docs spell checker highlights errors in yellow; right-
click can be used for previewing the suggested spellings. There is also no grammar checking.
Word count option is located in the File drop-down menu. It counts words, characters (no
spaces), characters (with spaces), paragraphs, sentences and pages. Wiki program also has a spell
checking option. Spelling errors are highlighted and by clicking on the suggested word, one can
easily change it. There is no grammar checking option. Classic word counter is also missing, but
there is a “change tracking” option, which means that program tracks the count of the added and
deleted words.
Importing & Exporting
MS Word: was more practical, due to our familiarity and experience with the program, to
import/export HTML type files pictures and excel spreadsheets, compared to the other three sites
which were online documents.
Zoho: the easiest of all four to import URL format by clicking on "import" then you can import a
document or a URL in different file types such as html, doc, sxw (open office), odt, rtf, jpg, gif,
png and text files. Also you can send Word / HTML document to your account by emailing them
as an attachment to :
e6gA3Agr862WJ9A@docs.zohowriter.com . Wiki (wetpaint) offered the option of bookmarking
the document created on Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon using a fast and pratical way to export
documents to be shared.
Google docs is somewhat easy to work with as well using the "share" and "publish" buttons to
export HTML documents and share them with other group members. As for importing, numerous
options are available through the insert tab in the toolbar menu.

Sharing and collaboration of documents within a small group

MS Word 2003/2007: If more than two people are working on a particular document, using MS
Word would not prove beneficial to the group. Since only one person can make corrections at
any given time with MS Word, the program lends itself to human errors when multiple people
need to edit and re-save at the next revision so everyone in the group can know if they are
working on the latest version of the document.
When it comes to sharing and collaboration then Ms Word2003/2007 is definitely not the best
option. It has a drawback of not having a real time editing so people can not see/edit the shared
document in real time.
Google Docs is a better tool compared to MS Word as far as sharing and collaboration is
concerned. You can share the document and can give the permission to edit the shared document
and also you can limit the sharing by restricting it to “share as viewer” in which the viewer can
not edit the shared document.
Zoho writer is a better tool than MS Word and Google Docs. It has got real time editing and has
the option of limiting the access of the shared document to certain people. One can see who all is
editing the document and who is viewing the shared document. On top of this Zoho writer
extends mobile support, adds offline capability for windows mobile using Google gears.

Wiki program is good for sharing and collaboration. Its easy to edit the shared document. It has
got real time editing. One can control the sharing and collaborationby limiting the sharing rights.

Cost of using these programs (Assuming computers and internet service are already paid
for)

With MS Word, an initial capital investment would be needed to purchase the software and
associated licensing fees (if applicable). Besides this, one could also argue some intangible costs
such as: the wasted e-mail space taken up by dozens of document iterations, lost productivity
when modifying or using the wrong revision of document, and business repercussions when the
wrong or incorrect revision of document is sent out and made public. Choosing Google Docs,
Zoho Writer, or Wiki for collaboration purposes requires no initial capital investment. The costs
associated with using any of these three programs will come from the work hours associated with
learning how to use any/all of the programs properly. Google Docs and Zoho Writer would
probably take the same amount of time as they are pretty close to each other in terms of
functionality. Since Wiki could be used for project management type activities as well as
document collaboration, it would require slightly more time for users to get familiar with and
effectively use. Once the initial time investments are made with any of these programs, groups
would probably save time (and ultimately money) when using any of the three internet based
collaboration tools rather than MS Word.

Additional Topics

Zoho writer proved to be temperamental at first due to the issues our group had with everyone
being able to view the group document. When the document was first created and sharing rights
were granted to everyone in the group, only the members who were already registed with Zoho
could view & edit the document. The members who registed with Zoho after being grated
sharring rights were unable to view the document or the other collaborators. To get around this
problem, sharing rights had to be granted once again to those collaborators.

Personal Experience in Ease of Use, Document Sharing and Collaboration

MS Word 2003/2007 :
Bryan Gall: With the vast amount of experience I have using MS Word, I feel it is very easy to
use. I know where everything I need to use is located and there are plenty of options available to
me. I will say that when I upgraded to Word 2007 it took me awhile to find everything again
since the toolbars changed a little. However, once I figured out where everything was at in the
new version I liked it more than the old version. Sharing and collaboration obviously aren't as
easy in my experience as I am finding out they are in the web based word processors. Multiple
people can't edit at the same time and you have to either save the file on a shared network and
send others the copy when you make changes.

Chris Allen: Until participating in InfoTechTools, all of my word processing was completed
using MS Word. Because of this, I have to say that this program is the easiest to use out of the
whole group of word processors. It contains just about every function that is needed when
drafting/editing a document. One can add and remove the tool bars that they so choose in order
to personalize the program to their specific needs. However, when it comes to ease of use for
collaboration purposes, MS Word really falls short of the competition. Anytime I have to work
on a document with others, I have to be very careful that I am working on the latest and greatest
version of the document; and I cannot work on the document while someone else is editing it; I
can only view as "read only". As far as sharing an MS Word document with someone else, the
only way I know of is to send a copy of it to them. Once that happens revision control of the
document becomes impossible to manage.

Dimitrios Hazimihalis; MS Word is the easiest word processing program that I have used. It is
also the program that I have the most experience with. I use this program for"print" opeartions
mostly and "read only" documents for sharing.
Snezana Aleksic: I am Word user for years, and I am used to the features offered by Word. It also
provides me with the most detailed set of features needed for professional text writing/editing.
There is one disadvantage of MS Word over the Zoho, Google Docs and Wiki that is worth to
mention. MS Word doesn’t have collaboration feature, so working simultaneously on the same
documentation is not possible. User needs to share the document with the other person, and wait
until that other person makes changes and sends the document back. Basically, it is hard to
compare MS Word on one side, and ZohoWriter, Google Docs and Wiki Program on the other
side, because MS Word is not an online tool. User can access documents only from their own
computer, which is not the situation with the other programs that allow user to access, edit and
share documents from anywhere.

Google Docs :
Hadi Chammas: In my opinion, Google Doc was a useful and powerful tool. It was easy to use,
and faster than the other word processors analyzed in this assignment. When having a fairly good
internet connection, this program automatically saves changes and updates what other people are
editing as well. It worked best with more people editing the same document at the same time.

Bryan Gall: With the little experience I now have using Google Docs, I feel that is easy to use.
Most of the needed options are available even though it doesn't have the huge variety that MS
Word does. Sharing and collaborating is very easy to do using Google Docs. When someone else
is editing at the same time it lets you know. Allowing multiple people to edit the document at the
same time is a nice feature. You can see what other people are doing to the document
simultaneously.

Chris Allen: Google docs proved to be a very good word processing tool when collaboration was
the main objective. My favorite thing about it is the fact that the document automatically updates
every so often when you (or others) are editing it so you are not required to "refresh" your screen
when others make changes so you can see the changes. When simply drafting a document w/o
collaborative purposes, I think Google Docs lacks some of the functions (such as zoom in & out,
outline views, editing tags, hyperlinking within the document for tables of contents and tables of
figures). I would only use Google Docs for simple documents that are short in length and do not
require much formatting.

Dimitrios Hazimihalis: Google docs is a very good word processing tool. I haven't worked with
it extensively to utilize its full potential. However, I believe that it does have some very good
uses when collaborating with other colleagues when writing research papers, reports, etc. This is
where I would use this application.

Snezana Aleksic: By researching Google Docs, I realized that offered features are interesting and
very useful to work with. I use Gmail and some other Google applications, so I also became a fan
of the Google Docs. It has a user friendly interface and basic options that mostly don’t differ
from those offered by Word. I like the collaboration option that allows multiple users to work on
the document at the same time. I tried that along with my group members and it worked very
well. The disadvantage of Google Docs over MS Word is online use. Users must have a decent
internet connection in order to use it.

NAVEEN GENTE: Now after the last two online discussions, I realized some of the features
with Google docs, is pretty impressing. I would like to change my opinion this time on word
processors, from MS word to Google docs, because even though I have good acquaintance with
MS word, it lacks some the good features like online editing, that too by good number of people
at the same time and save them online. In case of MS word it is like one can make their own
changes and then upload them online, which others have to download and make changes. One
other impressing feature with Google docs is it saves and shows the updates without any effort
from the users within a fraction of the task completion, where as in WIKI wetpaint, it takes too
much time, we need to refresh it every time to see the updates, which is an irritating part after
using Google docs. Though I am a word user for quite some time, now I really would like to use
Google docs, for many of my future applications, as it is free of cost (if we won’t consider the
internet usage charges ). so, I choose Google docs now as my word processor.

Zoho writer :
Bryan Gall: The Zoho writer is similar to Google Docs in that is easy to edit the document at the
same time someone else is. You can see what it is they are working on. On the left side of the
page you can see which collaborators are currently online as well as talk with them in a nice chat
function. We used this when we were working at unit of learning 8 as there were three of us
editing at the same time.

Chris Allen: I tried using Zoho writer for collaborating with my group on a document, and I think
I would have much rather used Google Docs. I think this program is modeled after Google Docs,
but when it comes to ease of use, I think it falls short. Zoho is very tempermental; I had a very
hard time editing and formatting text sometimes and other times I didn't. The one good thing I
did like about using Zoho is that I was able to chat with fellow collaborators via texting while
working on the document. This proved quite useful as I did not have to use a separate program to
chat; everything was available in Zoho.

Dimitrios Hazimihalis: I liked the chat function as Bryan and Chris stated above and it is similar
to Google docs. Our group did chat while editing and it made LU8 easier to finish. I would use
this in the similar fashion as Google docs for collaboration on certain projects.

Snezana Aleksic: I have a positive impression about Zoho Writer. It has a user friendly interface
and majority of options that suit my need. There is collaboration option, as well as sharing
feature. I don’t have experience with collaboration feature, but I used chat option with my group
members, and that worked very well. The main disadvantage of Zoho is that it is an online tool
and requires constant high-speed internet connection.

Wiki program :
Hadi Chammas: After meeting on Yugma with my classmates, and trying to create a new
document for Learning Unit 10, I found Wiki Program to be very cumbersome, slow and not
very practical. When more than one person is editing the same document, the changes will take a
long time to save and in some cases it could get lost. One other disadvantage with Wiki is that
you can only see other people's changes when you refresh the page which adds to the
inconvenience. The only advantages i like about Wiki is that it keeps a detailed record of who is
making changes to the common shared document, when the changes are being made, and it
provides a word count for each edit.

Bryan Gall: I don't have much experience with Wiki. I like that you can see the document at
various stages before and after each edit is made. The discussion forum is also a nice feature. The
sharing and collaborating functions don't seem to be as good as Google Docs or Zoho.

Chris Allen: As far as using the WetPaint Wiki, I have not had a whole lot of seat-time with this
particular word processing software. However, from what I have experienced, I think that it
really doesn't offer me anything that distinguishes itself from Google Docs or Zoho writer. I do
not like using the Wiki for real-time collaboration because you have to "refresh" your screen
every-so-often to see what others have contributed/changed. I also do not like being prompted
with filling out an editing tag every time I contribute or make a change. The discussion forum is
a nice feature, but I really don't think it is that important. I think Wiki needs to invest more time
in the text editing portion of their site. This program is satisfactory, but I would place it toward
the bottom of my usage list.

Dimitrios Hazimihalis: The Wiki program is useful. I too haven't used it enough. I like the easy
edit toolbar, but it doesn't give you many editing options.

Snezana Aleksic: From all aforementioned tools, I was the least impressed by Wiki. It has the
same basic features as these offered by other programs, as well as sharing and collaboration
features. The only reason that I can provide to explain my opinion is that I liked the interface
offered by Google Docs and Zoho Writer better.

Personal Choice for Word Processor

Hadi Chammas: Google Docs

Bryan Gall: Microsoft Word for solo work/Google Docs for group work
Chris Allen: For my particular needs, I still revert back to MS Word. Please see my post on the
discussion forum for supporting details.
Dimitrios Hazimihalis: Microsoft Word for work. Google Docs for collaboration on team
projects.
Snezana Aleksic: MS Wordand Google Docs
NAVEEN GENTE: Google Docs and MS word.
References

Gilbertson, Scott. "Zoho Adds Support forMS Word 2007 Format."

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/02/zoho-writer-add.html (10 April, 2008)
Google Doc. "Google Docs Help Center." http://documents.google.com/support/ (11 April, 2008)
Ragsdale, J. WetPaint Wiki's: The Consumer is in Control."
http://jragsdale.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/wetpaint-wikis-the-consumer-is-in-control/ (10 April,
2008)
Wetpaint. "Tell Me More." http://www.wetpaint.com/page/Tell-Me-More (11 April, 2008)
Wikipedia.org. "Microsoft Word." 12 April, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms_word (12
April, 2008)
ZOHO Work. Online. "Zoho FAQ's." 2008. http://www.zoho.com/zoho_faq.html (12 April,
2008)