Collaborative online office solutions

Many Cooks

Chat

The Onlyoffice chat function is activated via a separate entry in the Collaboration menu. The software then opens a column to the left of the document view; at the bottom it displays an input field for text messages. The latter sorts the messages in the column by submission time, including the responses submitted by the other members of the team. To end the chat and make the column disappear again, press the Chat button at the top right in the ribbon bar again.

Conclusions

All of the office suites looked at here offer the typical set of functions for collaborative working (see Table 1), but they serve different target groups.

Table 1

Collaborative Work with Documents

	Collabora Online	Etherpad / Ethercalc	Google Docs	Onlyoffice
License	MPL	Apache 2/MPL	SaaS	AGPLv3
Functions
Modules	Text, tables, presentation	Text, tables	Text, tables, presentation, drawings	Text, tables, presentation
Web-based client	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Native client	No	No	No	Yes
On-premise server	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Externally hosted cloud solution	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Integration into groupware	Yes	No	Yes (Google services)	Yes
Third-party formats	PDF, RTF, HTML, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, TXT	TXT, HTML, CSV, ODS, XLSX	PDF, RTF, HTML, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, TXT	PDF, RTF, HTML, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, TXT
Collaborative Functions
Comments	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Chat	No	Yes/no	Yes	Yes
Version history	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Etherpad and Ethercalc focus on user data sovereignty, whereas Google Docs, as an integral part of the Google universe, also uses its cloud storage and, due to its close integration with other Google services, is not a genuine option for privacy-conscious users.

Collabora Online and Onlyoffice, however, appear to be solid all-rounders, with the Onlyoffice package offering a more structured interface for collaborative functions.

All packages still show weaknesses when converting third-party formats. In many cases, after importing and exporting from and into other file formats, manual rework is required to put the document back into shape on the target system. Although simpler texts and tables can usually be converted without problems, more complex documents usually require intensive post-processing.

Macros pose a totally different problem. They are usually limited to a certain office format and cannot be used in others. Therefore, companies and organizations need to mandate a file format, if possible, even in heterogeneous environments.

Infos