Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 03, 2007 by CyberNet.

Zoho has expanded its web service offering once again by introducing the new Zoho DB, which is a complete database and report management tool. It has a familiar spreadsheet interface that users will quickly be able to adapt to, and the chart creator is unbelievably simple.

Here’s an overview on the features it has:

• Multiple views: Tabular View, Chart View, Pivot View, Summary View
• Drag-and-drop interface for Chart and Pivot Table creation
• It understands an insane amount of query syntax, including Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Informix and ANSI SQL
• Tabbed interface makes it easy to switch between sheets and charts
• Import existing XLS/CSV/TSV files

I’ve only been using Zoho DB for a short time this morning, and have to admit that I’m extremely impressed with what it has to offer. I think this can more than satisfy the needs of most Microsoft Access users, which undoubtedly increases the value of Zoho! They now have a whopping 17 different services that are offered to users, and if Yahoo! were to acquire them they would be leaps and bounds ahead of both Google in the online office suite war.

To wrap things up here is a rather lengthy (11+ minutes) video on all the features Zoho DB has:

Source: Zoho Blog

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This article was written on October 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

The list of companies offering an online word processor just keeps getting longer and longer. And because there are so many options, it makes it difficult to determine which service to use, if any at all. As though there weren’t enough options, Adobe has announced that they are acquiring Virtual Ubiquity which is the company that makes Buzzword.

Buzzword is a fairly new online word processor built upon Adobe’s Flash platform using Adobe Flex. Eventually Adobe will be integrating it into a new service called Adobe Share which sounds like their version of an online office suite. While I’m still not sold on the idea of managing all of my documents online, Buzzword does have some nice features considering it is web-based.  Some of those features include:

• Spell Check
• End Notes
• Insert tables and images
• Print options for page size, page orientation, etc.
• View the history of all the revisions made on a document
• Share documents
• Organize files

The Adobe Flash platform is certainly powerful, and Buzzword realizes this.  Virtual Ubiquity’s CEO Rick Treitman says, “Flex and Flash were the means to where we want to go.  No one else realized how powerful it was as a virtual machine.” Another big feature with Buzzword is that they’re the first online word processor with pagination.  News.com explains Pagination as something that “allows people to get an accurate view of how a document will print out as the document is edited.”

Buzzword certainly could be competition for Microsoft, but more likely, they’ll end up as competition for other online word processors like Google Docs and Zoho Writer which could result in these companies putting extra effort into their products to make it the best. While I don’t foresee a major paradigm shift any time soon in the word processing market with people switching entirely from desktop based word processors to web-based options, it could certainly happen in the future. And should this happen, there will sure be all kinds of options to choose from!

Thanks for the tip S!

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This article was written on April 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

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One of the things that I’ve felt online spreadsheets have really lacked is support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). I use VBA macros quite frequently in my spreadsheets as a way to analyze and process data that can’t be done with formulas. Well, Zoho has decided to step up to the plate in a big way.

Today they’ve announced a huge update to Zoho Sheet that includes the ability to import and create VBA macros in your spreadsheets. Besides Excel itself they are one of the only other Office solutions in both the desktop and online realms that can boast this. Granted they only support about 50% of the functionality at this point, but it is a remarkable feat regardless. A full list of what they do support right now can be found here.

What about those people who don’t know how to code VBA macros? Unfortunately they don’t have a recording tool, but they say it’s on the way. In the meantime they have setup a Wiki where users can share macros that they have created so that everyone has a chance to benefit from them!

There are about a dozen or so other new features for Zoho Sheet listed below, but here’s a video to show off their support for VBA macros in addition to pivot tables:

Isn’t that crazy? I have to admit that Zoho is pretty impressive when it comes to bringing features from desktop office suites into the online world.

As if supporting VBA wasn’t enough they have also added more features:

• Pivot Tables: Pivot tables and pivot charts can be created using a simple drag and drop interface.
• Support for Named Ranges: Names can now be assigned to a cell or a cell range. These names can then be used in formulas / macros to refer to a range of cells. To define a name, select the cell range and then use the “Name this Cell” menu item in the More Actions menu or in the right click context menu.
• Multiline Support: Multiline support inside a cell has been added. You can use Ctrl+Enter or Alt+Enter to insert a line break inside a cell.
• New Publish Options: New publish options have been added to control use of your public spreadsheets in Zoho. You can now restrict users from exporting your public spreadsheet. You can also hide formulas used in your public spreadsheet from your users. This is useful if you want to prevent users from viewing the formulas you have used.
• Support for large spreadsheets: You can now load upto 100,000 rows of data when imported as CSV files. You would need to select the Tabular Data option while importing. We will also make our application scalable for other data formats too.
• Auto-Filter: We support auto-filters when imported as CSV files. Again you would need to select the Tabular Data option while importing. Filters for normal spreadsheets will be supported later.
• Freeze Panes (partial support): While importing CSV files containing structured data, if you choose the Tabular Data option, the top row will be freezed and you can apply freeze columns on any of the columns. However we haven’t supported freeze panes in our normal sheets. This will follow in a future update.
• TSV File Support: Import and export of .tsv files (tab separate values) is now possible.
• Set as Text: Use the Set as Text icon in the toolbar to set the cell format as text. This icon is available in the drop down next to the comma icon in the toolbar. If you want to enter data like 00002345235 without trimming those leading zeros or enter 4/4 without needing to automatically convert it into date, then you can set these cells as text or you can prefix the cell value by a single quote (‘) and it will be marked as text.
• Performance Improvement: Some performance improvements have been done in loading sheets and range selections. More improvements on the way.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Many shortcuts have been added. Refer Keyboard Shortcuts which is available under the Product Links at the top.
• Optimal Width and Height: You can double click on the column and row separators to set the optimal width and height.
• Cell selection in Formulas: We now support selecting cell regions using keyboard while typing in formulas.

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