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

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

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

Zoho’s suite of online applications continues to get bigger and bigger. Just this morning they launched yet another application called Zoho Invoice to join a whole slew of other business applications like Zoho Meeting, Zoho Projects and more.

Here’s the description from their blog of what Zoho Invoice is all about:

Zoho Invoice is an online invoice generation and tracking application. It lets you create, send and track Invoices & Estimates. To create an invoice, first you add customers, define items (products or services) and then create invoices. Once you create an invoice, you have options to Email, Print or Export your invoice as a PDF.

Anytime that I’ve needed to create an invoice for one reason or another, I’ve always used one of the templates that you can get with Microsoft Office. While that has always worked well for me, I must say that  Zoho’s Invoice service is really great because you have the option right from the screen where you create the invoice, to email it among many other features. Another welcomed feature is that you can create recurring profiles whether it’s something that happens on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis and then Zoho will automatically send invoices.

For those of you who only need to create an invoice here or there, Zoho will be a good free solution for you. Users are able to create up to five invoices per month for free. For those of you who create many invoices per month, this will be a great affordable solution. There are packages ranging from $5 per month were you can create 25 invoices, up to $35 per month where you can create up to 1500 invoices.

They made sure to make this Invoice application as complete as possible and there are many different settings that you can configure. You can even include your logo and set the tax rate for your area. There are also a variety of different templates that you can choose from and they include different ones based upon whether you’re selling a service or a product. You can also create a custom template.

I just spent the last 30 minutes or so testing out the service and my overall impression is that it’s very easy to use and includes all of the information I’d want an invoice to have. For Small Businesses, this could really come in handy, especially because of the auto-billing that you can set-up. Zoho Invoice is yet another great addition to Zoho’s collection of online productivity applications.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on February 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google appears to be working on an online application, called Presently, that will aim to compete with presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint. Ionut Alex. Chitu was the sneaky one this time who dug up the code (which as since been removed) on Google’s site that was referencing the online presentation application. Here is what the code looked like:

var MSG_DOC_TO_PRESENTATION=”Convert document to presentation“;
var MSG_DOC_TO_PRESENTATION_HINT=”Once your document is converted to a presentation, you can insert slide breaks using Insert > Slide from the main menu.”;
var MSG_PRESENTATION_TO_DOC=”Convert presentation to document”;
var MSG_POPUP_BLOCKER=”Presently is unable to launch your presentation in full-screen mode. Check your pop-up blocker settings.“;
var MSG_NEW_SLIDE_TITLE=”New Slide”;
var MSG_UNSUPPORTED_BROWSER=”Unsupported Browser Presently doesn’t support Opera and will not function properly. Would you like to continue anyway?“;
var MSG_SLIDE_INDEX=”Slide %1 of %2: %3″;
var MSG_NEXT=”Next”;
var MSG_NEXT_HINT=”Space, Enter, N”;
var MSG_PREV=”Previous”;
var MSG_PREV_HINT=”Backspace, Del, P”;
var MSG_ZOOM_IN=”Zoom in”;
var MSG_ZOOM_OUT=”Zoom out”;
var MSG_ZOOM_RESET=”Zoom reset”;
var MSG_TOGGLE_AUTOFIT=”Toggle AutoFit”;
var MSG_PICK_THEME=”Choose theme:”;
var MSG_THEME_BLANK=”Blank”;
var MSG_THEME_GOOGLE=”Google”;
var MSG_THEME_LIQUID=”Liquid”;
var MSG_THEME_MONOCHROME=”Monochrome”;
var MSG_TOGGLE_TOOLBAR=”Hide/show toolbar”;
var MSG_EXIT_PRESENTATION=”Exit presentation”;
var MSG_END_OF_PRESENTATION=”End of presentation. Are you sure you want to exit?”;

So do you see anything in the code that looks interesting? I would like to see how well it converts documents to presentations as defined by the first variable, and then also a few lines down is when the term “Presently” comes up which is why that is the expected name (or cold just be a codename). Looking a little further down you’ll see that Opera won’t be supported, and then towards the bottom there are some clues that 4 themes will be available with one of them being “Google”.

I can’t wait to see what Google does to make Presently stand out from the crowd, but if you want a sneak peak at what the application might look like you should venture over and checkout Zoho Show (pictured above). It is also an online presentation application that is extremely simple to operate, but there is one thing missing from it that I could see Google coming up with…animations! Script.aculo.us is a prime example of how Google could get some halfway decent animations integrated into their PowerPoint clone, but whether they are able to get it to work seamlessly with Presently is another question.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

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

(Click to Enlarge)

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.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Zoho’s more commonly known around the interwebs for its document editing tools, but today the service is launching a product that’s a little more business-oriented than its Office suite. With the newly introduced Zoho Vault, the company’s hoping to give business owners a centralized repository where they can easily manage their passwords online — something slightly similar to what LastPass offers. Of course, security will likely be very important for potential customers, and Zoho says it’ll be able to keep a rigorous lockdown by implementing things such as Host-Proof Hosting, a measure which encrypts passwords at the browser and stores only encrypted data on the server. The Personal Edition of Zoho Vault is available now for free and can be accessed by one person, while the Enterprise Edition costs a mere $1 per month, offers an iPhone app and supports unlimited users.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

Comments

Source: Zoho