TX Text Control vs. Google Docs and Zoho Writer

Blogged by Björn Meyer on November 09, 2006 and tagged with Online Word Processors, WYSIWYG, BrowserTextControl.

Using TX Text Control, true WYSIWYG fully featured word processing applications can be developed that run directly in the browser.

Below is a comparison of the features offered by the word processing part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets (Google Docs, formerly known as Writely), Zoho Writer and TX Text Control.

The tests, which were carried out between November 6, 2006 and November 7, 2006 on a Windows XP based PC with Internet Explorer, were divided into the following 7 sections:

	Feature available
	Feature partly available
	Feature not available

Basic Word Processing, Advanced Word Processing, Localization, Load Document Formats, Save Document Formats, Image Import File Formats and Image Export File Formats.

If you would like to talk to us about this comparison table, please use the comment section or contact us.

Basic Word Processing	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
Basic formatting Can characters, words, sentences and paragraphs be set to bold, italic and underlined?
Text justification Can sentences and paragraphs be left-aligned, centered, right-aligned and fully justified?
Multiple line spacing [1] Can the spacing between lines be freely specified?
Cascading style sheets [2] Can the styling of word processing documents be freely defined in a CCS file?
Find and replace [3] Can terms be searched for in entire word processing documents and subsequently replaced by user specified text?
Tables Can tables be inserted into word processing documents and allow their cell contents to be richly formatted?
Hypertext links Is it possible to define anchors and hypertext links to the same and external word processing or hypertext documents?
Bullets Can bullets be inserted into a word processing document?
Numbered lists Can numbered lists be inserted into a word processing document?
Images Can images be inserted into a word processing document and resized using the mouse?
Printing Can documents be printed to printers connected to the client PC or in the local area network of the client PC.
Print preview [4] Can an exact preview of the printed document be generated by the word processing package?
Multiple undo/redo Can actions that happened in the past be undone and then redone when desired for by the user?
Keyboard shortcuts Can most elements of the graphical user interface be accessed using keyboard shortcuts?
Advanced Word Processing	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
True WYSIWYG [5] Does the application really offer 'what you see is what you get' word processing?
Desktop application GUI [6] Is the interface of the application with which the user interacts indistinguishable to that of a Windows desktop application in terms of look, feel and interactivity?
Page numbering Can multiple different types of page numbers be added automatically at any position at the top or bottom of a page?
Headers and footers Can sections of text and graphics be stored once and placed at the top and bottom of all pages in a word processing document automatically?
Horizontal ruler bar Does the application have a ruler bar in the horizontal orientation, with which a multitude of different tabs, page margins, headers and footers margins and the width and height of table cells, text frames and images can be set using the mouse?
Vertical ruler bar Does the application have a ruler bar in the vertical orientation, with which page margins, headers and footers margins and the width and height of table cells, text frames and images can be set using the mouse?
Multiple pagination styles [7] Can the behavior of text flow between pages ('keep paragraph together', 'keep with next', 'page break before' etc.) be specified by the user?
Widow and orphan control [8] Can the behavior of widows and orphans (i.e. the amount of text that constitutes a widow or orphan) be specified by the user.
Multiple different tab types [9] Are 'normal', 'decimal', 'right-aligned', 'left-aligned' tabs and 'right tab at right most text position' supported?
Page margins Can the height and width of page margins be specified by the user?
Drag and drop Can elements of word processing documents, such as paragraphs, text frames and images, be dragged using the mouse?
Text frames Can text frames, containing typical formatting options, be inserted into a word processing document?
Multi-level zooming Can the user set the zoom level at which s/he wishes to view a word processing document?
Marked text fields Can marked text fields ('macro fields') be inserted into a word processing document, thus allowing mail merge, for example, to be performed?
Spell checking [10] Is a spell checker available or is there a special interface for specialist third party spell checking components?
Localization	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
Multi-lingual user interface [11] Can the language of the user interface (menu entries, dialog boxes, error messages etc.) be toggled to best fit the primary language of the user?
Multi-lingual technical support [12] Does the manufacturer of the word processing package offer technical support in languages other than English?
Unicode [13] Can word processing documents be created, edited and saved in Unicode?
Load Document Formats	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
Microsoft Word (DOC) [14] Can word processing documents be loaded, using Open, Import or other means, in DOC format?
Rich Text Format (RTF) [15] Can word processing documents be loaded, using Open, Import or other means, in RTF format?
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) [16] Can word processing documents be loaded, using Open, Import or other means, in HTML format?
Pure ASCII text (TXT) [17] Can word processing documents be loaded, using Open, Import or other means, in TXT format?
Portable Document Format (PDF) Can word processing documents be loaded, using Open, Import or other means, in PDF format?
OpenOffice (SXW, ODT) [18] Can word processing documents be loaded, using Open, Import or other means, in either SXW or ODT formats?
Save Document Formats	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
Microsoft Word (DOC) Can word processing documents be saved, using Save, Save As, Export or by other means, in DOC format?
Rich Text Format (RTF) Can word processing documents be saved, using Save, Save As, Export or by other means, in RTF format?
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Can word processing documents be saved, using Save, Save As, Export or by other means, in HTML format?
Pure ASCII text (TXT) Can word processing documents be saved, using Save, Save As, Export or by other means, in TXT format?
Portable Document Format (PDF) Can word processing documents be saved, using Save, Save As, Export or by other means, in PDF format?
OpenOffice (SXW, ODT) Can word processing documents be saved, using Save, Save As, Export or by other means, in either SXW or ODT formats?
Image Import File Formats	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) Can image files be imported, using Insert Image, via the clipboard or by other means, in uncompressed TIFF format?
Windows Meta File (WMF) Can image files be imported, using Insert Image, via the clipboard or by other means, in WMF format?
Bitmap (BMP) [19] Can image files be imported, using Insert Image, via the clipboard or by other means, in BMP format?
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) [20] Can image files be imported, using Insert Image, via the clipboard or by other means, in JPEG format?
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) Can image files be imported, using Insert Image, via the clipboard or by other means, in GIF format?
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) [21] Can image files be imported, using Insert Image, via the clipboard or by other means, in PNG format?
Image Export File Formats	TX Text Control	Google Docs	Zoho Writer
Windows Meta File (WMF) Can image files be exported, using Save As, Export or by other means, in WMF format?
Bitmap (BMP) Can image files be exported, using Save As, Export or by other means, in BMP format?
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) Can image files be exported, using Save As, Export or by other means, in JPEG format?
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Can image files be exported, using Save As, Export or by other means, in PNG format?

Footnotes:

[1] Google Docs allows line spacing to be 'normal space', 'single space', '1.5 space', 'double space' or 'triple space'. Zoho Writer allows line spacing to be 'single', '1.5 lines' or 'double'. However, neither allow other line spacing settings to be specified.

[2] Google Docs and Zoho Writer allow styles to be selected from a predefined list. However, neither allow other styles to be specified.

[3] Zoho Writer allows documents to be searched. However, it does not allow search terms to be replaced with other terms.

[4] Google Docs and Zoho Writer do provide a menu entry 'Print Preview'. However, what is displayed after clicking on this link is not a 1-to-1 preview of the page to be printed.

[5] Google Docs and Zoho Writer only offer the formatting and layout capabilities available in HTML. This is not true WYSIWYG word processing.

[6] Neither Google Docs nor Zoho Writer follow the Microsoft Windows Guidelines for GUI design.

[7] Google Docs only allows normal page breaks to be inserted.

[8] A widow is the last line of a paragraph that is printed by itself at the top of a page. Inversely, an orphan is the first line of a paragraph that is printed by itself at the bottom of a page. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow_%28typesetting%29 for more information.

[9] Google Docs and Zoho Writer only allow one type of tab to be inserted.

[10] TX Text Control does not ship with a built in spell checking component. However, there is a special interface into which several specialist third party spell checking components can be plugged. This allows TX Text Control based word processing applications to offer fully featured and highly customizable spell checking, similar to that found in big-brand word processing packages.

[11] TX Text Control ships with support for English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Applications built with TX Text Control can be translated into any human language, using the shipped translation resource package.

[12] Zoho Writer documentation is available in English and at least one foreign language (French).

[13] Unicode is a 16 bit code standard for the uniform representation of all characters systems worldwide, including digits, symbols and control sequences. See http://www.unicode.org for more information.

[14] Google Docs allows a maximum document size of 500 KB.

[15] Google Docs allows a maximum document size of 500 KB.

[16] Google Docs allows a maximum document size of 500 KB.

[17] Google Docs allows a maximum document size of 500 KB.

[18] Google Docs allows a maximum document size of 500 KB.

[19] Google Docs allows a maximum image size of 2 MB.

[20] Google Docs allows a maximum image size of 2 MB.

[21] Google Docs allows a maximum image size of 2 MB.

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Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Docs, Writely and Zoho Writer may be registered trademarks in the United States of America and/or certain foreign jurisdictions. Please refer to our legal page for detailed legal information.