Online office suite
Type of office suite software
An online office suite, online productivity suite or cloud office suite is an office suite offered in the form of a web application, accessed online using a web browser. This allows people to work together worldwide and at any time, thereby leading to web-based collaboration and virtual teamwork. Some online office suites can be installed either on-premise or online and some are offered only as online as a software as a service. Some versions can be free of charge, some have a subscription fee. Some online office suites can run as progressive web applications which no longer require an online connection to function. Online office suites exist as both open-source and proprietary software.
Components
Online office suites typically includes this base set of applications
Word processor
Spreadsheet
Presentation program
Other frequently available applications
Webmail
Calendar
Instant messaging including voice and video conferencing
Publishing applications
Content management system
Web portal
Wiki
Blog
Forums
Other applications
Diagramming
Raster graphics editor
Data management
Project management
Customer relationship management
Enterprise resource planning
Accounting
Maps
Notetaking
News
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages and disadvantages between locally installed office suites and online office suites vary significantly, any of these could be present significant limitations and/or unexpected costs, here are some considerations:
Any web browser, any device type: online office suites may be expected to provide the ability for a group of people to collaboratively edit a document from any device, anywhere, without the requirement for a specific device, web browser, add-ons (extensions/plugins) or device operating system.
Near complete desktop functionality: they may be expected to provide the same functionality as a desktop application, such as menu options, display (rendering) of documents, not prompting users to use a desktop office suite for functionality that is missing, as they may not have a compatible device when they need it.
Compatibility with common file formats: it may be expected that an online office suite can edit and save files in a broad variety of formats, such as Microsoft XML, OpenDocument, PDF, CSV, EPUB or older Microsoft formats.
Ongoing subscription costs: online office suites that require an ongoing subscription can add up to cost more than purchasing a software license for a locally installed office suite, especially if the software is not upgraded for several years
Digital sovereignty implications: requirement for self-hosting or choosing where data is stored.
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This entry incorporates text from “Online office suite” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.