Looking for a replacement for Googledocs
September 12, 2013 12:04 PM Subscribe
O hai! I'm a Google avoider. I've managed to not use Gmail, and to stop using Google as a search engine. I do have a Google account, but I use a separate browser to log into that, and log out and close the browser when I'm done.
My online Google-avoiding life would be complete if only I could find a good replacement for Googledocs, preferrably free.
What I'm looking for: online collaborative document editing and sharing, with the possibility of keeping documents hidden from those who aren't logged in. It needs to have some formatting options, and to have some kind of protection against data loss through accidental simultaneous editing.
It would be great if it were something that can be viewed and used inside a webbrowser.
If four or five people could use it, that would probably be enough.
What I'm not looking for: a discussion on the reasons to avoid or not to avoid Google.
Is there anything you can recommend me looking at? I'd appreciate it.
What I'm looking for: online collaborative document editing and sharing, with the possibility of keeping documents hidden from those who aren't logged in. It needs to have some formatting options, and to have some kind of protection against data loss through accidental simultaneous editing.
It would be great if it were something that can be viewed and used inside a webbrowser.
If four or five people could use it, that would probably be enough.
What I'm not looking for: a discussion on the reasons to avoid or not to avoid Google.
Is there anything you can recommend me looking at? I'd appreciate it.
Best answer: etherpad and fengoffice both have open source, self-hosted versions. fengoffice has a for-pay hosted version.
posted by duckstab at 12:19 PM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by duckstab at 12:19 PM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
What about document editing using Office or similar, with files saved in Dropbox, and accessed via the web?
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:19 PM on September 12, 2013
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:19 PM on September 12, 2013
Best answer: Depending on why you are avoiding Google, Microsoft has a similar suite available as SkyDrive.
posted by jacalata at 12:57 PM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by jacalata at 12:57 PM on September 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
SkyDrive is pretty sweet. I would totally use it more but none of my clients understand how to use it.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:20 PM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by KokuRyu at 1:20 PM on September 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I had been using Google Docs but got frustrated with its limitations. I gave Zoho a shot, but IME its usability was about the same as Google, so no better.
I'm currently having good luck with LibreOffice documents saved in Dropbox.
Depending on your editing needs, you could also try Evernote. It was mostly working for me, but I kept running into hiccups when trying to open the docs (but I think that was due to my own setup, not necessarily due to Evernote issues).
posted by sazanka at 10:07 AM on September 13, 2013
I'm currently having good luck with LibreOffice documents saved in Dropbox.
Depending on your editing needs, you could also try Evernote. It was mostly working for me, but I kept running into hiccups when trying to open the docs (but I think that was due to my own setup, not necessarily due to Evernote issues).
posted by sazanka at 10:07 AM on September 13, 2013
Response by poster: Thank you all, plenty of options to look at. This really helped!
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:55 AM on September 15, 2013
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:55 AM on September 15, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Sokka shot first at 12:10 PM on September 12, 2013