Collaborative workflows

Offline

Collabora also offers a complete office suite based on LibreOffice for users who don't have a server. Compared to the free original, it primarily stands out with conversion filter improvements (i.e., it converts documents into different formats in a superior way). Currently, version 5.1 is available in a 680MB Debian package for 64-bit hardware. The LibreOffice version also includes additional language packs and help texts.

Functional Overkill

Compared to a locally installed office package, the online versions offer a significantly reduced range of functions in all areas. The editing options are similar to those of a LibreOffice, but you have to considerably restrict the formatting options.

The online versions only accept DIN A4 and A5 paper formats, as well as the US letter and legal sizes. Even the formatting of inserted tables quickly reaches its limits. In terms of import and export formats, some of the less common file formats are missing. You can only download documents to your local system in four formats, the software distinguishes between text, table, and presentation formats.

A positive feature is the comment function, which is important for collaborative work. Users can access this in all documents via Paste | Comment. In a separate window, you then enter a short comment, which appears to the right of the actual document after clicking Save in the main window. The various team members' comments all appear together. This makes it easy to assign annotations to the document text, similar to the comment function in offline Office packages.

Users can track changes in the documents without difficulty. For each application, you can switch a logging function on and off via Edit | Track changes. This feature also allows you to scroll between the individual changes. This gives the user a quick overview of document versions.

At the same time, Collabora Online presents these functions in the list view on the right-hand side of the screen; a mouse click opens an area. In this way, you can immediately see all the relevant data on the current document's processing status (Figure 2) without having to click your way through complex menu hierarchies.

Figure 2: In the right-hand pane, you can see all the important data on a document's processing status.

Google Docs

Search engine giant Google interweaves its online office package Google Docs [11] tightly with the company's many other services. The package itself consists of four components: Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Google Presentations, and Google Forms. The Google suite is completely cloud-based. Consequently, local desktop computer clients don't exist, and on-premise installation on local dedicated cloud servers is not possible. Google only offers apps for smartphones and tablets; on stationary systems, the software runs in the web browser.

To work with Google Docs (Figure 3), you need a Google account. Once you have set up an account, you can log on to the office packages separately.

Figure 3: Google Docs is completely web-based; clients are only available for smartphones and tablets.

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