The latest update to Zoho Docs brings in a good many business-centric features. Let's see them in detail.

Groups Dashboard
When you login to Zoho Docs, you'll see 3 tabs - Desktop, Groups, Tags (with Desktop being open by default). Clicking on the Groups tab will get you a page where you can add Personal Groups & Organization Groups. For creating a group, you just need to give the email addresses of those you would like to be part of that group. You can originate a group chat, send a group mail & see the group's member details from the Groups dashboard. You can also view the files belonging to each group.

Groups Dashboard
Note that only business users can see their organization groups and the administrator has the permission to create such groups. Non-business (Personal) users won't be seeing the organization groups.

Business Pricing Plan
We have introduced a new pricing plan for businesses. Plans starts as low as $9 per month for 15 GB disk space and 3 users.

Business pricing plan
Admin Console
As you can see from the pricing page above, the Administrator buying a business account gets an Admin Console from where the organization's Zoho Docs account can be configured / controlled. Features of this admin console include,
  • Uploading a customized logo
  • Registering for a new domain or configuring your present domain
  • Adding the organization's users. This includes LDAP support & importing a bulk user list from a comma separated file
  • Defining user role policies (whether a user can export/publish documents, create personal/org groups etc)
  • Defining trusted IPs (IPs from where the organization's members can access the account)

A slideshow done in Zoho Show about this update below.


Test the new features in Zoho Docs & do let us know the features you would like to have.

Integration between Zoho Apps : Part II

May 15 2009 10:04:00 AM Posted By : Raju Vegesna
Comments (6)

In one of my previous posts, I talked about integration between different Zoho Apps expanding on the following integrations.
  • Sheet integration with CRM
  • Writer & Sheet integration in Zoho Projects
  • Meeting & Chat integration in Zoho Show
  • Creator Integration in People
  • Projects integration in Invoice
  • Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Notebook
  • Writer, Sheet & Show integration into Wiki
  • Chat integration in Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook, Meeting etc
Here in this post, let us look at some of the integrations we have added since then. Here we go...

Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Zoho Docs

When we introduced Zoho Docs, we not only aggregated all your documents from Zoho Writer, Sheet & Show, we also added the ability to open these documents right within Zoho Docs. With Writer, Sheet & Show integration in Zoho Docs, we let you open documents as a tab in view-only mode within the Zoho Docs application. You always have an option to 'Edit' these files which launches the appropriate Zoho application in a new window.



Zoho Mail Integration in Docs and Vice Versa

In Zoho Mail, we added an option to attach documents directly from Zoho Docs. This is a simpler way to send documents created in Zoho. Similarly, if you are in Zoho Docs, we integrated Zoho Mail to email your documents. Additional information about this integration is available here.




Zoho Chat Integration with Mail, Docs, People & Business

When I previously talked about Zoho Chat integration, we had Zoho Chat integrated with Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook & Meeting. We now extended this integration to Mail, Docs, People & Business. This means you'll see the consistent chat bar at the bottom across all Zoho Apps allowing you to chat with members in your buddy list. With Zoho Chat supporting multiple IM Networks, you can now seamless chat with your buddies from other IM Networks no matter which Zoho Application you are in.



Zoho Meeting Integration in Zoho Chat

I previously talked about Zoho Chat integration with Zoho Meeting. This time, the integration is the other way around. We integrated Zoho Meeting in Chat. This means, while chatting with other users in Zoho Chat, if you have a need to share your desktop with other users, you can do so with a single click. As Zoho Chat is integrated with multiple IM Networks (Yahoo, Google, MSN, AIM, ICQ & Jabber), you can share your desktop with users from any  IM networks.




Zoho Meeting Integration in Zoho CRM

Zoho Meeting is contextually integrated into Zoho CRM. When you search for a contact in Zoho CRM, you'll see an option on the right to start a quick one-on-one meeting with that user with just a click. As Zoho Meeting is free for one-on-one meetings, you need not be a paid Zoho Meeting user to try this functionality.



These are some of the new integrations between Zoho Apps. We have few others which I'll expand in a future post. We also have some interesting integrations coming. Stay tuned.



If you are a regular Zoho Mail user, you probably noticed frequent improvements to the app. Our Mail team keeps pushing some goodies which we don't talk regularly in this blog, but the latest update very much needs mention as it adds some great features.

Drag and Drop your Emails

You can now drag and drop your emails in Zoho Mail. As you know, we support both folders and labels in Zoho Mail. No matter what you use, you'll now be able to effortlessly organize your emails.

To move your emails to a folder (or sub-folder), just drag your email to the folders on the left. When you drag and email, a green background color indicates that you can successfully move the email to the folder. A Red background color indicates that the email cannot be moved to the folder. This drag-n-drop functionality is similar to what we offer in Zoho Docs.





While this functionality works for Folders, the way Labels behaves is different as you can assign multiple labels to an email. To do that, you need to drag and drop your email to the label. If you need multiple labels assigned to your email, just drag and drop your email on top of t the labels.

To drag and drop multiple emails, just select the emails and move them across to either folders or labels.

Open Attachments in a Tab

Zoho Mail had the option to open your email attachments with respective Zoho applications - Writer, Sheet and Show. Previously, the attachments were opened in a new browser tab. With this update, we open email attachments as a tab within Zoho Mail. This way you can switch between your emails and attachments without leaving the application.





We previously used tabs to open documents in Zoho Docs. Now, you'll notice this consistent behavior while opening attachments in Zoho Mail.

Compose Window Enhancements

There were several improvements in the Compose window. When you compose a mail now, you'll notice that it opens in a new tab within Mail (similar to attachments). An option is available to pop it out in a new window.






You'll also notice few changes in the Compose WYSIWYG editor with fine-tuned buttons. We also added new options to insert tables, inline images and smileys.

Chrome Support

Zoho Mail now supports Google Chrome browser. With this update, we now officially support Firefox, IE and Chrome. We do have plans to support Safari moving forward.

Other Changes...

Apart from many minor bug fixes, this version of Zoho Mail gets other enhancements like the 'Edit as New' option in Mail view. We'll leave it to you to explore other features.

As always, we are looking forward to your feedback.

Zoho Gadgets launches today with the aim to connect Zoho applications with external applications. Zoho Gadgets, available at http://gadgets.zoho.com, can be integrated/embedded with online applications like iGoogle, Facebook, Orkut, Gmail & more. To start with, we are offering six Zoho gadgets.
  • Zoho Docs (Including Writer, Sheet & Show)
  • Zoho Mail
  • Zoho Calendar
  • Zoho Tasks
  • Zoho Contacts and
  • Zoho Planner
Zoho Gadgets
All the gadgets are OpenSocial compatible - this means you can now use these gadgets in any OpenSocial compatible social network. We plan to provide gadgets for other Zoho Applications moving forward.

These gadgets can be embedded individually in any websites or can be added to iGoogle or any personal dashboard.

Gadgets for iGoogle
You can now add all Zoho Gadgets to your start page. To add Zoho Gadgets to iGoogle, just click on the iGoogle link in Gadgets page and add these gadgets for them to appear in your iGoogle page.


These gadgets support oAuth when plugged into iGoogle or Gmail. This means, Zoho Gadgets can be accessed without entering Zoho Credentials inside iGoogle/Gmail. Also, as you know, we do let you login to Zoho with your Google credentials. This means, we automatically show your Zoho contents if you use this option to login to Zoho.

Gadgets for Facebook & Orkut
Gadgets can be added to Facebook by clicking on the Facebook icon in the Gadgets page and bookmarking the gadget. Your gadgets will be visible from the Applications bar at the bottom in Facebook.

    

As you may know, we have Zoho App for Facebook as well.

Similar to Facebook, these gadgets can also be added to Orkut. Clicking on the Orkut link in Gadgets page will redirect you to Orkut page where you have an option to add the application to your profile.


Gadgets in Gmail
We have many users using Gmail for email and Zoho for Documents. If you are one of those users, you can now view your Zoho Documents within Gmail. To do this, you'll have to enable the Labs feature in Gmail. To do this, go to Settings > Labs Tab > Enable 'Add any gadget by URL' and save the changes.

Now, go to Settings > Gadgets tab and paste the XML URL of the gadget and click 'Add'. This XML URL is available under OpenSocial option in the Gadgets page.




For now, you'll be able to add Zoho Docs, Calendar and Tasks gadgets to Gmail. If you are using Gmail, we figured you won't need Zoho Mail & Zoho Contacts inside Gmail :)



Gadgets for OpenSocial Apps
Zoho Gadgets can be added to any application that is OpenSocial compatible. The OpenSocial option in our Gadgets page provides the link to the XML file needed to integrate the gadget.



Generic Embed

All these gadgets can be embedded anywhere with our standard embed option. Just copy and paste the code in your blog or website for the gadget to be embedded. Of course, this also means you can embed these gadgets in other Zoho Applications like Zoho Notebook, Wiki, Writer, Show etc which support standard HTML embeds.




A Zoho Docs Gadget embedded in Zoho Notebook


This is just the beginning for Zoho Gadgets. We have more gadgets to come for our other applications. We also have plans to make these gadgets available in other social networks like Ning moving forward. These gadgets will also make their way to the Desktop component in Zoho Business.

Please do try out these gadgets in social networks and let us know your feedback.
Zoho Docs, Writer, Sheet & Show will undergo a scheduled maintenance on Friday, April 3, 2009 from 10:00:00 PM PST to 12:00:00 AM PST. During this period, access to the said Zoho services will not be available. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.

Zoho Docs & Zoho Mail Integration

Mar 09 2009 02:06:13 AM Posted By : Raju Vegesna
Comments (16)


We mentioned earlier that 2009 will be year of integration between Zoho Applications. We recently rolled out updates to Zoho Docs and Zoho Mail Applications integrating the two.


Zoho Docs integration into Zoho Mail

Next time you compose an email in Zoho Mail, you'll notice a new option 'Attach from Docs' in the compose window. This new feature lets you attach documents from Zoho Docs. The Zoho Docs dialog provides different options to choose the documents you want to attach - from your folder structure, Recent Documents or by file type.




Zoho Mail Integration to Zoho Docs

Zoho Docs integration into Zoho Mail is useful when you are in Zoho Mail and want to attach a document. But what if you are in Zoho Docs and want to email a document? You shouldn't have to go to email application to attach a document, right? For this reason, we integrated Zoho Mail in Zoho Docs as well.

If you want to email a document from Zoho Docs, just click the Email icon beside the document name and it'll launch the compose window from Zoho Mail with the document automatically attached. As the compose window is coming from Zoho Mail, all the features are available inside Docs, including the address book.

If you want to email multiple files, select multiple files in Zoho Docs, right click and choose the 'Send Mail' option.





Apart from this, as you may know, you can open attachments in Zoho Mail with Zoho Writer/Sheet/Show.

Contextual integration is the theme we are focusing on as we integrate our applications. I'll expand more on this in a separate post. We hope you'll find this integration useful. Please do let us know your feedback.


 
If you are a Yahoo Briefcase user, you probably are familiar with the service being shut down from March 30th. If you have any files in Yahoo Briefcase, it is easy to move them to Zoho Docs in two simple steps.

Yahoo Briefcase has a good option to download multiple files in a single shot. You can select all the files (not folders) and choose the 'Download' option to download all your files. All the selected file are downloaded as a single Zip file. If you have files in folders, you'll have to download these separately.





Zoho Docs has a great feature to upload Zip files and Unzip them after the upload. You can go to http://docs.zoho.com and upload the Zip file(s) you downloaded from Yahoo Briefcase. Once uploaded, you can right click on the Zip file and choose the 'Unzip' option to unzip all the documents. You'll find all your documents imported in Zoho Docs.





If you have folders in Yahoo Briefcase, you'll have to download the contents of each folder separately as a zip file and upload them to Zoho Docs in a single shot.

Once you have your documents in Zoho Docs, its a smooth ride from there. You can move the files into folders by simply dragging and dropping them in the folders. You can view and edit the documents by just clicking on them. If you want to download all your documents from Zoho in a single shot, select all files in Zoho Docs and choose the 'Zip' option to download the selected files as a single Zip file.

I hope this little tip is useful. If you are a Yahoo Briefcase user and are trying Zoho Docs for the first time, you should see a refreshing change.

5 Zoho Docs Features You Should Know About

Nov 02 2008 04:44:06 PM Posted By : Arvind
Comments (3)

It's been a couple of months since we launched Zoho Docs, the integrated console for all your business-related files. Let's look at some of its useful features in detail.

1. Multiple-level folders : With Zoho Docs, you can create a folder hierarchy structure. For those of you Web 2.0-ers, Zoho Docs also supports tags (labels).

2. Re-arrange files and folders : You can click on one or more files, drag and place them in a particular folder. Folders can be re-arranged too by drag-and-drop.

3. Upload zip files : You can zip your desktop files and have them in Zoho Docs as an online backup. After uploading a zip file, you can unzip it inside Zoho Docs. The same folder order that you had zipped them in gets re-created in Zoho Docs.

4. Share multiple files with a group : You can share multiple files to one or more of your friends, colleagues or contacts. Make a group by listing the email addresses of the persons and choose the files to be shared to this group.

5. Search : You can search within your Zoho Docs files.

Try Zoho Docs. More features coming soon.

Introducing Zoho Docs

Sep 04 2008 06:03:11 AM Posted By : Raju Vegesna
Comments (24)

Today at the Office 2.0 conference, we are launching a new addition to Zoho Suite - Zoho Docs
Zoho Docs is a central place to manage all your personal documents. Your Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations that you created in Writer, Sheet and Show will now be available at this central location.

This video provides a quick overview of Zoho Docs.

Zoho Docs supports folders. You can drag-n-drop files to these folders. The folder structure you create in Zoho Docs will be the common folder structure inside Zoho. Eventually this folder structure will appear in all other Zoho Applications.

Apart from aggregating you documents, the application also lets you view your documents, spreadsheets and presentations as a tab within the application. If you choose to edit any of these files, the file is opened in Edit mode in the appropriate Zoho Application. All documents inside Zoho Docs can be tagged, Downloaded, Shared etc. They can also be sorted by name, creation date and modified date.

Zoho Docs accepts all file types. To keep the upload process simple, you can upload ZIP files and Unzip them after the upload. Your My Documents folder can be uploaded to Zoho Docs in a single shot for example. When unzipped, your existing folder structure will be retained. When the files are uploaded, we automatically scan for viruses.

Zoho Docs also supports Group Sharing. If you have any groups created, you can share the documents to your existing groups. All documents shared to groups can also be viewed in Zoho Docs under the 'My Groups' section.

The Views section groups the documents by type across all folders. Here you can view 'All files' from all folders, Recent Documents, Documents from Zoho Writer, Spreadsheets from Zoho Sheet, Presentations from Zoho Show, Pictures and other file types.

Zoho Chat is integrated right into Zoho Docs. You can now chat with all your Zoho Contacts without leaving the application Zoho Docs.

As you notice, you'll see multiple Zoho Services integrated well to form the Zoho Docs application. We have documents from Zoho Writer, Spreadsheets from Zoho Sheet, Presentations from Zoho Show, Groups information from Zoho Accounts, Chat from Zoho Chat - all integrated into Zoho Docs. The plan is to provide you the information where you need it rather than having to hunt for information inside applications.

Zoho Docs is also integrated into Zoho Business as the 'Documents' application.

This application has been created entirely by user feedback. We hope you'll find this application useful. Please do give this a try and let us know what you think.

PS: We are hosting a Zoho Party at the Office 2.0 Conference today to celebrate our Million User milestone. This event is open to all Zoho Users. We hope you can join us to celebrate the occassion. Looking forward to seeing you.