Open IT Online is a Firefox extension that allows to open and edit documents and images from everywhere. Thanks to this extension, you will be able to open several types of documents directly in Firefox using online services (such as Zoho) without needing any software to be installed. In other words, it adds an option to your Firefox “Open With” dialog to let you open Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more file types in the Zoho suite, Google Docs, ThinkFree Viewer & others. You can configure defaults for every file type - nice and convenient for fans of online editing. Open IT Online is a free download and it works wherever Firefox 2 or 3 does.

Here’s more screenshots & a nice video of how to use Open IT Online to view documents online with Zoho. Install the Open IT Online Firefox add-on to view/edit files directly online without downloading them.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Posted to:  API, Announcements, General, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Viewer, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

Here’s a little noticed feature in Zoho Show. You make a presentation public and embed it in a blog. Once the presentation is embedded, what if you made (want to make) changes to the original presentation? By default, it will reflect in the embedded presentation too. But this is not desirable in two cases

• When you are adding or editing slides, the visitors to your blog/website will be seeing live the unfinished changes that you are making
• When you want to have the original version linked to on the site while wanting to have the revised version private or shared only to a group

There is the Automatically re-publish when document is modified checkbox which does the trick. Leave it checked and you will always see the latest version in your blog/website. Uncheck it and you can do your edits safely without the external world knowing it.

Having the Automatically re-publish when document is modified option ticked makes the latest version available to the public always

Leaving the option unchecked, you can see that the last published version is 1.4 while the latest version is 1.6

The above is not just limited to embedding your presentation as it applies in general to making a presentation public! Hope you found the tip useful. Try this out in Zoho Show and do leave your comments on how you are using Zoho (Show).

Popularity: 17% [?]

Posted to:  General, Uncategorized, Zoho Show  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

We get this question quite often -

Does Zoho offer a backup function which will let me download all my data?

We have various options depending on each Zoho service.

Zoho Writer : Offers a variety of different formats that you can export a document to - doc, docx, pdf, odf (odt), latex, sxw, html, rtf & txt. Click on Export to see the options.

Also integrates with Google Gears. Offers upto 50 documents to be downloaded to your desktop. You can access these documents from http://writer.zoho.com/offline. Click on Go Offline to download Google Gears and your Zoho Writer documents

Zoho Sheet : Click on Export. Again offers a wide variety of options from xls to pdf to ods to xml. There is also a batch export option available from the sidebar.

Zoho Show : Open a presentation. Click on Export and you will see the options available (ppt, pdf, pps and odp)

Zoho Projects : Export all your tasks as an xls or csv file. Under Tasks and Milestones, click on Export button

Zoho Creator : Export all your data as xls, pdf. Also as RSS, JSON feeds etc.

Zoho Wiki : You can download all the pages of your Wiki as a zip file. Available under Settings -> Click to download the backup

Zoho CRM : Choose the module (Leads, Contacts etc) and click on Export. You can also export all your CRM data in one go also. We charge a nominal fee of $10.

Zoho DB & Reports : Export your reports as csv, pdf or an image file

Zoho Invoice : Export each invoice, estimate as pdf. Export customer’s info as VCard (vcf).

Zoho Notebook : Has an Export as mht option. The exported page can be viewed in Internet Explorer.

We will be coming up with more export options in upcoming updates.

Popularity: 77% [?]

Posted to:  General, Zoho CRM, Zoho Creator, Zoho DB, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Notebook, Zoho Projects, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Wiki, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

As you may know, there were recent updates to Zoho Sheet and Zoho Writer. Continuing on the series of updates, the below new functionalities in Zoho Show are now available.

1. Export to PPT, PPS, PDF, ODP : Zoho Show has long had the ‘Export as HTML’ option. Now we have added the much needed ppt, pps, pdf & odp file export options as well. After opening a presentation, click on the Export button. You will find the new options

2. Languages support : 9 new languages. In addition to English, the Zoho Show UI can now be set to one of these languages too : Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Europe), Spanish & Swedish

3. Personal Groups and Contacts support : Click on Share. You will see the Add Contacts, Add Groups option.

Group the email addresses of your contacts (work, family etc). Useful when repeatedly sharing presentations (need not type all the email addresses again). Also, all your Zoho contacts - the ones who you have shared documents with, from your Zoho Mail account etc - get listed while you share a presentation (auto-suggest feature which will help you in easily picking up who to share a presentation with.

4. Undo/Redo : You can now undo/redo upto 50 actions. You can see the new undo & redo buttons in the toolbar

5. Picasa Integration : Click on the Insert Image icon. You can see Picasa listed along with Flickr (which was already there). You can insert public pictures from your Picasa account

6. Remote Presentation - UI enhancements : Click on Remote -> Make Remote. Try making a remote presentation. You will see a chat tab to the right. The Notes tab is open (for the presenter alone) below the slide area. And the slide area size can be adjusted (to accomodate notes)

7. Embed Enhancements (Advanced Options) : Click on Publish -> Embed in Website/Blog. You will see the ‘Advanced Options’ link. Clicking on it opens a new window. There are options like how big you want the embedded preso to be, if you want the toolbar included etc. You can see that the embed HTML code snippet changes according to the options being chosen

8. Copy/Paste slides from one presentation to another : Open two presentations in separate browser tabs. You can copy-paste from one to another.

Do test the new features in Zoho Show and we would be glad hearing your feedback.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Posted to:  Announcements, General, Zoho Show  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

Here’s a question (with variations of it) we get from the first-timers of Zoho.

I have a document/spreadsheet/presentation that is to be emailed every time to a ‘prospect/client’ or to my ‘boss/peers/co-students/teacher for review’. In the former instance, “I don’t want the doc to stay in my prospect/client’s inbox (as documents soon become obsolete)”. And in the latter instance, “I and my boss/peers/co-students/teacher end up having multiple versions of the file, adding to my/their email clutter”. How can Zoho help me here?

Well, this is one of the fundamental problems solved by Zoho. Let’s say you have a .doc or .odt file. You have a few options in Zoho that would make things easier for you.

• Import your document into Zoho Writer
  • Share it by giving the email addresses of your prospect/client, boss,peers, co-students or teacher. They will receive an email with a HTML link (URL) which they can click on to view the document. They can edit the document too, directly inside Zoho Writer if you have given them proper permission
  • Make the document public (if it doesn’t contain anything confidential) and give the URL to anyone who would like to view it.
• Upload your document to Zoho Viewer. You get a URL which you email to everyone concerned & they can view it. Use the Zoho Viewer option judiciously - there’s an option where you can choose the URL to expire after a certain time period

Here’s a short screencast (our first attempt. bear with the video/audio quality please!) explaining the above options. For better clarity, view the video in Full Screen mode.

There are other advantages too.

• No compatibility issues that come with using different types and versions of desktop software
• You can keep updating your document and the latest version’s available for your prospect, client or whoever you want it to be viewed
• Live collaboration is possible - you and your collaborators can work on a document or spreadsheet in real-time
• And, you can chat too (using the embedded Zoho Chat)

Use Zoho. Say NO to email attachments.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Posted to:  Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Viewer, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

We just rolled out a new design for Zoho on iPhone. You can play with it @ mobile.zoho.com (or iZoho.com). The new design introduces a tabbed interface for navigation between Zoho Apps. Currently, Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show & Creator are supported in this new interface. We plan to add more apps and more functionality to this new version.

Once you login, the Zoho tab shows the recent 5 documents from each Zoho app. You’ll be able to view your personal and shared documents under the respective application tabs.

We are looking forward to your feedback on this new redesign.

Popularity: 66% [?]

Posted to:  Announcements, Zoho Creator, Zoho Mobile, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

Zoho Show lets you view all public presentations in a single place. Public Presentations are the ones either created or imported to Zoho Show and made public by our users. These presentations are categorized as ‘Latest Presentations‘, ‘Popular Presentations‘ & ‘Featured Presentations‘. Of course, you can search presentations based on tags. You’ll find some really interesting material here across different topics.

You can view your public presentations here after you login or @ http://show.zoho.com/public/<zohousername>

If you want to make your presentation public but don’t want to list it in this section, you can do so under the ‘Publish’ Menu with the ‘Remove from Public List’ option.

For every public presentation you have an option to comment, email or embed the presentation. You can also view related presentations or other presentations from the same author.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Posted to:  Zoho Show  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

Using the web as platform allows for some very interesting possibilities. Like making a presentation to a world-wide audience sitting at your desk. Let’s see how you can use Zoho Show in doing such a remote presentation.

• In your Zoho Show account, open the presentation that you need to present to your remote participants
• Click on the Remote button
• Give the ‘Email addresses of presentation attendees (Remote Users)’ in the pop-up dialog
• You can set your own custom message for the email that is to be sent to the intended participants
• Click Send button. The participants will receive your email with a link in it to click on
• When you are ready to give the remote presentation, choose Start Remote from the Remote menu drop-down
• The remote presentation gets started & your participants join in by clicking on the URL that got sent in your invite mail

You can chat with the participants in the chat window to the right. There are other options like Show Notes & Share this Desktop (other than the Zoho Show presentation, your whole desktop can be shared, which is done using Zoho Meeting, the web conferencing tool).

Try the Remote Sharing feature of Zoho Show & we will be glad hearing about it in the comments section below.

UPDATE : As always, Zoho fans are more thorough in explaining things than ourselves!

1. Amit Agarwal @ Digital Inspiration points to the advantages of Zoho Show’s remote feature - there’s no limit to the number of participants, you the presenter is always in full-control of the presentation & the participants need not have a Zoho account.

2. Richard Byrne notes that Zoho Show’s Remote feature “doesn’t require any software to be downloaded by you or your presentation attendees”.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Posted to:  Zoho Show  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

We are happy to announce a new distribution partner in China - Baihui, a subsidiary of PC Stars - the largest Chinese online distributor with more than 2300 Resellers and over 1000 System Integrators.

With this partnership, Baihui hosts Zoho Applications in China for distribution in China (ofcourse, in Chinese language). These applications will be distributed under Baihui brand. To start with, Baihui will offer the following Zoho applications…

• Zoho Writer - Baihui Xiexie
• Zoho Sheet - Baihui Gege
• Zoho Show - Baihui Xiuxiu
• Zoho CRM - Baihui CRM

This list will expand going forward. All these applications are currently available @ www.baihui.com.

As with Zoho, Baihui plans to offer these applications free of charge for individuals. Zoho CRM does carry a price tag (99RMB/User/Month) beyond three free users.

While I don’t understand any of the stuff in the above screenshot, we are certainly excited to see our apps up there. Almost 50% of our existing users are outside US which is a good sign. We think partnerships like these will extend our reach further.

There are more exciting stuff coming from Zoho. We’ll keep you posted.

Popularity: 92% [?]

Posted to:  Announcements, Partners, Zoho CRM, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Writer  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article:  

Christian Harris at ZDNet reviewed Zoho Show 2.0 recently. From his review,

Zoho Show is a straightforward to use thanks to its pre-built themes, clipart and shapes, coupled with handy features like drag-and-drop. In fact, anyone familiar with using the web should be able to put together a decent-looking presentation in just a few minutes. And, of course, you can access your presentation from any computer, so long as it’s connected to the internet.

Version 2.0 of Zoho Show has a number of enhancements — most noticeably the new user interface, which has been completely redesigned. The UI is now less cluttered and more intuitive to navigate, and the floating toolbars are a real boon. Support for themes has been improved too, and the application now has over 50 default themes to get you started.

Zoho Show 2.0 integrates much better with Zoho Meeting, an online desktop sharing tool from the same stable. The major benefit here is that you can now quickly and easily switch between applications to share your desktop with the participants viewing your presentation. And Zoho Chat allows you to chat with your audience during remote presentations.

Chris gave 7.5 out of 10 for Zoho Show 2.0. Zoho Invoice which we released a couple of weeks ago has got a very good welcome from small & medium businesses. Peter Piazza writes about the release at CIO.com in an article titled, ‘Zoho Challenges Business App Industry Heavyweights‘ :

Web 2.0 company Zoho has announced the launch of the latest product in its suite of online freeware and payware applications. Zoho Invoice gives users the ability to create everything from estimates to invoices in multiple currencies.

Zoho Invoice is integrated with PayPal, so invoices can be generated and sent to customers, who can then make payments directly through PayPal. The company plans on adding more payment gateways. The application is free for sending up to five invoices per month; four monthly subscription versions range from $5 to $35 and allow from 25 to 1,500 invoices to be sent each month.

Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0 release is being anticipated much by all. And it was our pleasure seeing the Release Notes for Firefox 3 Beta 5 mention Zoho in it!

[Improved in Beta 5!]  Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 5, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.

Popularity: 66% [?]

Posted to:  General, In the News, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Show  Permalink  Trackback  Post Comment
Help others find this article: