Product Reviews

ThinkFree Online is a little different to the other office suites that we've reviewed, as it's only available online. Instead of downloading or installing a huge application, you just have to log on to the Java-powered website.

The office suite comprises three core applications: a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation program. The full versions of Microsoft's Office and Sun's OpenOffice provide more applications, but ThinkFree's set covers most people's needs. The applications' interfaces closely mimic Microsoft's, so it's easy to get started. Most of the common tools are there, including word count for the word processor. More advanced features such as smart tags and multiple language support are missing. Still, these tools should suffice for most users on a day-to-day basis.

All ThinkFree's applications are compatible with Microsoft Office, and we encountered no problems with the documents we tested. The default save format is Office-compatible mode, but you can choose to export your files to PDF as well. All applications are Java based, so you can run them on any internet-connected computer, including Macs, Windows and Linux PCs. The closest you can get with other office suites is using PortableApps (www.portableapps.com) with OpenOffice. This puts the office suite on to portable storage where it can be run without having to be installed, but it's still nowhere near as convenient as ThinkFree Online.

The first time you start an application, it can be slow to load, particularly if you have a slow internet connection.

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The applications are cached. While this makes it quicker for use on a regular PC, it's more problematic on a computer that you're going to use only once, as ThinkFree can be time-consuming. Fortunately, once the application has loaded, all the processing takes place on your PC, so entering data is as quick as using a locally installed program. Unfortunately, there's no offline version of the applications, so if you don't have an internet connection you can't get access to your programs.

With each free account, you're given 1GB of online storage. This is the default location for files you create, although you can choose to save them directly to your PC instead. You can also choose to share a document with other ThinkFree Online users. Using the built-in file management, you can download existing files or upload files from your PC. However, there's a 10MB maximum file size limit placed on all uploads. Accessing this shared space can be slow, and from inside any of the office applications a message pops up to let you know that the connection could "take up to 30 seconds".

While the applications provided have all the basic tools you need for day-to-day work, ThinkFree Online is unlikely to replace your existing office suite. It doesn't have the advanced tools or applications such as a database of Microsoft's Office or Sun's OpenOffice. The fact that you need to be online rules it out for notebook owners away from an internet connection and, judging from the general reliability of broadband, anyone who needs reliable access to their office suite. It can also be frustratingly slow to use, particularly when you first load the applications, but also because the online storage can take a while to respond. However, it's free and it allows you to access your documents anywhere. This means you can use it as simple online storage. As you can also edit your documents, ThinkFree works well if you don't have your own notebook but you can still get online using another computer.

For these reasons, ThinkFree is the perfect companion suite to your existing office application, be it Microsoft's Office or Sun's OpenOffice. As it's free, you've got nothing to lose by trying it.