Google Docs

Google’s web-based office suite has a fraction of the features available in our Gold and Bronze Award winners, but that’s hardly surprising considering it runs in your browser. While it might lack more advanced tools, it still offers pretty much everything the average user would require.

The suite consists of a word processor, spreadsheet and a new presentation creator. Each component is accessed through the main screen and, as you’d expect from Google, the interface is clean and intuitive. Tools are neatly organised in tabs and a right-click menu gives you quick access to some commonly used actions.

Files are saved on Google’s servers, so you can load them from anywhere and collaboration features let you work on them with friends. It keeps track of revisions – who made which changes – and you can quickly revert back to an earlier version if required. Files can be exported to your hard disk at any time in both Office and OpenDocument formats.

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