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Zoho Writer, part of the popular Zoho Office suite, is now offering offline support. For the time being [offline mode in Zoho Writer][1] is limited to read-only mode, but Zoho says it's working on adding more features, including offline editing capabilities, "in the coming weeks."
Zoho Writer's new offline functionality is built with Google Gears so users will need to have the [Google Gears browser plugin][4] installed. Once the plugin is running an option will appear in the Zoho menu to "Go Offline." The offline features work with Internet Explorer 6+ and with Firefox 1.5+.
By default Zoho Writer will download fifteen documents, though clicking the arrow next to the "Go Offline" option will let you increase that number up to twenty five. The documents downloaded are determined by your sort order.
Once the documents are downloaded you'll be redirected to the offline url. To access the offline content direct when you aren't connected to the internet, just point your browser to [http://writer.zoho.com/offline][1]. The offline work screen contains a link back to the online version.
One of the frequent concerns from people using online office tools like the Zoho suite or Google Docs and Spreadsheets is that, without an Internet connection, they aren't accessible. But as this Zoho announcements demonstrates, tools like Google Gears are quickly removing the access limitations of online apps.
While Zoho's offline functionality is currently limited and thus not all that useful, when offline editing capabilities are added Zoho will be well ahead of Google Docs and Spreadsheets and leaps and bounds beyond desktop offerings for those that value portability and collaborative editing.
As for how Zoho managed to beat Google's own office suite to the market with offline functionality (albeit limited) using Google's own tools -- it's anybody's guess. Zoho says it plans to support and contribute to the open source [Google Gears project][5].
Google Gears, which we [wrote about back in May][3] when it launched, enables online software services like Zoho Writer to be used offline by adding the online component and its associated data to an offline cache on your PC. Google Reader features offline functionality through Google Gears.
For more details on the Zoho Writer offline functionality and to see how it works, check out the video from Zoho:
[1]: http://writer.zoho.com/offline
[2]: http://blogs.zoho.com/general/offline-support-comments-in-zoho-writer
[3]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/05/google_gears_br.html
[4]: http://gears.google.com/
[5]: http://code.google.com/apis/gears/index.html
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