Discover the best online applications

Online tools differ from traditional computer applications in one important way: they don’t need to be installed on your computer. As they are stored online, they can be run using any internet-connected computer, and your work can be quickly and easily shared with other people.

We have split our favourites into categories, so you can quickly find something to try – whether you want tools for office work, multimedia or storage.

Office tools
Google Docs
Google Docs is one of the best-known online applications, but that is largely because it’s so handy. This complete office suite comprises a word processor, spreadsheet application and presentation creator.

When documents are created or edited, they are stored within the user’s Google account and can be accessed from any internet-connected computer. This also allows documents to be shared between users, so you can easily invite other Google Docs users to view and make changes to them.

There are limits on the size of each document, but most home users are unlikely to go over them. For example, documents can be up to 500KB in size, while spreadsheets are limited to 200,000 cells.

Zoho
A competitor to Google Docs, Zoho offers a wide range of online office applications. Along with word processing and spreadsheet tools, it also offers a complete database application called Creator. Other tools include an online chat service and a planner section for organising projects.

Unlike Google Docs, Zoho does not place restrictions on the size of each document, although there are plans to limit each user to 1GB of total online storage space. The basic tools are free, but for a few advanced tools or extra storage you will have to pay a few pounds each month.

Lovely charts
Whether it’s creating a complicated flow chart or plotting a family tree, the wonderfully named Lovely Charts gets you up and running in no time. A selection of images can add a bit of colour to the charts, and the finished result can be saved as a JPEG file ready to be shared or printed. It’s free to try, but to save more than one chart per account it will cost around £27 per year.

PDF to Word
Documents are often converted to PDF format for emailing purposes. Although PDFs look nice and are very convenient for printing, it can often be frustrating not being able to edit them with a word processor.

As its name suggests, PDF to Word sorts all this out by letting you convert PDF files into editable .doc or .rtf documents. Simply tell it which PDF file is to be converted and it will send an editable version to your email address.