If you believe that there is nothing better than Google Docs and Microsoft 365 for real-time document collaboration, some alternative office suites might make you change your mind. One of the best examples is ONLYOFFICE Docs, an open-source office package that does the same things as its better-known competitors but with a slightly different approach. Read this comprehensive review to learn more about this dark horse in the document collaboration market.
What is ONLYOFFICE Docs?
ONLYOFFICE Docs is an open-source office suite that works on web, desktop and mobile platforms allowing its users to open, edit and collaborate on office files on their favourite devices. This means that you can choose whether you want to edit documents online in your web browser, edit them locally on a PC or laptop to work without having an Internet connection or access your docs on the go using your phone or tablet.
No matter if you prefer working online or offline, you will enjoy the same editing experience with ONLYOFFICE Docs because its web-based and desktop versions are based on the same engine and come with the same editing features, with a few exceptions.
The ONLYOFFICE Docs suite offers viewers and editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, fillable forms and PDFs allowing you to work with all popular office files in one application. Its tabbed interface is easy to navigate and seems intuitive so you will quickly get familiar with it if you have experience in using office software.
Docs, slides, sheets
As many other office suites, ONLYOFFICE Docs provides a full range of formatting and editing tools for text documents, spreadsheets and presentations. You can add complex objects and format text in different ways in your docs, create tables and analyze data ranges in sheets, and create stunning slides with animation effects and transitions in your presentations.
The office files created and edited with ONLYOFFICE Docs are compatible with other office software so you can easily share them with other users who prefer Google Docs or Microsoft 365. The secret is that the ONLYOFFICE editors use OOXML file extensions, which guarantees the highest compatibility with DOCX, PPTX and XLSX files. In other words, ONLYOFFICE Docs natively supports Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.
If you usually work with file formats other than those provided by Microsoft, ONLYOFFICE Docs won’t let you down. It is also compatible with a bunch of other popular formats, such as DOC, ODT, RTF, TXT, EPUB, XLS, ODS, PPT, ODP and many others.
Fillable PDF forms and PDF files
One of the key advantages of ONLYOFFICE Docs is that it handles not only documents, spreadsheets and presentations but also fillable forms and PDFs. The suite uses the PDF format for fillable forms, and this is very convenient. You can create your forms and open them in other programs, like Adobe Acrobat, and work with forms sent to you by other people who don’t use ONLYOFFICE Docs.
With the ONLYOFFICE form-creating tool, you are allowed to create documents with fillable fields from scratch or use a DOCX document. To make your fillable form suitable for a particular purpose, you can add multiple fields choosing from text fields, images, radio buttons, complex fields, combo boxes, checkboxes, drop-down lists and some specific field types, such as ZIP code, email address, phone number and credit card.
Each field can be easily modified due to its flexible settings, allowing you to create whatever you need — application forms, legal contracts, invoices, financial statements and even to-do lists. You can share your ready-made forms with other users so that they can fill out the required fields and save it as a PDF file compatible with other applications.
To make the process of form creation effortless, the ONLYOFFICE developers have a free collection of form templates in PDF format that you can open and fill out for free in your browser even if you don’t have ONLYOFFICE Docs installed.
Besides PDF forms, the ONLYOFFICE suite makes it possible for you to open, view, annotate and edit PDF files. The built-in PDF editor has all the required tools to edit text in PDFs, add and modify visual objects, such as shapes and images, rotate, add and delete separate pages, make comments and annotations, and draw.
Additional features provided by plugins
If you need an additional feature when working on your office files, there is an option in ONLYOFFICE Docs that allows you to get access to plugins, i.e. special extensions that bring new tools and services to your office suite.
Plugins are managed via the ONLYOFFICE Plugin Manager. When you open it, you will be able to search for the desired tools, install and delete them with a few clicks.
These are several examples of useful ONLYOFFICE plugins that enrich your editing experience:
- Deepl, Google and Apertium for translation work;
- Doc2md to convert documents to Markdown or HTML;
- draw.io to create sophisticated diagrams;
- Jitsi for videoconferencing;
- LanguageTool to correct spelling mistakes and grammar errors;
- OCR to recognize text in your pictures;
- QR Code Generator to create QR codes and more.
All plugins are free and available in both the web-based and desktop version of the ONLYOFFICE suite.
Built-in AI assistants
Among all ONLYOFFICE plugins, you can find those designed to integrate the power and capabilities of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence into the ONLYOFFICE editors. What is meant here is ChatGPT and Zhipu Copilot, AI-based writing assistants that make it a lot easier to work with documents, spreadsheets and presentations. When activated, both plugins enable you to do the following things:
- Rewrite your text the way you like;
- Translate words, sentences and whole paragraphs into different languages;
- Detect and correct mistakes to improve your grammar and spelling;
- Find and extract keywords;
- Summarize long texts in a few sentences;
- Find the information you need;
- Generate text content and images;
- Explain unknown words and notions;
- Look for synonyms and more.
To cut it short, the AI assistants in ONLYOFFICE Docs can increase you productivity and do a lot of useful things to save your time.
Real-time collaboration tools
Real-time co-authoring is where ONLYOFFICE Docs shines. The suite is great for collaborative work among several people who need to edit a single document together. When co-editing an office files in ONLYOFFICE Docs, you can:
- Activate either the Fast or the Strict co-editing mode depending on your preferences;
- Share documents using flexible access permissions, such as full access, reviewing, commenting and viewing;
- Keep track of all edits made by other collaborators in real time;
- Use the Version History feature and manage all the versions of your file;
- Compare documents online;
- Tag others and leave comments for them;
- Text other collaborators in the built-in chat.
Enhanced security
ONLYOFFICE Docs was created with security and data privacy in mind. That’s why the suite provides a set of solid features and security tools to make the editing experience as safe as possible. As an open-source solution, ONLYOFFICE Docs allows everyone to inspect it source code to make sure it has no hidden backdoors. Another strong point is the self-hosted deployment model which lets users deploy the suite on their Windows or Linux server for a better data control.
To protect documents, ONLYOFFICE Docs uses the JSON Web Token technology designed to prevent unauthorized access. The HTTPS protocol provides data encryption in transit.
Additionally, you can protect your office files with passwords and sign them digitally via the ONLYOFFICE Desktop app. You can also restrict the copy, download and printing options when sharing something with other people.
Integration options
ONLYOFFICE Docs is an excellent option for those who would like to integrate their business platform with an office suite. Today there are more than 40 ready-to-use integration apps that integrate the ONLYOFFICE editors with WordPress, Drupal, Nextcloud, ownCloud, Redmine, Jira, Plone, Pipedrive, Seafile, Alfresco, Confluence, Nuxeo, SharePoint, Chamilo, Moodle and more. You can check the full list of supported solutions on the official website.
Theoretically, ONLYOFFICE can be integrated with any web-based service thanks to its open API and compatibility with the WOPI protocol.
Mobile and desktop apps
If you don’t want to deploy ONLYOFFICE Docs on a server and deal with its configuration, you can opt for ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors. It’s a free desktop version of the web-based suite that runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. The desktop version has the same user interface and editing tools and its compatible with all plugins, including the AI-based assistants.
For mobile devices, the ONLYOFFICE suite has free apps for Android and iOS that you can find on Google Play and the App Store and download for free. These apps are ideal for document editing on the go.
Conclusion
ONLYOFFICE Docs is a solid Google Docs and Microsoft 365 alternative for those people who need a secure online office suite that respects their privacy. The combination of excellent collaborative features and the ability to work with office files on web, desktop and mobile platforms make ONLYOFFICE Docs a good choice for distributed teams and businesses whose employees work remotely.
