Compatibility with Microsoft Word and Google Docs
This is a quick comparison of document creation, formatting, design, collaboration, review, publishing, and AI-writing features of Zoho Writer, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs. While all these word processors are equally capable of creating documents, there are few subtle differences between them in certain aspects. The following table provides a feature-to-feature comparison between their capabilities and differences in detail.
Content creation
This section focuses on the various content creation capabilities offered by these word processors.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Paragraph | Set indent, alignment, line, and paragraph spacing, drop cap, and more. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Images | Add images from your local files, cloud drives, URLs, and more. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Crop, rotate, annotate, and more. | Yes | Yes | Yes (Annotation is not supported) | |
Lists | Create ordered and unordered lists, image lists, heading lists, and more. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Tables | Insert and design tables and more. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Table and image captions | Add captions to tables and images for better visibility. | Yes | Yes | No |
Equations and symbols | Insert symbols and equations. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Hyperlinks, bookmarks, end notes, and footnotes | Organize your documents better and add additional information. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Shapes and textboxes | Insert or draw various shapes and add textboxes. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fields | Insert various types of fieldssuch as Date and Document Name, to create a form. | Yes | Yes | No |
Charts | Insert, edit, copy and paste charts, and convert text to charts. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Autofields | Automatically display document information. | Yes | Yes | No |
Media and web widgets | Insert videos and embed presentations and charts. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Watermark | Add a watermark to your documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Citation and bibliography | Cite from various sources in different styles. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Content formatting
Zoho Writer provides a range of formatting features, allowing users to customize their documents to meet specific aesthetic and functional needs of both businesses and individual users.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Text formatting | Bold, italicize, underline text, change font style, color, size of text, and more. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Text direction | Left to right (LTR) and right to left (RTL) support. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Format painter | Copy formatting from a character or paragraph and apply it to another. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Autocorrect and quick text | Add automatic correction rules and insert saved blocks of text at any place across documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes (Quick Text is not supported) |
Advanced options
While both Microsoft Word and Google Docs offer various advanced document editing options to design engaging documents, Zoho Writer will catch up with them to provide them soon.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Text effects | Add shadow, reflection, or glow. | No | Yes | No |
Image effects | Add shadow, reflection, glow, soft edges, and more to images. | No | Yes | No |
Formulas in tables | Include the ability to perform calculations with table values. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Table of contents | Include the ability to add a table of contents to the top of the document. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Table of tables & Table of figures | List the tables, figures, and images in your document. | Yes | Yes | No |
Document design and layout
Zoho Writer, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs offer a plethora of options to design visually appealing documents.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Borders and shading | Include the ability to add page borders and shading. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Page layout | Select from various layouts, such as A4 and Letter. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Multi-column layout | Add multiple columns and orientations to documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Headers and footers | Add headers and footers across pages and customize them. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Page, column, and section breaks | Manually add page, column, and section breaks. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Page view and web view modes | Switch between page and web views. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Table themes | Add various built-in themes to tables. | Yes | Yes | No |
Margins | Add and customize margins to document pages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Paragraph & character styles | Add various styles to your paragraph and characters. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Document themes | Add various built-in themes to your documents. | Yes | Yes | No |
Outline mode | The ability to manage documents' structure and headings. | Yes (with Navigation Panel) | Yes | Yes |
Cover page | Add a cover page. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Custom fonts | Add custom fonts and apply them to your documents' content. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Document collaboration
Zoho Writer, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs offer many options to collaborate on your documents and leverage the collective wisdom and expertise of your team.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Real-time collaboration | Create and review documents collaboratively. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Comments | Add comments, reply to, or resolve them. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Multi-reviewer comments | Multiple collaborators can add comments. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Track changes | Identify the edits made to the content. Choose to accept or reject them. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Email or publish documents | Send documents as an email, publish them to the web, or embed them in a blog. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Document review and proofing
While all three tools offer functionalities to review and proof your document's content easily, Zoho Writer goes a step further to configure, review, and approve business documents using multi-stage workflows.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Live word & page count | View the word and page count as you type. | Yes | Yes | No |
Personal dictionary | Use your personal dictionary across documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Domain-specific dictionaries | Use built-in domain-specific dictionaries for medical and legal terms across documents. | Yes | No | No |
Find & replace | Find and replace content across documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Thesaurus | Access your thesaurus across your documents. | Yes | Yes | No |
Version history | View and compare the various versions of a document and revert to any version. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Document navigator | Navigate documents through headings, bookmarks, fields, sections, and more in your documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Document workflows | Built-in workflows to review and approve document content. | Yes | No | No |
Comprehensive workflow history and audit trail. | Yes | No | No |
AI features
Zoho Writer offers various types of AI features to create content, provide contextual writing suggestions, and check plagiarized content when compared with other tools.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Generative AI | Leverage AI to generate, modify, or rephrase content, and more. | Yes | Yes | No |
Spelling & grammar checker | Check spelling and grammar as you type. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Style suggestions | Get suggestions for writing style, readability score, and more. | Yes | No | No |
Plagiarism checker | Detect various forms of plagiarized content in your document. | Yes | No | No |
Digitize forms | Convert paper and static PDF forms into interactive fillable forms. | Yes | No | No |
Document translation | Translate a part of the document's content or the whole document based on users' needs. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Content security
Zoho Writer offers out-of-the-box security functionalities to secure your document's content compared with Microsoft Word and Google Docs.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Password protection | Share or download documents with a password. | Yes | Yes | No |
Secure content | Mask or lock important content to avoid exposing sensitive content. | Yes | No | No |
Restrict editing | Avoid edits to the documents' content. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Hidden text | Hide important text in documents. | No | Yes | No |
Document generation and assembly
While MS Word offers the capability to generate personalized documents and collect data and signatures, Zoho Writer stands out from its competitors with its out-of-the-box integration with apps and products to generate documents and design personalized forms.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Document merge | Generate documents in bulk. | Yes | Yes | No |
Label and envelope merge | Generate labels in bulk. | Yes | Yes | No |
Templates | Various predefined document templates. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fillable forms | Capture data by creating forms. | Yes | Yes | No |
Digital signature collection | Collect eSignatures in documents with a built-in digital signature app, Zoho Sign. | Yes | Yes | No |
Integration with various Zoho and other apps | Generate merge documents and fillable forms with data from various Zoho and third-party apps | Yes | No | No |
Prefilled forms | Generate prefilled forms in bulk and share them with users to collect data | Yes | Yes | No |
Post- generation workflows | Choose from a variety of output options for merged, filled, and signed documents | Yes | Yes | No |
Desktop and mobile apps
Zoho Writer stands out from the competition with its desktop apps. This makes it easier to access your documents anytime, anywhere.
Platform | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
Android | Yes | Yes | Yes |
iOS and iPad Apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Desktop app for Windows, MacOS, and Linux | Windows | MacOS | Linux | Windows | MacOS | No |
Productivity enhancers in Zoho Writer
While all the tools offer the ability to translate a document's content and publish to multiple platforms, Zoho Writer offers the added convenience of importing and editing PDFs, and turning static PDFs and forms into merge templates and fillable forms to send them for eSignature collection.
Feature | Description | Zoho Writer | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
PDF editor | Import, edit, and save PDF documents as new PDF or DOCX documents. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PDF to automation templates | Import a PDF and turn it into a merge, fillable, or signable template by adding appropriate fields. | Yes | No | No |
Publish to multiple content platforms | Publish your document to Medium, WordPress, Blogger, Zoho Sites, and more from within your editor. | Yes | Yes | No |
Integrations | Integrate with various business and productivity apps such as Zapier, Zoho Flow, Pexels, Unsplash, and ChatGPT. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Features unique to Zoho Writer
Document creation and editing
- View and edit PDF files
- Exclusive desktop app for Linux OS
- Lock and mask sensitive information while sharing documents for collaboration
Document review
- Track changes in No Markup or All Markup mode
- Comments with visibility control for the document owner, specific users, groups, and more
- Built-in document approval workflows
- Multi-lingual AI-driven writing assistant (English, Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese)
- AI-driven content analysis and feedback with readability scores
Document automation
- No-code document automation
- Purpose-built templates (merge, fillable, and sign templates)
- Convert scanned paper forms into interactive fillable forms
- AI-based form field detection to repurpose static PDFs to interactive fillable forms
- Autogenerate prefilled forms in bulk
- Collaborative form filling modes
- Built-in digital signing capability via Zoho Sign
- Dynamically add additional signers or alternate signers
- Ready-to-use integration with Zoho apps as data sources
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