Working online

As bandwidth and access to the internet increase, there are a growing number of web applications which can be used as substitutes for traditional software which you have to install on your computer. The advantages of using web applications are that you don't need to do any installation and there is little or no cost involved in using them. They are very helpful if the majority of the computer work you do is in an internet cafe. The negative side of this is that it's quite easy to lose control of your content, and you can't access these applications if your internet connection goes down.

You can use these applications to do things like creating text documents and spreadsheets and editing photographs. However, in order to do this you need to have at least a broadband connection; dial-up is simply too slow.

Popular Web Applications include:

• Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Calendar
• Microsoft Office Live
• Adobe Photoshop Express