A Thing: The 13th One. (Docs.)

Of all of the tools one may encounter as an educator, the word processor, spreadsheet program, and presentation creator are some of the most likely to crop up.  These are all staples of modern classroom technology, but can often be a costly tool to equip your "box" with, given that many word processors (such as Microsoft Word or Apple's Pages), spreadsheet applications (such as Microsoft Excel or Apple's Numbers), and presentation creators (such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote) are not free to users and must be downloaded at a cost.  However, luckily there is a loophole that can keep you from having to spend money on these useful classroom tools!  (Docs.)

Web Applications (which are programs that you do not have to download in order to use and run online) such as Google Docs or Zoho Docs can provide the same services that these offline programs do, but for free!  I have found that these applications are extremely similar, and that the only difference is that (for me, personally), Zoho seems a little more intuitive, layout wise.  If you find yourself a preferer of keeping all of your online accounts linked together, Google Docs is probably the site for you, as it is automatically connected to your Google account.  If you would rather keep your online accounts separated (as I like to do, myself), you may find that Zoho Docs is a better fit for you!  Fundamentally, however, the sites are the same.  Check out these example documents prepared by each of the programs:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p7eLoZKg6ynFomZ5b_1qb1aXrxAcNjLkx4HfYj3qkMA/edit

https://writer.zoho.com/public/11d3e3e3f60d862f38190f2b921f322eaf561363378adaf38073c78ecae72b1f73ea19673eb7916a

See how these documents are just as good as any document created with some fancy schmancy downloadable word processor?  

What's handy about online programs is that all of your work is already one step closer to being sharable than work produced with offline programs!  All you have to do is click "Share", since your work is already online!  This enables others to see your work without the hassle of waiting around for your document to upload!  

Concerned about not having your work saved to your computer?  Not a problem!  Just export the document to your computer through the online application (download it), and you can save wherever you want in the file type of your choosing!  

Educators and future educators:  Consider the possibilites that these web applications hold for your students!  Collaborative projects would be made exponentially easier by these online programs.  All the students would have to do is create a common username and password, and upload all of their work to the same place for instant sharing!  Another option is utilizing the ability to list another Docs user as a collaborator, so that they can see all of your work on a project, if you enable them to!  This would work around the inconvenience and confusion that is trying to share work between different computers, different file types, and different programs.  

Give these sites a try!  Just sign up for a free basic account and do some exploring!  Web-based applications could save you a lot of trouble in your future, if you add them to your toolbox, now!