One of the writer’s mailing lists to which I subscribe has a thread on word processors of yore. Writers of similar vintage to myself have been bemoaning the loss of ancient software like PFS:Writer (I ran it on my Apple IIe). One writer admitted he has kept WordStar running, even on his most recent machine. Many correspondents bemoaned the loss of these older, simpler products.
Which brings me to Writely, or Google Docs or whatever this product is called. In any case, it’s Google’s browser-based word processor, and I’m in my second year of toying with it. In that time, it’s become my dream word processor – with maybe 10% of MS Word’s ‘features.’ It’s a beautiful, simple, utilitarian piece of software, even without considering its sharing and collaboration features.
I just started my first long, maybe book-length document in it (and my first run at a book in 5 years). I love the fact that I can get to my docs anywhere (even from my iPhone)…
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Google docs and Picasa are now banned sites at my work. I had a problem with Google Docs the other week, where it said my doc was too big after an edit (> 500kb). How do you get a book-sized doc ?
Glad to see you’re doing well !
I’ve found the performance of Google Docs to be problematic sometimes, and I’ve heard of issues with capacity. All those should get solved in time though.
I’ve also heard of workplaces blocking them. That mystifies me. Do they enjoy paying Microsoft’s licensing fees, and wasting time e-mailing spreadsheets around?
File size: I wasn’t aware of that, thanks. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Bans: it’s really convenient to leave work in Google Docs – you can pick up on it when you get home, and again when you’re back at work. I think a lot of cos. are nervous about their IP sitting on someone else’s servers.
Performance on my new Mac
and broadband connection has been fine so far…
It really takes a corporate superhero to show users what they really need. Humans don’t naturally think this stuff up on their won.