Saturday, September 24, 2005

Writely Test

Several years ago Bill Gates said that we soon would have web-based software and not bother having any on out desktops and notebook computers.  His forecast was a little premature; people seem to like having software on their computers and are a little frightened by the idea of all their work in cyberspace; they can work offline with computer-bound software.  Still many people have gone to totally web-based email; the precedent is set.

 

Yesterday I learned about Writely - The Web Word Processor while reading the blog The Distant Librarian.  It is so new that the instruction page is not complete; there are several gaps were the editors have not yet decided what to say.  What they do say is that their web-based word processor is free for anyone to use in its beta phase; later there will be a variety of free and fee versions.  They suggest the product will be useful for people who like to colaborate with others; start a document and tell your friends by adding their email addresses to the permissions for document access; they can then add to the document online.  The editors also suggest Writely will be handy for people who travel; if they can get to the Web, they can get to their documents.

 

I am composing this document on Writely.  I am assured that I can post it directly to Blogger when I am ready; Blogger is the only weblog that is so supported at present, but the editors are taking requests.  I have given Aaron access to the document, so he can collaborate.


And here I am!  This is pretty neat, I'll have to play around with it some more.  I would like to install something like this on our server.  Seems like a secure way to have a wiki. -as


It occurred to me in the shower that I can write a review at home and access it at work, where I might check facts in reference books - I still use them - and then send the text to my blog.  Of course, I could just compose in my blog, but it does not have all the nice features of a word processor.

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