Doing It All Online - Part 1

Posted: 12.07.2005
By: Derek Coleman

Writely - The Word Replacement...
Even as it is in beta as I write this, Writely is very feature packed and fully functional. Writely allows you to edit documents online with whomever you choose also letting you publish and blog them all online. With Writely you can upload Word documents, HTML, or text or start a new document from scratch. It includes the most used features from MS Word and other desktop text editors such as rich text formatting and spell check. Unlike other text editors, you can collaborate on documents with other people, view a documents' history of revisions and roll back to any version, publish documents to anyone online or whomever you choose to see it, download documents in Word, Open Office, Rich Text formats or save as a zipped HTML file. You also have the ability to tag documents, post to your blog, and even get an RSS feed that shows the revision changes! For more information on what it can do, check out the site as it is continuously updating features and compatibility.

How I Use It...
Well, I have begun an experiment by using my oldest computer to do everything online. This once was a monumental task a mere two years ago, but with the advent of new Ajax and Web 2.0 applications popping up all over the Internet the impossible has become more possible (or soon-to-be possible). The computer I am using is an old Pentium II, 300Mhz IBM ThinkPad with 96MB of RAM and a 2.01GB hard drive running Windows 2000 Proffessional. The LCD screen broke off from the hinges, so it is hooked up to an external monitor. The keyboard and mouse still work, so I am using those. I am using a Cisco wifi card to connect to the Internet and running the latest version of Firefox (1.5 at the time of this writing). As you can see I am pretty limited to what programs I can run on this hacked-together system and with this setup I have less than 400MB left for virtual memory. No office applications. Nothing but an OS and a web Browser. Ready? Here we go...

I use Writely on a daily basis to coordinate website updates and changes to NET9 and the project as a whole, I use it to collect interesting articles while surfing the web, and write articles like this one. I have used it to collaborate on New Orleans contracts with clients as well as IT consulting contracts. I use it for notes, saving interesting links, and source code notes. I have even used it to publish my resume! After using it for about two months, I have not missed using other text editors. This is likely due to the fact that I can access my documents from just about any computer connected to the Internet. The best part about it is that it is free!

Just The Begining...
There is no doubt in my mind that Writely will become more useful and compatible over time and I will continue to use it as long as it stays around and stays free. I think I have found my Word replacement and would encourage anyone to give it a try. As with any web application, it does not do everything and I will be looking to find other great web-based replacements of desktop applications for my testing in the future. I think I need a spreadsheet app, presentation app, ftp app, email client, and chat client to be fully functional with my test machine. I may think of more depending on how long this experiment lasts, but those services will cover the basics. Stay tuned as I journey into the future that is Web 2.0.