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Google free, kick-ass word-processor

4work.pl — Google has re-launched Writely, the online word-processor they recently bought, in public beta. Access to Writely is now free for everyone. Writely does most things Word does, for free.

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  • kirkio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35You probably should have put 'Writely' in the title. Beware of dupes.
    • sahaskatta, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3As stated in the article, Based on Cnet's take:
      http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9239_7-6627472.html?tag=cnetfd.ld3
    • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -23/+11AbiWord kicks its ass. Open Office eats it for lunch. MSFT Word makes it look like a tin can. Nice, I'll use it. But creating a document and saving it to my web folder (available wherever I have Internet access as well) is far superior. Also, I can use word on an airplane. Dial up? No problemo.

      Come on, if you think this competes with a real word processor you don't may as well use notepad...
    • MySchizoBuddy, on 10/12/2007, -14/+9Cliffdude, just because ur incapable to differentiating between the two markets segments, doesn't mean Writely sucks. It serves a different purpose. Please open ur eyes and try to identify the target market and stop comparing it to Word.
    • velhi, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6And what purpose is that?
    • meepus, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Clearly, the purpose of Writely lies in its document-sharing capabilities. As an editor, I like to be able to make changes (grammatical) or suggestions (put more emphasis here) to documents my staffers are writing. Writely allows them to create/upload the documents wherever there internet access is available, and allows me to do my job from wherever internet access is available. It's userfriendly, easy, and doesn't require that I set up an FTP server or VPN (and I'd have to work with IT to do that... blech).

      Writely allows me to restore previous revisions of documents, see who made which revisions, and does it all intuitively.

      The fact that no one in the first comment thread has said this yet deeply disturbs me.
    • sandesh247, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Collaboration.

      Now if they added live chat too (like it is in spreadsheets), it would be really useful.
    • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3RTFA, the article clearly states: "writely does most things Word does, for free"

      That is the comment to which I was directing my reply. I don't bow to the God of Google as you do, I'm more concerned with Google's Monopolistic dangers than Microsoft ever presented. As we conduct more and more of our personal life on Google's servers, more and more of our behavior is being tracked, recorded, and indexed.

      The author stated that "writely does most things Word does, for free". I disagree.

    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3There's nothing particularly kickass about it. How about using OpenOffice instead?

      Now stop posting stories about Writely. It's been on the front page how many times now?
  • bingnet, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Why is it still Writely? Shouldn't this be worked into the already awkward applications menu in My Google? I mean the top-left menu where Gmail, spreadsheets, calendar are currently displayed.
    • xioner, on 10/12/2007, -11/+19you mean the menu that almost everyone ignores, because gMail is the only really good one in it?
    • macewan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@xioner, but for those of us that actually use Calendar and Writely on a daily basis this would be helpful.
  • dankoleary, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23I still haven't found a reason where this makes more sense than just using OpenOffice. Meh, I guess this would be great for a school project.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21One advantage it has is that you can access your files very, very easily from any computer with a web browser and edit them without having to worry at all about compatibility issues or having the latest version of your work on your disk (or whatever you used to transfer the file).
    • RichPowers, on 10/12/2007, -6/+25Or that could be a disadvantage - everything you write is saved to Google's severs. There's no guarantee that such data will remain private forever. At least with OpenOffice, the files are on my machine, which I take steps to protect.
    • kaph, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I have one, I do a bit of network pen and exploit testing and usually run an OS like Nubuntu or Backtrack. This would be handy for doing a report on site without having to boot back into whatever OS the company is using. Although i haven't used it yet.....But i agree it's need may not be great.
    • dako, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I agree on the school projects. Last semester I was eager to try Writely on my team projects at school, but closed-beta had already kicked in, so no luck there. This semester everything is different. Before it started, I was able to get an invite, and was also able to invite some friends. Every homework, essay, whatever, that needs a wordprocessor has been done in Writely. But what I like the most about (besides having your docs at all times and be able to edit them) is the way team homework is done now. Before we would have to send back and forward word.docs through email or messenger, wait for each member to finish their part, and then put it together.

      Of course there are some bugs here and there, and sometimes are very annoying, but I won't complain, it's still in beta, and I've been able to work in a better manner.
    • eUnSung, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4It works much better with MSWord docs than Openoffice does.
  • Sealab2021, on 10/12/2007, -28/+7Want a writing program that HAS EVERY FEATURE that Microsoft word dose and more for free?
    http://www.openoffice.org/
    nuff said
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16True, but you can't get your OO.o files from any computer with web access. Also, this is Digg. Everyone knows about OO.o.
      :-P
    • heavensblade23, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18You have no idea what you're talking about if you think oo.o has "every feature" MS Office has. MS Office 97 maybe...

      oo.o is a perfectly suitable Office suite for most people's needs, but it's simply not comparable to MS Office for business use.
    • steeel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11It will be one day :)
    • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2"True, but you can't get your OO.o files from any computer with web access."

      Just email the document to your gmail account...
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8@heavensblade
      Can MS Word export as PDF?
    • neko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12@iamcitizen: No, but the future version of Office can export to XPS, Microsoft's new innovative pdf-like document format that has... ..that has 60% more buzzwords!

      Also, it's cross platform, so you don't have to worry about the cross-platform nightmare that was PDF anymore, you can open XPS documents anywhere, on Windows CE, XP, 2003 and Vista!
  • deadlierchair, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5A very cool looking project but important to note that Safari is not yet supported.
  • crashflow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16http://www.writely.com/
  • Blumeroom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I thought you were posting an article about a word-processor that is "Google Free".
  • brucebeh, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7this is cool, but i wish they would integrate it with Google Accounts :(
    • razei, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Everything that Google owns is just kind of a mess right now. What they really need to do is get one uniform template [more than likely their trademark spacious white], and place a link in the top right corner on google.com to a portal with all their products, like gTalk, Picasaweb, Spreadsheets/writely, Notebook, etc [the >>more link isn't good enough].

      But knowing Google, that's probably coming. Slowly, but coming.
    • Dochtuir, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1picasaweb.google.com/

      Thanks! I was looking for something like that. I can ditch flicker now. Google accounts are great.
  • dotuplink, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5No mac version, no digg
  • mem2, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3yawn, dupe
  • stockjones, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Do you trust saving your docs remotely? If this was Microsoft you'd all be screaming security nightmare!, It is a cool app but man who knows what info they can store when you use this stuff.
    • paulmdx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You rightly point out there's a huge double standard when it comes to Microsoft and Google. I think that's mainly because Google has less of a bad rep when it comes to 'doing no wrong' mostly because it's not been around nearly as long.

      With Google moving into Microsoft's space by providing applications it's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of years. Google are undoubtedly THE experts when it comes to search, but Microsoft are the experts when it comes to applications. Competition in both areas should be good for the consumer.
    • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course I wouldn't put any private or sensitive information on Writely, but it's great for school work and other non-sensitive things.
    • allanpat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3how is this any different than email a word document through gmail? google will save that too. either way, your document is stored.
  • varland, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Can we quit with the "does most things Word does" crap?

    I'm a big supporter of competition in the software market, and I think Writely is a very useful product under the right circumstances. But, it is not, and will never be, a competitor to Word.

    Just because Writely has most or all of the features a certain user would use in Word does not mean it has most of Word's features. One of the things I like best about Word (and Office in general) is that when I find myself wanting a feature, I usually discover it's already there, and if it's not I can create a macro. Writely just is not that full-featured.
    • varland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Please note: I also know that Writely has a number of features Word doesn't, and some of them are great.
  • aggiejy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6not just a dupe, but like the 3rd dupe that's made the homepage. Human editors should be able to kill obvious crap like this. :)
  • postlogic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I've just tested writely for a bit and found it to be extremely well done. The only problem I find is what several others are mentioning.. Why isn't this as integrated with the other services as Spreadsheets, Calendar and Notebooks are? I found being able to share my spreadsheets and talk about them using gtalk from -within- the document to be extremely useful.. Oh well. Maybe in the future.
  • vanlandw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Why did digg get rid of the "old news" bury option?

    Oh well
  • digitalsol, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2i played around with it... so far, it seems like a standard WYSIWYG editor! Other then collaboration, this is pretty featureless. Saving documents is cool but I don't see anything close to what MS office or open office offer in terms of functionality...

    just like spreadsheet, google has work to do...
    • Scruffydan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4i would use is as a collaboration tool, and nothing more
  • theonlyvlad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11google + new + kickass + product = digg frontpage
  • lapse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Hmh, I do not like this at all. Why would I let google get access to my documents? Call me paranoid but I do not trust google with my work and other personal information.
    http://www.google-watch.org/
  • Dharmamooch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Excellent tool for middle- and high-school students. Mine use it so that their teachers, classmates and I can do proofreading. It also allows them to print or edit the document at school. (Sometimes they forget the "paper" at home.) We like using writely.
  • venukb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2wow..i am amazed as to how this made it to front page and digged all the way up..
  • LucasVB, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5You people complain about the privacy of storing documents online as if all you guys worked with were top-secret reports. Also a funny thing is, you're all exchanging very private informations using your gmail accounts (that are computer-analyzed since day one), so I don't see what's the problem here.

    Anyway, dugg, because Writely is a great piece of software.
    • lapse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2does not matter if they are top secret or not really, they're mine. I'm aware of the non-privacy on gmail.
    • simd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The "leaked" AOL searches weren't "top secret" either, but it's a good demonstration of why your privacy is important.
  • sp4rky, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Do people just not search or ignore stories. http://digg.com/tech_news/Writely_now_open_to_everyone_no_invatations_needed
  • rmiller07, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, this got dugg up pretty fast. This is one ultra sweet site thought. I used it briefly today and love the fact that you can save documents not only to the online servers, but also to your desktop as Word files. You can also upload Word files to writely.
  • Chasuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I like Writely, and I use it lot, but it has only a small subset of the features of Word or OpenOffice. Granted, that subset consists of the most commonly used features, but it does have some odd omissions. It lacks word count, as an example.
  • JOJOFACE, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Prefer Zoho Writer, myself. :)
    www.zohowriter.com
  • KMartSheriff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Minimalists make Crom laugh. HA HA.
  • tardpicard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4the collaborative work would be the best feature on this if it is done well. That would be really sweet to not have to explain CVS or subversion to some other dummies I had to work with.
  • kevincw01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4awesome for remote essay collaboration. I'm sure it's in the works but they need to kick the .net engine(aspx is so not google) and integrate the accounts into google accounts so I don't have to register yet another web account.
  • mikewilsonuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6To say "Writely does most things Word does" is a massive overstatement. Writely is a small and useful work processor, but I doubt it does 10% of what Word does.
  • rbvmusic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Where's the linux/opera support??
    • mikev, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2same place as safari support
    • LouisC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It works perfectly in Linux/Opera. Just go to http://www.writely.com/?browserok=true
      :)
    • warbird, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Or, rightclick the page, Edit site preferences, and under the network tab, choose "mask as mozilla". Lots of sites that "doesn't work" in opera actually works, but because of user-agent checking they won't let you through. This is a good tip for such occations :)
    • simd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@LouisC - thanks for that - not tested extensively but seems to work well in Opera 9 / Ubuntu. Wonder why they're hiding it - even if they hid unsupported features it would be better.
  • Oryx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Well, I can't get the thing to work with Windoze Opera 9.

    I used LouisC's trick to get into the damn thing, and warbird's idea of "Mask as Mozilla"... so now I click "New", the name-your-doc dialog pops up, I click [OK]...
    ... and no document.

    DUH. LAME.
  • poptjaart, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Google should start integrating all their tools into one interface. Writely does not look anything like google spreadsheets and gmail for that matter....
  • Rapax, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Doesn't work. No digg.

    I tried it with Opera 9, just got an empty white screen.
    Tried with Konqueror, and was able to register, but the 'new document' pop-up thingie is blank, and won't accept click on the close button, or the entry of a file name.

    This might have potential, but not if it forces you to use a certain browser. IE is out of the question, especially for Linux users, and firefox is so painfully slow that I avoid it wherever possible.
  • hasanahmad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2if its kickass now, why wasnt it famous when Google didnt own the company.


    no Digg
  • samtajain79, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2google is the leader in all the web service from 2010
    great
    • hasanahmad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2leader? aside from Gmail, none of thier own developed services are even in the top 5 and the one which is famous, google maps/google earth is a bought technology from Keyhole Inc.
    • tybris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2and even GMail has a lousy market share compared to Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.
  • jhaydon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3True - Writely is great! But its not an Microsoft Word killer, as I have seen quoted on many websites. It's simply in a completely different class of application.
  • Securityguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Well at least you can write your documents with encryption with writely here: https://www.writely.com/
  • cstewart28, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I would of used it if I could sign in with my @gmail email account!! They want me to sign up, why should i?! I got MS Word!
    • SVPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hear, hear... It's a bit lame that it's a Google service and my Google login doesn't work!
    • Kink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's a bit of a bitch but it takes 5 seconds, and for something as useful as this, it isn't much to ask.
    • CoolWind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Who cares if you don't use it?
      Has it occurred to you that maybe the people who run Google are smarter than you and know something you don't, and just maybe their way is better than your way?
  • Burn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Awesome, it's about time, but where was my notification?
  • miquonranger03, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This was already out in public beta. If you caught Writely early, before the sale to Google, it was public. I heard about it in TWiT and got a FREE account. Then Google bought them and new accounts were closed. They had to merge their systems with Google and they finished.
  • ThinkFr33ly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anybody, including Cnet, who claims that Writely does most of the things that Word does doesn't really know anything about Word.
  • ThePict, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0A Google free, kick-ass word-processor? That's the same as saying a "kick-ass word-processor which is Google free", as in no Google involved at all.

    What use have you for a word-processor when you can't even write a headline that accurately represents what you mean to say?!?
  • cheesmo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I tried it out and it crashed Firefox (2.0 beta) within a couple seconds. I guess that's what happens when using a beta website within a beta browser.
  • hopper100, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I tried pasting in a picture but all that shows up is a place holder with a little broken icon in the corner. Nothing in Help to indicate how to make embedded graphics visible. Is it just me?
  • ysmsr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Pretty bad. I dont think any serious doc writer should use this. It crashes & hangs like crazy. Try pasting a few times. Its slow as hell. I just dont feel its reliable. Ill stick to the desktop version for now.
  • stampy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1OBEY
  • Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2writely can export to oo.o
  •  

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