One of the banes of many writers’ existence (including my own!) is inheriting a slew of documents where the people working on them previously haven’t paid much heed to document versioning, leaving you trying to make sense of a mishmash of documents. On more than one occasion, I’ve been left hoping for a tool that would enable me to compare documents in bulk so I can get a mess of a documentation library under control before I can begin the real work on a project.
While word processors like Microsoft Word often include a one-to-one compare documents feature, what if you inherit a whole library of documents? Enter CompareMyDocs.com, a new web-based service from Nordic River, the makers of TextFlow, a version management tool. It enables you to compare multiple .rtf, .doc, and .docx documents. Read the rest of this entry »
Every so often, a new app hits my radar that gives me that “Wow! Awesome! Right On!” feeling. Launching into public beta today, WatchDox by Confidela is such an app. If you want to share a document securely with someone, WatchDox can do that. But it also does much more, namely letting you specify permissions on the document, such as the whether it can be printed, copied or forwarded. Then you can track all the activity of your document so you can see all the places your document has been sent, by whom and when, who opened it and when, who printed it and when — a complete document activity audit. Yet its features are practical, sensible and uncluttered. Read the rest of this entry »
The key to successful document collaboration, as far as I’ve been able to gather in my many attempts, is making sure that the process is as simple as is absolutely possible. People only seem able or willing to work together on text projects if it takes only marginally more effort than not collaborating at all. A newly open-to-the-public web app called doingText, which Mike Gunderloy took a brief look at when it was in closed beta, might be the best and simplest method yet, even beating TextFlow’s latest web-based tool.
They’ve since added some features, ironed out some kinks, and set up a multi-tiered pricing plan that offers something for everyone, including a basic free version that will probably be enough for most individuals. I wanted to run it through its paces now that it’s been officially released, and see if it really was as hassle-free as advertised. Read the rest of this entry »
A while back I reviewed TextFlow, an Adobe AIR application that allows you to establish a collaborative document editing workflow quickly and easily, without messing about with servers or larger enterprise solutions. Recently, the folks behind TextFlow introduced a version with editing in the browser, so people don’t have to have AIR installed to join in and collaborate.
I liked the original version of TextFlow, but it ended up not being very useful precisely because no one I wanted to work with was particularly interested in having AIR installed on their machines. Not that they were actively against it, either, just that they didn’t feel it was worth the bother for just this app (obviously I’m not talking about TweetDeck or Twhirl users here!). Now they can edit documents directly in their browser via a private link, so they don’t need to mess about with AIR to help out with the collaboration. Read the rest of this entry »
There is very little reason to depend on a hard drive-based application for your word processing needs these days. Google Docs provides everything most users will ever need; you already have it if you have a Gmail account, and it works offline, thanks to Google Gears. Another solution, Zoho Writer, which also works offline thanks to Gears, just got a major interface overhaul in its 2.0 incarnation, and now is more poised than ever to provide a complete alternative to Office and other similar programs.
The problem with Zoho, until now, has been one of constant improvement. That may not seem like a problem at all, but when that improvement involves adding more and more features, but keeping the interface the same, it can get a little unruly. The new redesign tries to make sure Zoho doesn’t overwhelm you visually, which in turn makes it easier to work with.
The old Zoho Writer menu
While some liked the old UI, I found it too cluttered, because I normally like to edit in full screen, and like as little chrome as possible in my browsers. The changes to the top menu give you a bit more room, but more importantly, they group and hide a lot of commands so you aren’t left feeling crowded. The new “MenuTab” feature groups similar commands under general headings. You can access these commands either by clicking the tab, which changes the button set available on your toolbar (much like Microsoft’s “Ribbon” UI for Office) or by clicking the little arrow next to them, which opens a drop-down menu without changing your toolbar.
The new Zoho Writer 2.0 "MenuTab" interface
It makes sense, and it suits multiple tastes. You’ll be comfortable if you’re used to working with Office, or if you’re used to working with drop-down menus like you’ll find in a lot of web apps. Zoho plans to use MenuTab in all of its other applications in the future, too, so even if you don’t like it, plan on getting used to it!
I won’t go into detail about Zoho Writer, since we’ve covered it before. It’s not new, but I still love Zoho’s tabbed management of open documents. I much prefer it to Google’s opening of new browser tabs for each document, although that makes much more sense when you take into account Google Chrome’s handling of each tab as a separate process. And I still miss Google’s full-screen edit mode too much to make a permanent switch.
Still, if you’re a Zoho user, or if you tried it out before but didn’t like it because of the interface, Zoho Writer 2.0 gives you ample reason to take it out for a second spin.
Do you use Zoho Writer? What do you think of the new UI?
Working online, you probably need to share documents with clients, partners and coworkers. You also probably wouldn’t mind having a resource at hand whereby you could search, preview, and download a wide selection of documents to use as templates, research material, or benchmarks to help further your own work. Docstoc is a new service that aims to meet both of these needs with a web app. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the trickiest things to pull off when you’re working online is producing an actual document. There are any number of distractions, it’s harder to provide proofs and get feedback than if you’re working face-to-face with a client or stakeholder, and you often get the run around in terms of who you should be working with.
I’ve done a lot of this type of work for a range of clients, and over the course of those efforts, I’ve arrived at a number of conclusions regarding how best to go about it. These tips won’t tell you exactly how you should manage your own workflow, but it will help you avoid some of the more common problems.
Determine Scope and Materials Up Front, in Detail
There’s nothing a client likes worse than switching horses halfway through the race. That means you should pick your applications, end products, etc. with them at the project outset. Make sure both of you know exactly what they want to get out of the project at the end. Details like whether or not they want the document to be editable, the expected shelf life of the document, whether it’s a living document or not will all be crucial in helping you decide not only what, but how you’ll be producing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Working on the Web means that it’s easy to reach out to collaborators – but what then? If you actually need to work on the web with other people (as opposed to just communicating with clients and suppliers via the web), you’ll need some tool support. Take the common problem of needing to jointly edit a document, for example. In the old days (say, five years ago) most of us would do this by emailing drafts back and forth, perhaps using something like Microsoft Word’s revision marks feature to indicate who did what.
But these days, you’re not limited to such primitive serial workflows. Thanks to the web, there are a batch of ways that you can edit a document together with another person – or more than one person – to quickly home in on a final draft. There are three main groups of solution to this problem, each with their own features and drawbacks.
Read the rest of this entry »
One of the banes of many writers’ existence (including my own!) is inheriting a slew of documents where the people working on them previously haven’t paid much heed to document versioning, leaving you trying to make sense of a mishmash of documents. On more than one occasion, I’ve been left hoping for a tool that would enable me to compare documents in bulk so I can get a mess of a documentation library under control before I can begin the real work on a project.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
