With the rise of Google
But you know what?
I just had a bright idea.
Bear with me here and tell me if you follow what I’m about to say.
Wouldn’t it be really cool if these online applications could be translated into a package where you could use them even if you are NOT connected to the Internet? This “offline office suite” would be really handy in places where there is no Internet connection. You’d be able to write documents, do spreadsheets and edit photos without the need to go online. Isn’t that cool? I wonder why no one ever thought of that in the first place.
Now that’s a revolution!
*sarcasm mode off*
EDIT: For those who don’t get my sarcasm …
I’ve been using Web based applications since the launch of Meebo, Protopage and Writely (which was eventually bought out). Free apps such as this one serve as an alternative to Open Office but with the way the Internet works here in the Philippines, you’d be in for a lot more inconvenience than anything as consumer DSL can go down like an unexpected bowel movement. And as Veronica Belmont said in the last episode of TWiT, it is just so hard to re-learn another Office Suite when MS Office is just so engraved into our system already.
I steer away from Open Office for one traumatic reason. It saves files by default using a proprietary format which renders them harder to open in a non-techie environment. I had many scares as articles were submitted for editing using the Open Office extension and none of the editors had Open Office. The poor editorial assistant had to resave the file in a MS Word document format and resend, thus wasting everyone’s time. So there. No biggie in truth, but when you’re surrounded by people who are most familiar with MS Word (a microcosm example of why Microsoft still wins in the corporate environment), I don’t want to take risks.
7 replies on “Engaging Commentary on Online Office Suites”
Meron po kaming apps na maaari mong gamitin offline and then i-upload na lang kapag ikaw ay online na… Check po http://pack.google.com. Yung spreadsheet and document apps namin, maaari mong i-edit kasabay ang ibang users ng doc na iyon in real time (online), so hindi mo na kailangan mag-merge pa ng docs. O dibah, cool 🙂
(You’d be able to write documents, do spreadsheets and edit photos without the need to go online. Isn’t that cool? I wonder why no one ever thought of that in the first place.
Now that’s a revolution!…)
you NITWIT, thats what Open Office can do. you should try to view the internet site much farther away than your own blog so that you will learn new things.
ahh CatPack I was thinking of the best way to reply to your comment but then it dawned on me that maybe .. just maybe, you’re too gullible for this post.
didn’t you see my last line?
ive tried using web based office apps and online suites since writely, meebo and protopage and have truly found that they dont suite my needs.
okay fine. the post was a personal commentary on why online office suites don’t work for me. of course i could have said that in my post, but by doing that, it would make the post rather boring.
You can change the default save file option to save in .doc format, when using open office. ayt!
erwin, im aware of this but its quite hard to remind people to keep on doing this as articles come from all over the place.
actually we just decided to save everything in *.rtf for layout purposes.but thanks for the tip 🙂
[…] Office Jayvee Fernandez posted an interesting article about the need of a free offline office suite like Google Apps. With […]
uhh was that trackback serious? lol.