#18: Word processing without purchasing software?

And you can access your documents whereever you have Internet access??

And it's free?

Yes, Web 2.0 explorers, this is the new world in which we are living and working and playing.

Listen to this podcast [2:30] -->

Web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications are readily available and powerful collaboration tools. Users can create and share documents without having to transfer or email files to others; further, users need not be concerned about what software (and version) their collaborators have installed.

Online word processing tools like this do their best to have similar tool bars to the omnipresent MS Word. So, for the most part, using these tools are practically identical to the way you create, type, and edit documents using the Word program on your computer. Plus, these tools warehouse earlier versions of your document indicating time, date, and username -- just like on a wiki!

So why not use a wiki instead, you might ask?

Users can share access to documents/pages for simultaneous use, leaving their "mark" for what changes or additions were made when; nobody needs to transfer files; access can be public or private; accessibility is centralized in a single online location. Yes, all these are features common to both wikis and to online word processing applications. However, web-based word processing allows for printed documents and for file format options for sharing or storing elsewhere. These tools simulate programs normally installed as software applications for producing tangible documents - for printing physical manifestations of work completed electronically. While wiki pages can be printed just like any html documents, the formatting options for printing are rather limited.

And at the root, the genesis of these marvels of Web 2.0 distinguish them (even as the evolving uses of them may blur these distinctions). The creative intention behind wikis centered on collaborative databases of information - virtual collections of interlinked documents residing on the Internet. The intention of web-based applications like Google Docs and Zoho Writer centers on production, with the old fashioned physical sense that implies. In fact, another term for these applications is online productivity tools.

Discovery Resources

If you are curious to see "published" documents created by web-based word processors, take a look at these:

• created using Zoho Writer
• created using Google Docs

Each of the above are html pages so you cannot really get a sense of simulated word processing until you use the applications yourself. So, on to the part of the Thing where you do your own tinkering!

Discovery Exercise
As has been my habit, I'm offering options that vary depending on you deep you like plunging in the deep muddy of Web 2.0.

Just Curious Depth

1. You already have a Google account if you created your blog using Blogger, so you're halfway there! Visit Google Docs (or from a Google search page, click more and select Documents).
2. Sign in with your gmail account name.
3. Create a document - or a spreadsheet, if you're more of an Excel aficionado.
4. Publish your document on the web or to your blog. Note: If you create a spreadsheet, you can only publish to the web.
5. If publishing to your blog, edit your post to add something about when or why you might use this instead of posting from your blog initially. If you publishing to the web, provide a link to your document in a blog post and let us know what you think of online productivity tools like this.
   

Deep End

1. Follow the above steps 1 through 4.
2. Go to Zoho Writer to sign up for an account.
3. Create the same kind of document you created at Google Docs and publish it, too.
4. Open a second window or tab so you can be logged in at both Google and Zoho at the same time. Compare views of your revisions. Similarities, differences?
   
5. Create or edit a blog entry comparing Google and Zoho for word processing or for spreadsheets. Which do you prefer? Tell us why!

Really Deep End

1. Complete the above Deep End tasks.
2. Invite 23Things (@gcmail.maricopa.edu) to collaborate on a document you've created - or invite a 23Things @ GCC buddy or any friend to collaboratively work on your document. Note: your collaborator will also need an account with the tool you use; otherwise, access will be read only (not read/write).
   

-----

BTW: the first draft of this blog entry was created in Zoho Writer. I "published" it to my blog (as a draft) having checked the options "With tags" and "Post as draft" - and it transformed the Zoho tags to coded links to Technorati. Amazing!

Technorati Tag: collaboration
N.B.: two-word terms don't work unless you run them together as one word -- even if you put quotation marks around a phrase, the code will only search for the first word. Fixing this is beyond my current html knowledge.