GOOGLE DOCS AND FREE ONLINE DOCUMENT SOFTWARE

I am creating this post using a free, online document software. That means, that I don't have to have Microsoft installed, or anything installed for that matter. Since I heart Google, and like to keep my online self as least scattered as possible, I am using Google Docs. When I sign into Google, many services (like my news reader, custom home page, and even this dear old blog) are right there at my fingertips. Now, so are my online documents, spread sheets, and presentations.

Is this where all software applications are headed, you ask? Hmmm... Not if software companies have anything to do with it (Online yes. Free, maybe notsomuch.) And we're by no means there yet, as many of the online document creators still have many, many glitches. I assume those glitches will be worked out eventually and online docs will become more and more common. But if I had to put a wager on it, I would imagine that software companies will continue to increase the features and usability of their products, so that we still want, nay need, to continue to buy their products. Microsoft is half way there, and just announced an download-able subscription based service for office products, although critics are already picking apart the idea of paying for this service forever.

Here are a few articles for further reading: Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison,

The State of Office 2.0 and its Future.

A (sort of) screenshot of me working on this doc. You'll notice that the toolbar looks very very familiar. But it is missing a few formatting features. For example, I would really love to have been able to add an outline for this image box, but I had to do that in a another program before dropping the image in.