The web office

I have been using various office apps on the internet recently. For no particular reason other than it’s often easier to open up the app within an internet browser than navigate the complex and sometimes messy Windows directory structures. The apps that I have been using, in no particular order are Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Calendar and 37Signals Basecamp and Backpack.

I quite like Google Docs & Spreadsheets as it allows me to easily jot down things at a moments notice. Creating, editing, deleting and managing the documents is straight forward and supports a plethora of file types for upload. A common feature throughout most of the Google web apps is the autosave function. Similarly to Microsoft Word, the document you are currently working on is saved preventing any significant loss of work.

In an attempt to get my life more organised that it currently is, and to manage my ever increasing workload I use Google Calendar. Not to brag but so far I have five calendars configured for the various situations in my life; one social calendar for organising holidays, meeting up with friends, music gigs, that sort of stuff. A calendar for personal stuff; friends and family birthdays, doctors and dentist appointments, a calendar for work related stuff; product launches, deadlines, exhibitions and conferences. A dedicated calendar to a major project I am working on supplied via an iCal feed from Basecamp which notifies me of upcoming milestones, and finally the obligatory public holiday calendar. I don’t want to come into work when I don’t have to!

I have already mentioned my experiences with Basecamp but not with Backpack. My Backpack account is slowly being replaced by Google Docs & Spreadsheets which is far more versatile, but Backpack still has its place. Backpack is useful for creating and managing self to-do lists, such as shopping lists or tasks to complete for the day. Unlike Google Docs & Spreadsheets, I have used the feature whereby you can ’share’ a document with others to collaborate on it. It produced very good results and worked well, allowing the comparisons of different revisions and being able to move between them.

There are other web office products currently available which I haven’t tried or tested as I haven’t had need to, including Microsoft’s own web office. The concept of having web apps that act just like desktop apps is fantastic however as I have found they rely entirely on a reliable internet connection. Without an internet connection available you cannot access your work unlike having it saved to your hard drive or portable flash pen drive.