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Writely Online Word Processing Software

From James Marshall,
Your Guide to Word Processing.
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Guide Rating - rating

The Bottom Line

Anyone who is in the market for word processing software should take a look at Writely. Some may be uncomfortable relying on web-based software. However, with collaboration tools and online storage, Writely will appeal to Word users who work on multiple computers or who collaborate with others.

Further, Writely's responsiveness is impressive. Writely works as fast as a program installed on the desktop.

Even if you don't intend to make the switch, get a glimpse of the future of software!
Pros
  • Collaborate with others who don't own Word
  • Store your documents online and access them from another computer
  • Export documents as PDFs
  • No need to install software on your computer
Cons
  • Limited document support at the present time
  • Still in the beta testing phase
  • Limited features

Description

  • Browser Support: Firefox and Mozilla. IE for Windows. JavaScript and cookies required.
  • Document Support (importing): RTF, Word, plain text, OpenOffice Writer.
  • Document Support (exporting): Word, OpenOffice Writer, RTF, plain text, HTML, PDF.
  • Features: Writely's features are limited. However, you'll find the basics for creating documents.
  • Blogging: Writely allows you to post directly to your blog! But you'll have to tweak the settings.
  • Security: Writely secures your documents. But if you refer to them on the Web, others can read them.

Guide Review - Writely Online Word Processing Software

Writely is perfect for people who use word processing software infrequently. There's no need to pay big bucks for desktop software. As long as you have access to the Internet, you can write and edit word processing documents.

One of the best features is the ability to store you documents online. This means you can access your documents from any computer. Users will find this handy if they take their work home with them. No need to worry about transferring documents to removable media or syncing your documents.

Of course, you'll want to upload and download documents. Writely has that covered. It is easy to get started by uploading a document. Or, you can download a finished document. Both Microsoft Word and OpenOffice files are supported.

If you collaborate with others, help is built in. You can make a document public or show it to others by sending a link. If you want to allow others to work on the document, you can send out an email to others notifying them that they can access the document.

Even if you have no interest in working online, Writely has one feature that may win you over: You can export documents as PDF files. This is a great way to convert your documents to PDFs without expensive software or Word plug-ins!
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