Solve360 Discussion Forums

RIP .doc, .xls, and .ppt

Mar 09, 2009 08:49am Steve Ireland Administrator 286 posts	Debating if Google Docs is going make a dent in Microsoft’s profits, or comparing which of the suites have better or worse functionality is mostly irrelevant. Jeff Widman for http://www.techcrunchit.com writes about the most important benefit of bringing your work online: tasks gets done faster with better results when people can co-work on the same page. Isn’t that what work is about? Adopting web application essentially blows away a lot of the computer jargon and gets us closer to the basics of working together. Read on http://is.gd/mwUa ...

Mar 10, 2009 04:13pm Kathleen Howard Lyncean 138 posts	Sorry, but the Google docs are a bit too quirky for those of us who were weaned on MS Office. All my ducks are already quacking about adopting your S360, but they almost mutinied when I tried to throw Google docs into the mix. Lots of mixups having to do with access; revision speed, etc. While the Google docs are the future, the future is not yet here for those of use who push a lot of custom docs out the “door” everyday. But then, that’s just my opinion. Kathleen

Mar 10, 2009 05:02pm Steve Ireland Administrator 286 posts	For those reasons I recommend not to try and switch one over the other (i.e. the irrelevant debate); instead use the best one for a given task. They are different beasts, with different issues and benefits. For example, when working with complex structures, formatting, financials etc (heavy lifting) nothing beats Office or iWork (I’m not uninstalling mine anytime soon). Sometimes clients expect a email attachment - all good. However, if you need to push a document through many rapid changes with multiple people then the real-time access, concurrent editing, revision history, sharing, cost, etc of the emerging “online office apps” are a HUGE eye opener; quirks and all. I’ve often started with a draft on Google docs to capture the essential content then switched to Office for the final clean-up / formatting. I’ve also moved Powerpoints online just so we had a common reference for sharing/managing presentation revisions. Both were quite handy and features not possible with Office. The consumer’ish scale to these services suggests that the big guys have some “quality of service” points to prove so I lean on them when it actually improves the work in hand and not as a strategic document system. To your point “The best system is the one that gets used”.

Mar 26, 2009 01:00pm Floydie Lyncean 51 posts	Adding to this discussion, I had a discovery today about collaborating on PDF files using the Adobe.com(beta) hosting option. It is fantastic, currently free, and you can collaborate with PDF files using Acrobat 9. You can also embed the shared document in a website, or Solve360. (see http://www.adcid.org/professional.html) The Adobe Web 2.0 word processing formats available are not as good as Google docs. It appears that, while flash is, well flash; it is not as quick to display as html. Can Solve360 please allow files to pop up in the browser window, like they did in the olde days? <:D) I understand that pdfs were the problem. Could I suggest a filter that stops pdf being added through Google doc activity (maybe links with pdf in the url are not allowed). Out of curiosity. Will the Solve360 email be hosted inside the Solve360 workspace, or will it have a more conventional CSS look? (or will it be a bit of both?)

Mar 30, 2009 08:35am Engineering SpecialOps Administrator 3952 posts	Can Solve360 please allow files to pop up in the browser window, like they did in the olde days? The issue with opening some external sites up within the workspace is that they may include special script to make themselves the “parent” window i.e. they take over the entire session kicking you out of Solve. Out of curiosity. Will the Solve360 email be hosted inside the Solve360 workspace, or will it have a more conventional CSS look? (or will it be a bit of both?) The Webmail client is fully integrated into the Solve workspace and has a similar look/feel to the rest of the system.

Mar 30, 2009 12:26pm Floydie Lyncean 51 posts	Is there no way to predict if that script is present? i.e. if there is a pdf in the url then it should not be allowed?

Mar 30, 2009 12:38pm Engineering SpecialOps Administrator 3952 posts	Actually the app cannot check itself due to cross-site security restrictions the browser imposes. However, we do have some ideas to prove-out when when we return to this area. It’s good to hear that you prefer to keep the documents in the same workspace rather than open a new tab/window.

Mar 30, 2009 12:45pm Floydie Lyncean 51 posts	Engineering Staff - Mar 30, 2009 12:38pm Actually the app cannot check itself due to cross-site security restrictions the browser imposes. However, we do have some ideas to prove-out when when we return to this area. It’s good to hear that you prefer to keep the documents in the same workspace rather than open a new tab/window. Most definitely like the option of viewing within the workspace. Although, it could be a preview rather than the fully active window, there could then be a button to action opening doc in new tab? (Would be great to see preview of youtube videos too).

Apr 22, 2009 05:59pm BrianJAnderson Sentinel 25 posts	Great idea, would be grand to preview files and links in the app, then choose to open onto the desktop using native apps. Though watching vids/podcasts etc in Solve itself would be great.