To track changes to a file, Writely saves a history of revisions and lets you compare the current version with an earlier edition, from several minutes prior or from the first moment you saved the file. Nevertheless, we prefer Microsoft Word's Track Changes feature, which makes your edits more obvious without switching between separate versions of a document. Writely's collaboration features are strong and self-explanatory, allowing editing and view-only settings. Along the bottom of the document window, Writely displays the identity of users editing your document at the moment, then highlights their edits. And it steps you through the process of sharing your work with the world at large or, via an e-mail invitation, to a select group of people. While the instructions are pretty clear, we'd like Google to add an extra warning step that would make you pause and think twice before you fully open access to a file, just to ensure that you know what you're getting into.
Writely is in its beta-testing phase, and we encountered quirks. For instance, out of the blue, the cursor disappeared, so we couldn't figure out what line we were on. Curiously, immediately after we'd placed our cursor within a red, bold headline in a Writely document, then switched to a document within Word, the text we typed within Word became red and bold. And Google had to change Writely beta's RSS file settings because initially, certain RSS readers could potentially find Writely documents that users thought were closed to the public.
Service and support is very good for this Web-based service, though not superb. Google provides a quick tour, a searchable online knowledge base, and user-guided forums for Writely beta. You can report beta bugs, but there's no e-mail support to help you with unusual questions.
Overall, Google's Writely beta is an excellent tool that can handle most word processing functions. We find it convenient for cash-strapped students, frequent travelers, and small-business people who need to be on the same page with coworkers or clients scattered around the map. Nevertheless, we recommend that you pair Writely with a desktop Word processor as a backup for when Internet access is flaky. It's too bad you'll need a third-party tool to do that.
- See more CNET content tagged:
- Writely,
- ThinkFree,
- beta,
- RSS feed,
- word-processor
