Replacing notepad

I thought it was time to try web based word processor so I signed up for the Writely few days ago. I still use Microsoft Word, not because all the fancy features but the built-in spell checker. Word ruins spelling skills! Since I usually write a quick-note in notepad, I thought I could replace it for an web based word processor.

Signing up for Writely account was easy. They basically asked me email and password. I didn’t even have to make up information about me, like I usually do when I register for a website. However, according to Google Ads throughout my favorite websites, they already know where I am and what I usually search for. Listen amazon.com, I am not interested in those items; I just followed the links from collegehumor.com hotlinks post.

Back to Writely. When I tried to create a new document, I couldn’t find the "File" menu. It took while to notice there was "New" button on the top. I was lost in "Active Documents", "Starred Documents", "Tagged Documents", "All Documents" menu taps. I guess I’m still slow to adapt to the Web 2.0. When I finally open a blank document, I quickly noticed "File" menu. Alt-F didn’t work, Ctrl-N didn’t work, but Ctrl-S, Ctrl-U, Ctrl-I, Ctrl-B worked. I love keybord shortcuts, I don’t like to move my right hand to the mouse when I type. I did like the default font but the font selection was limited. The menu bars didn’t disappear automatically when I move the cursor out of the menu bar. It also had problem with disappearing cursor problem, it just could be the browser's fault or my old LCD monitor. Spellchecker works really slow but better than nothing.

I know a lot of people will like collaboration function in Writely but I don’t use them. Writely have more function that I ever use but losing few keybord shorts and right mouse-click context menu (Writely does have left mouse-click context menu) could delay my web based application adaption.

Morals of the story are:

• Word ruins spelling.
• Old habits die hard.
• Don't ask personal information to register to your site because I'm running out of fake names.
• Warning: If you click hotlinks on collegehumor, your amzon.com front page will become NSFW.
• kebyoard shorts rule.