Archive for the 'Office' Category

Issuu - looking at PDFs online

Published
by
richard
4 months, 4 weeks ago
in Office
. 0 Comments

And here’s me jumping on board a train that departed yesterday: The Issuu train. Websites from TechCrunch to Scoble are professing their love for this not-so-new service (apparently been around since 2006), and well, I will do so too.

You see, their product does deserve the praise: the PDF-viewer is really, really smooth, and they even have a widget to embed PDFs in a slideshow manner, like so:

And yes, the widget is customizable, that’s why the background has the same obnoxious blue tone as the rest of this website. The fact that they actually describe their service as a tool to facilitate the publication of online magazines is just a minor flaw. It’s a PDF viewer, really, albeit a really tricked out one.

But here’s why I like the service too. Take a look at their home page. TAKE A LOOK! Isn’t that one extremely nice looking website? It’s all so clean, so clear, so…. Well, I think you get the idea. The concept of clean and clear is followed through the whole service, so the process of embedding a slideshow like the one above is not just easy, it’s actually fun. Yes, FUN! Go on, call me a freak. I don’t care.

Much.

A spreadsheet to rule them all - not

Published
by
richard
2 years ago
in Office
. 0 Comments

Yesterday Google’s issued yet another part of what people already call the Google Office. After acquiring top-notch online word processor Writely earlier this year, and releasing a nice calendar a few months back, they have now created an online spreadsheet application.

It’s using the tried and tested Google AJAX interface, which looks simple but can be quite a burden on a browser (mine at least). Uploading a file works quite nicely:

spreadsheet uploading

I tested Google’s spreadsheet by uploading PearBudget, an extensive personal finance spreadsheet (I wanted to upload a smaller file, but as I’m using OpenOffice and the spreadsheet doesn’t support their files, I had to opt for something off the web).

Here’s what the file looks like in Google’s spreadsheet:

spreadsheet with loaded PearBudget

Unfortunately, Google’s Spreadsheet seemed to buckle under their weight of the file. I’ve had this suspicion with the Google Reader, and it’s been confirmed once again: There are limitations for AJAX use, and Google sure knows how to point them out.

While it’s nice to revel in AJAX magic, there’s just no use in making AJAX simulate desktop apps if you can’t make it work as fluid and fast as a desktop app. The people at Writely did a great job building their AJAX word processing app, so why can’t the good people at Google?

In the end, Spreadsheet isn’t a big deal. Neither over- no under, I’m hardly whelmed.

37Signals’ Jason isn’t convinced either, and for Mike Arrington the world’s still the same.

Krun.ch your heart out

Published
by
richard
2 years, 1 month ago
in Office
. 4 Comments

Thank God for these stubborn farmers back in the 14th century, who no longer wanted to be ruled over by some decadent Austrian Lords. Today they constitute Switzerland, and their Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica, not only makes for a nice international license plate code (CH), but also for a nice top level domain (.ch).

To this stroke of luck we owe Krun.ch:

krunch

We don’t of course owe Krun.ch to the fact that Switzerland exists, but there’s a good chance that the service would have had another name, were it not for the great .ch TLD of Switzerland. Which is my cue to actually start telling you what the service is about, and quit talking crap about my dear neighbours.

Well, Krun.ch is all about compressing and uncompressing files. Which until now always was a service strictly confined to the desktop. Krun.ch lets you upload a compressed archive and the uncompress it, or upload a few files and then compress them into an archive.

zip

But, and if you may please excuse my use of this buzz-word, the killer-feature is Krun.ch’s compressing and uncompressing of files found on the Internet. Yes, that’s right, just locate a compressed archive of files, or files you’d like to compress, point Krun.ch to them, and voila, it’s all compressed or uncompressed, right there in your browser.

krunch webfiles

There’s a 10MB and 10 file limit on archives, the supported compressions are .zip, .rar and .tar.gz, the compressed or uncompressed files will be available for 24 hours after you’ve done the krunching, and, when signed-up and logged-in, you can actually have them mail you your krunched files.

All in all it’s a really solid affair, as it’s not only hugely helpful for some quick compression work (especially of stuff online), but also simple enough so everybody and their grandma will know how to use it.

This service really should be included in ITRedux’ Office 2.0 list. Krun.ch is exactly what Office 2.0 apps should be like. Lean, mean and immediately usable.

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