My plan was to use Google Docs exclusively for a couple of weeks. I wanted to test its viability as a Microsoft Word alternative.

The experiment fell at the first hurdle. I caved in after two days because my productivity dropped too far. Worse, I made many more errors with Google Docs than with Word.

Let’s set the scene. I’m a professional journalist. Typically I’d write 10,000 or more words a week. That’s close to 2000 words each workday and a few more on the weekend. When you’re tapping out that many words, the tools really matter.

Productivity hit

My productivity dropped 25 percent when I switched to Google Docs. This may have been temporary – maybe my speed would pick up as I became familiar with the software. But the price was too high – a 25 percent productivity drop means I working 33 percent longer to produce the same output. This is not acceptable.

What was the big problem? Google Docs requires more mouse activity than Microsoft Word. Both applications offer a full set of keyboard shortcuts and many of them are the same. However scrolling up and down the page to read my work was considerably harder in Google Docs.

Cutting and pasting copy from other documents was also harder. And curiously I had problems switching between web browser and Google Docs. Switching between a browser and Word using alt-tab is easier than control-tabbing through a large number of open browser tabs.

Just to make sure the problem wasn’t related to the browser, I used Google Docs with Firefox and Internet Explorer. I also tried using Google Docs in a separate browser Window.

Two days into the experiment my wrists were starting to ache from the extra mousing. I didn’t experience serious pain – I bailed out before reaching that point.

Never mind the quality, feel the width

Speed is important. So is quality.

My other problem with Google Docs was proofing. That’s the business of rereading your words to find and correct mistakes or improve the text. At first I struggled to identify why my proofing was so bad. Then it hit me. Text in Google Docs extends across the entire width of the screen – while Word text tends to be restricted to relatively narrow columns. Proofing is much harder with wider text columns.

There maybe ways to work around these problems, but I need to get on and earn a crust, so earlier today I went back to Microsoft Word – a better experience.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Docs for journalists and writing professionals (billbennett.co.nz)

Business owners are often scared of training. There’s a feeling that once you’ve spent money giving people the skills they need to run your business, they’ll use their new-found expertise to find a better job elsewhere.

Maybe, but if you spend money wisely giving your people the right skills your investment will pay off quickly.

Take a trivial example: Microsoft Word.

Many knowledge workers spend a large part of their working day dealing with Word – often without ever mastering the software. A one-day training course will be enough to teach most people everything they need to know about the program.

Typically a one-day out-of-office course will set you back between $250 and $500 per person depending on various factors. You’ll also lose the person’s labour for a day.

The average Australian worker is paid around A$27 an hour. In New Zealand the average hourly wage is around NZ$25. Knowledge workers will earn more.

So the investment you make training your employee to be more effective with Microsoft Word will return a dividend once you’ve saved 10 hours.

You can realistically reckon on reaching that point in two months. Probably less. What’s more, your employee will be able to produce higher quality documents, which will reflect better on your company.

Perhaps the most important pay off is in employee motivation. Many workers like to acquire skills; it boosts their self-esteem and shows them that you feel they are worth investing in.

There’s another reason to spend money training your staff: The Hawthorne effect.

There are many low distraction writing tools. I’ve used Q10 and Darkroom on my PC. Both are good. I’m told Mac users have something called Bean. I can’t comment, I’ve not had a Mac in five years. And there are web-based alternatives.

But what I’d like to see is Microsoft Word 2007 tweaked for distraction free writing. Like it not, Word is the industry standard. As a professional writer I’m usually expected to turn in copy as Word files. I’m often expected to use Word’s abysmal review and comparison features (don’t get me started).

My problem with Word is that it is massively overpowered for everyday writing. And massively overpowering to look at.

How can we fix it?

Get rid of those ribbon bars, the menu bar and the never-required left-right scroll bar. In fact get rid of almost everything. Default to the draft view with standard fonts and a handful of standard styles. Allow for all the Word keyboard commands. Can you see where I’m coming from here?

Whisper this, Microsoft’s Live Writer is almost what I’m after. At least it would be without the screen clutter. I’m writing this with Live Writer now and it’s functionally all I need.

See

Back-to-basics text processing: Where less can be more

Related articles by Zemanta

• Windows Live Writer 2010 Gets the Office Ribbon (labnol.org)
• Microsoft Word 2010: 10 Best New Features in Microsoft Word 2010 (taragana.com)

Some knowledge workers are dumping heavy duty word processors like Microsoft Word and switching to plain text file editors and other simple editing tools instead.

Plain text appeals to geeky types partly because it is a lowest common denominator. It always travels smoothly between applications, operating systems and devices. The same can’t always be said for Word documents. For example, large numbers of Word 2003 users still struggle to read the docx files created by Word 2007 despite MIcrosoft’s free conversion tools.

Text is compact, efficient, quicker to search and easier to manage than word processor documents — geeks often write small programs to merge, sort and otherwise process text files.

It helps that they often already spend large parts of their working life manipulating plain text files — the format is widely used for many of the settings and configuration files.

Text-editing programs are far simpler than word processors. Many have been around for 30 years or more with roots in the pre-graphical-user-interface computing world. They often use esoteric keyboard commands — writing memos and other notes this way may look scary to non-technical types, but it isn’t much of a stretch if you’ve used the same tools to handle your everyday technical tasks for a decade or more.

There’s an added bonus to simple text editing; the applications often bypass the computer mouse. Given that mouse movements are one of the most troublesome sources of strain injury, switching to more keyboard-oriented writing tools can make a lot of sense for those technical types who spend hours hunched over their machines.

Ergonomics

Similar ergonomic concerns go some way towards explaining why some professional writers are also turning their back on conventional word processors. However, this group has another concern: modern word processors are often  busy-looking. It can be hard to concentrate on writing the words when there are so many distractions.

It’s tricky, but the old Dos favourite WordPerfect 5.1 can be shoehorned into working with Windows XP. Making it work with Vista is more of a challenge. A small but vibrant user community at WP Universe provides tips and even drivers to make the software work with modern operating systems and hardware.

You’d need to buy WordPerfect. Two recently developed applications channel its spirit for free. Darkroom and Q10 are both stripped down text editors designed to provide distraction-free writing.

Darkroom fussily requires Microsoft .Net 2.0, which may be a dealbreaker for some, while Q10 mainly gets on with the job, but I did detect some beta-software strangeness with both programs. Perhaps for now, this is a trend to watch rather than follow.

There’s a useful review of Darkroom, Q10 and a number of similar programs at bweaver.net.