Would you like to try something new? It is a bit buggy, but this looks like the wave of the future. As such, you may be interested in experimenting with it now.
AjaxWrite is a free online word processor. By "online," I mean that you go to http://www.ajaxwrite.com and click on the icon to load the word processor program. A few seconds later, you are using a word processor in your Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer that operates a lot like any other word processor. It even emulates Microsoft Word in many ways.
Best of all, AjaxWrite is available free of charge. That's a lot better than paying $250 or more for Microsoft Word! When you go to http://www.ajaxwrite.com, you simply start using the word processor. You are not even asked for a user name or password. There is no registration process to go through.
AjaxWrite is a streamlined word processor, comparable to Microsoft Word. To keep the program lean, AjaxWrite leaves out some obscure advanced features; you'll find the functions you use most often, right where you'd expect them to be. For instance, the beta version does not yet have a spell checker, but that is promised before version 1.0 is released.
You can import and export documents in all popular formats, including documents with graphics. Supported formats include DOC (Word), RTF, TXT, ODT (OpenOffice.org) and even PDF. That's right: this free word processor saves files in Adobe Acrobat's PDF format, something that the $250 Microsoft Word cannot do. I was able to open Word documents easily, even one document that was full of tables and images.
You can save your work to any drive on your computer or to networked drives that are on remote servers.
AjaxWrite works on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. It requires the FireFox web browser. It will not operate with Internet Explorer or with Apple's Safari web browsers.
I have used AjaxWrite for a bit and found it works rather well. I did get one obscure error message when using the current beta version. The spell checker also is not working yet. However, everything else worked in my brief tests. AjaxWrite shows a lot of promise.
The next time you are traveling and need to use a borrowed computer or one in a public library or in an Internet cafe, use AjaxWrite for your word processing needs.
To use AjaxWrite, go to http://www.ajaxwritecom, click on the desired AjaxWrite icon (there are two: one for Europeans and another for those in the Americas) and start writing.
This article was written with AjaxWrite.
