I’ve come to a sad realization: I’m stuck with Microsoft Office. Maybe the rest of you can save yourselves, but for me there is no escape. It’s not because of the incredible feature set, or cutting-edge technology. It’s because I’m locked in. And it’s also because nobody in the world is willing to help me get out.

My daily interactions are filled with others who use Microsoft Office (most on Windows). Documents that are exchanged are expected to be in MS Office formats. More than that, documents are expected to have a consistant look. After using Google Docs exclusively, I see continuing will guarantee me a lifetime of “why does your document look so crappy?” comments. I’m already looked upon with suspicion because my emails arrive in Mac Mail Helvetica instead of MS Outlook Calibri. I don’t want to also be the guy with the oddly-formatted documents. I certainly don’t want to waste time trying to repair the formatting of every doc that Google Docs hopelessly munges.

The problem is that nobody can seem to figure out how to make an office productivity app that reliably imports/exports MS Office docs. If you use non-Office apps to edit Office docs, there’s an 85% chance that they’ll end up looking like crap. That is, if they’re under 2MB and Google even allows you to convert them. I just want the document to come out looking the same as it did when it went in. This is the billion dollar problem. Solve this, and you’ve got the silver bullet to put Office down permanently.

So that’s that. I’m trapped; shipwrecked on the shore of MS Office like goddamned Gilligan. Desperately hoping the Professor will stop wasting time on bicycle-powered washing machines, and instead build me a document converter that works.

The post Google Docs Challenge: Conclusion appeared first on Tech Introvert.

The Good

Performance: No waiting for Word to open, or listening to my fan kick in because Word decided to use 100% of my CPU. I just drag docs to my browser (which is always open anyway) and I’m off. There’s a small delay when flipping between spreadsheet pages, but it’s better than waiting for Excel to start.

Availability: No more seething irritation when attempting to read a doc on a machine that doesn’t have Office installed. Just pop open a browser.

Usability: Using Google Docs is a smooth experience. Saves are done in the background automatically. Commenting on Docs actually works and exports decently back to docx. The spreadsheet webapp is just fine for the types of mild calculations I need. I can view imported Powerpoint decks and they actually look decent.

The Bad

Pretty much any formatting in any doc you import to Google Docs is at risk of being horribly butchered. This includes tables, headers & footers, anything where colors or fills are used, etc. When converting an existing Word doc to Google Docs, expect that it will be at least a little mangled.

I’ve also noticed a few more quirks with converting Office files. First, there’s a 2MB file size limit on converted docs. That’s a problem for me. I have Word docs with lots of images (functional specifications, etc) which I can view in Google Docs but cannot edit or comment on.

Next, Google Docs appears to choke occasionally on docs saved in compatibility mode as .doc. I had to re-save these as .docx to get them to import. Both open just fine in Office.

Summary

I think I’m starting to get it. If your life currently revolves around MS Office, where your co-workers/clients regularly exchange MS Office files that are more than simple text, you’re going to have some pain moving to Google Docs. I’ve found the times I’ve started from scratch with brand new docs have been 10x more enjoyable than attempting to convert existing Word/Excel Docs. And I really like the spreadsheet web app.

Unfortunately that’s bad news for me, since I am definitely one of those people who lives inside Office. I’m not sure if Google Docs is right for me, as much as I want it to be. I’m going to keep at it – next steps will be to create a presentation and a more complex document, and see how well that goes. But I’m not going to cancel my Office365 subscription quite yet.

The post Google Docs Challenge: Status Update appeared first on Tech Introvert.

Give me a second to lick the screen…uhhh-lah….ok there we go.

I’m losing my patience for Apple to rescue me from Comcast. I was hoping XBox would be another hope, but $500 for an XBox One is a silly amount of money and I really hate Kinect. Why can’t anyone save us from crappy TV user interfaces and insanely expensive content with ridiculous restrictions? Is it too much to ask to be able to watch anything that’s ever been recorded, where and when ever I want, without bankrupting my family?

The post Please Apple, Save Me From the XBox One appeared first on Tech Introvert.

I don’t want to sound like one of those kooks who tries to read into Apple event invitations. But between this image of what appears to clearly be the shape of an Apple TV, and the “A whole new world is developing” tagline, it really seems like we’re going to see an Apple TV SDK at WWDC tomorrow.

Which would mean Apple is getting ready to take on XBox. The only apps that are good on TV are those which deliver content, help you find content, and games. People don’t want to tweet from their TV or search Wikipedia or check email. But an ABC app that streams live local content, or an app that replaces parts of your DVR with improved search, or games…now this could be good. This is the XBox model, and it’s the only model for so-called “internet tv” that has proven to be successful.

The post My WWDC Prediction: Apple TV SDK appeared first on Tech Introvert.

Seems like a common thing to have inside a document. Well unfortunately Google doesn’t think so because importing them into Google Docs horrifically mangles the spacing, borders, fill colors and just about everything else related to these tables.It must have something to do with rendering the tables in a browser, because the Word Office App doesn’t handle them much better.

In order to continue using Google Docs, I’ll need to repair these tables and re-create the doc templates. Which, when using the formatting UI in Google Docs, isn’t a pleasant experience.

Urge to smash monitor…rising…

The post Google Docs Challenge: Hulk Smash Tables! appeared first on Tech Introvert.