Hacker News Reader

Comment by Gaelan | Hacker News Reader

Some times, there's one feature that's so useful it justifies the lack of many others. Google Docs is a terrible word processor compared to Word or even Pages, but being able to edit a document at the same time as someone else (with full features and little friction—IIRC Pages doesn't support Track Changes while collaborating) is so useful that I end up using Google Docs anyway.

View on HN

Whats most annoying to me such "onlinedness"/"cloudness" that people (myself including) associate with web apps are not really dependant on the front end being web based. You should be able to build as good collaboration etc features as easily with native apps as with web tech. In mobile the the lines are blurrier, but on desktop there feels to be division between offline native apps and online web apps, with very few bridging the gap with native online apps.

Your comment also showcases how IMO a lot of software companies don't compete on tech. They compete on UX [1].

When I first came on HN and learned about YC's motto (build something users love) this idea was reaffirmed.

[1] Google optimizes for a collaborative quick spreadsheet program (handy for consumers), and as other comments say, Microsoft focuses on pro spreadsheet use (e.g. finance).

I won't say that they compete on UX, more that they address different needs from different users groups. Some users need collaboration, others need niche math functions.

We switched from google docs to Dropbox paper. It has one very useful feature which would prevent me from moving back: tracking todos with name and date. Every day I get an email which lists all upcoming todo deadlines across all paper documents. Super convenient way to track your todos.

How is google docs a terrible word editor? Do you mean that it lacking the advanced but rarely used features of word?

Yep, WordArt...

Honestly though, I do think Word captured a really nice standard feature set. And docs does a darn fine job of matching that set one to one. The image placement and handling can be a little wonky at times (at least the last time that I used it) but that's what one gets for trying to handle it all in html/javascript/canvas? For what it does, it's a mighty fine product.

Conspicuously missing for me:

- Always-visible word count (added recently, but missing for nearly a decade)

- Custom text styles—you can modify the existing ones, but not create new ones with new names

Reply on news.ycombinator.com