Web Killer Apps: Buzzword – Word Processing Reloaded

Last January I wrote about Flex implementations on their way to replace current office applications. Today I had a deeper look at what Adobe has done at the wordprocessor front: Buzzword.

One of the most important design principles is reduction (apply Occam’s razor). If you’ve a look at the current office implementations you get 80% functionality even a power user will never use. Adobe has done a good job here. They chose the essential functions of todays wordprocessing.

Ergonomics is another point the most office applications fail. Sure, it depends a little bit on the number of functions you’ve to offer. So, Adobe is in advantage anyway. But, the Buzzword user interface also shows some nice ideas that will help to concentrate on content development.

Good things come to those who wait. I’m waiting for more than a decade now that someone is inventing something better than the Microsoft Office user model. Over the last two weeks, e.g., I wrote an administration handbook for our project, about 60 pages now and growing, with OpenOffice. I wonder why I’ve to loose hours for simple things.

OpenOffice still follows the Microsoft Office style of writing documents. Although, todays wordprocessors are more stable, the problems, especially the layout stuff, are still the same I had a decade ago. No improvements – only more functions over the years. Wordprocessing is still a complex beast. With the right tools this could be changed.

Seems to me that with the Web we will soon get a better user model. For me Flash/Flex is the best technology today to put office stuff into the browser. The user interface presentation is as near to the desktop as possible – without all restrictions in development all the classic markup presentations deliver today. And Flex helps to add all the stuff we already love from the Web to the office domain. Most important here is the collaborative creation of documents over the Web. Buzzword already supports Adobe’s ConnectNow.

I hope Adobe or some of their partners complement Buzzword with spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, image processing and maybe mindmapping in the next months. With full PDF support, like Buzzword already has