words in the aether

Several years ago I came across an online word processor named Writely. Unlike others I’d tried before it wasn’t buggy, actually worked the same on Mac or Windows, and totally won me over. I started using it for all of my writing. It was also so good that Google bought it and rechristened it as Goggle Docs. It has consistently been one of my most used tools and it still works wondefully, except for one small, teensy bit of epic fail.

See, here we are, over two years after the iPhone came out, and I still can’t create or edit a document from my phone. I can create and edit spreadsheets (though it’s a bit kludgy and not at all appealing) through Google Docs, but no text documents. I could understand if, say, any complex formatting wasn’t allowed, but I’m just looking to put words in basic paragraph form. I can even compose emails through Google Mail so they clearly have the tech to allow text entry.

As I started looking at getting back into writing prose recently I knew I needed a solution that would allow me to edit a file from anywhere, my work computer, home computer, iPhone, girlfriend’s laptop, a computer on the top of Kilimanjaro, etc. If I can write from any device then I have no excuse for not doing so whenever I have a free moment. But Google Docs, my most trusted writing tool for the past several years, fails on the one device that is always at hand. I searched for other solutions, but none of the other online word processors I found worked with the iPhone either.

So I checked out word processors on the iPhone. While they all had some method for getting files to and from the phone, most of them working quite well, none really involved a true sync method and/or online access. I know me. I know how lazy I can be. If I have to manually transfer files before I can work on them, it ain’t going to happen. I finally decided I’d just stick with Google Docs and accept that I could only work when I had a computer around.

Last night though, as I was checking yet again to see if any word processor apps might finally be what I need I came across WriteRoom.iPhone. I’d seen that it existed before but had ignored it as it seemed to be nothing more than a simple Notes replacement app. I’d toyed around with the Mac version before, but the lack of any screenplay formatting kept it in my “cool, but not really useful” file. For those unaware, the computer version’s essentially a full screen text editor. Not just full screen like most programs, it completely fills the screen, no menu bar, no dock, nothing but black screen and whatever words you type. Great for blocking any distractions and just getting the words out. The iPhone version seemed to be more of the same and just didn’t appeal to me.

However, it is now the coolest app on my phone. First off, it syncs your documents to an online site, simpletext.ws. A site where you can edit them (and a site you can use completely on it’s own even if you don’t have an iPhone or any of the company’s software, just sign in with a Google account). Ding. Major requirement for a writing tool knocked out of the park. I can edit the same file either on my phone or through any web browser. Secondly though, and this is where it gets really cool, you can edit the files on the phone from a web browser. Just fire up the app, launch a browser on whatever computer you’re at, go to the IP address of the phone, open a file, and start typing.

That second feature solves an annoyance that has always lingered at the back of my mind. As of this summer my iPhone almost reached feature parity with my old Palm PDA (actually a Handera 330, oh how that device spoiled me for all other handheld tech). The one big feature still missing is the ability to use an external keyboard. While the onscreen keyboard is great and works for 90% of the typing I do on my phone, occasionally I want the ability to plug in (or connect with bluetooth) a bigger keyboard with real keys just like I could a decade ago with my PDA. Thanks to WriteRoom.iPhone I now sort of have that ability as long as I have WiFi and a computer.

So now I can write online from any computer, on my phone, or edit the file on my phone from any computer all thanks to WriteRoom.iPhone. Which now means I really have no excuse for not getting more writing done.

Addendum: While I have continued to use Google for most writing, all my screenwriting has been done with Celtx. It’s free, but very robust and truly cross platform. As long as the platform in question is Windows, OS X, or Linux and not an iPhone. A little while back though I discovered what still seems to be the only screenwriting app for the iPhone, a program simply called Screenplay. It’s a great start and once the 1.1 update goes live should be an excellent tool for screenwriting on the go, putting my iPhone one step ahead of that old Handera PDA.