Two weeks ago we announced OX Documents to the world, and the response has been phenomenal. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most appealing, and simplicity was the core idea behind OX Documents.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken to a lot of people about their experience using office productivity software, word processors in particular. An almost universal experience was that of opening a document created in MS Word in a “compatible” word processor and seeing a painstakingly formatted document literally disintegrate before their eyes. Even swapping files between different versions of Word would have this effect.
Explaining that OX Text was non-destructive and using it wouldn’t mess up your documents was greeted with a healthy measure of scepticism; however, following a demonstration most wondered why something that seemed so simple hadn’t been done before.
Another common topic of discussion was the experience of using Google Docs and how it unsatisfactorily converted other file formats into Google’s own file format before editing could begin, and the equally unsatisfactory job it did in giving you back your document in the desired format. In a way, Google is trying to trap you and the document that you have created into their eco system, a place where no one can be entirely sure what they’re doing with your data once it’s stored in there.
We like to call this the ‘Hotel California’ effect, where it’s easy to check in, but almost impossible to leave.
Abraham Lincoln is credited with coining the phrase: “you can’t please all of the people all of the time,” and it was very much with this mind set we approached OX Documents. Very early in the development process we realised that we would never have full feature compatibility with MS Word. The best web applications are small and light, and it would be impossible to cram in the full Word feature set in a package to be delivered via the browser.
The approach we took was to research what the most often used features were in word processors and concentrate on getting these right. The research showed that 90% of word processor users only used 10% of the features available to them. This showed us that by only delivering the essential features that were used most of the time we could offer a product that is useful in most scenarios.
Our goal was never to create a replacement for Word. What we wanted to do was give people control over their documents, to help them share and collaborate in a natural manner, and not undo anything that you’ve worked hard at getting right along the way. We want to provide the default tool for most editing tasks, but not for all. We’re not 100% there yet, but we will continue to make improvements to the platform, supporting as many features as possible until most of us won’t be able to tell the difference.
Don’t believe us? It’s here for you to try today. Take a look and see how we’re doing at ox.io/ox_text
