Using the Word app for Chrome OS – simple and straight-forward

While I love content management systems, I have little faith in any of them, and prefer to write my stories in Word. That isn’t a problem, as I work primarily from Windows 8.1 — both desktop and laptop. However, I sometimes wish to roam around my house, leaving the office for the living room or, as the weather grows warm once again, the porch. For those times, I find the HP Chromebook 11 to be invaluable — it’s light and easy to carry. It even works with a Bluetooth mouse, which is great, as I have an aversion to trackpads.

That presented a minor problem in the past, since it meant I’d have to move to Docs, which I don’t dislike, only find less familiar. That changed when Microsoft finally acknowledged that these notebooks may just be useful, and released its Office Online products as apps for them.

I immediately installed Word on mine, and found both good and bad aspects to it. Really, the bad consists of only one thing — there is no offline mode, which is something Google Docs offers, despite past Scroogled ads claiming otherwise.

Aside from that, I found a quick and responsive word processor that provides a much more familiar environment. Simply opening the app is a welcoming experience.

You have options to create a new document, open an existing one, or choose from an array of templates. Regardless of your choice, you’ll find a scaled-down version of what resides on your desktop, complete with the familiar ribbon interface.

This isn’t really any different from what you can get by visiting the site in the Chrome browser, so temper your hopes. But it does offer a glimmer of hope for the future. Maybe that much needed offline mode may even show up in the future. Perhaps, just maybe, Microsoft will begin working with Google on future innovation, as opposed to simply posting corny videos depicting its rival as the devil