Tips for using WebWriter

You can contain and constrain your WebWriter documents by using tables. For example, if you want two columns of text per page; just insert a three column table with a border width of zero. Add a couple of spaces in the centre column just to separate your two columns of text.

Ignore the fact that the columns resize as you type; when you enter text into the next column it will expand to match. You can manually resize empty columns by simply adding or removing spaces to an empty line and resize empty rows by adding or removing returns.

You can resize your tables in any browser however, Mozilla browsers, ie. Firefox and Seamonkey, have extra functionality allowing you to quickly add or remove rows and columns to the left, right, above and below existing ones by way of a simple tool that appears when you select a cell.

Check out the resume template in Peepel to see some great examples of how tables can improve your documents.

What is Peepel and what does it do?

Chris Saad, "At its surface Peepel looks like the newest player in the Web office suite marketplace. What it actually is, is a realization that online environments need to be platforms. Just like Windows is a platform for other software on the client-side."

That is exactly what we have set out to achieve with our Peepel Framework. It is a platform on which you can run multiple applications at once within multiple, resizable windows all inside an internet browser window. We have more applications in the pipeline, some launching soon. There is a constant stream of ideas being thrown about the Peepel offices not just for our own suite, but for commercial and industrial applications as well. The possibilities of what can be done within the framework are virtually endless.

But why would you use Peepel now? Well, what Peepel is currently, is a free online office suite. This means that you can access your files from any computer with an internet connection. For example, you could share your staff roster with your employees so they can check what hours they are rostered on without having to phone in. Used in conjunction with our RSS feature, each employee can be notified instantly whenever the roster is updated.

There is no need to redo all your existing files when you start using Peepel. You can simply import all your Microsoft Office Word documents and Excel spreadsheets as well as Open Office Writer documents and Calc spreadsheets. Need to take your files elsewhere? No problem, you can export your Peepel files as the above formats as well.

Sign up to try Peepel. You've got nothing to lose.

People love using Workspaces

One feature of Peepel that we hear lots of positive feedback about is the Workspace Manager. I'm not surprised since we all find it extremely useful ourselves. One click and you can open all documents relative to a particular task. All the windows open in the same size and same position in which they were last saved.

For example, one of our users emailed to tell us how she and her sister are writing a book together. They've been working on it for several years without much progress until they discovered Peepel. Now they're hammering through it!

They share several documents and save them all into a workspace. One document is the draft book, another for research and the last for notes and chat between themselves. Since one of them travels, she can login, open the Workspace and start editing from wherever in the world she may happen to be.

They also love the new RSS feature which notifies them whenever the other has made any changes without even logging in!



For more information on Workspaces, see the Peepel user's guide.

Online Office becomes an Offline Office

After browsing some of the IT blogs, I found more than a few articles on ‘online’ versus ‘offline’ office suites. The major negative point for the online model is “if the network connection drops out while you are working, all your data is lost.” Well this simply isn't true for Peepel's Online Office Suite.

We have an 'off-line mode' that automatically kicks in if you lose your internet connection. This enables you to continue to edit your spreadsheet and writer documents as normal while changes get saved to a buffer on your computer, albeit with a few minor limitations such as the loss of some interface graphics. We will improve this as things move along. Then once your connection is restored, the changes are automatically uploaded to your Peepel account.

All this occurs by way of a network status window which appears on your Peepel Desktop. It lets you know when you go offline, how many items you have stored in your buffer and when your connection is restored. More information on our Network Status window can be found in Peepel Quickhelp once you've logged in.

So there you have it. No need to worry about losing your session with Peepel’s online office!

Tooltips & QuickHelp

Whenever I get stuck trying to figure out how to do a task within unfamiliar software, I go straight to the user manual just like the rest of us do, right? Wrong. I struggle on trying to figure it out myself or ask a friend. The speed at which I find a solution is not only determined by whether I’d been out until 3.00am knocking back memory erasing beverages, but by the quality of the software.

To help get us through these frustrating moments, Peepel conveniently provides it’s users with unlimited coffee and aspirin…. Oh, it doesn’t? bugger. They do however provide ‘hover over’ tooltips which show you not only what the item’s function is, but other handy information such as keyboard shortcuts. There is also the inbuilt QuickHelp system which has concise descriptions of the applications and tools in an easily navigable menu system. These alone are enough to provide remedies for most ailments. If you need more help than this you can still always ask a friend; Peepel are your friends :-)

Simple Collaboration that even your Mum can use.

Peepel uses a unique approach to collaboration in the way that we use a ‘control token’ that shows you who is currently editing a document. The ‘control token’ appears as a coloured icon in the title bar of each document window. Edit control can be released or taken by anyone with write privileges. Read more.

Login, share a document and give it a go. It’s surprisingly easy to use and fun.

New Features!

The latest new features released this week are the ability to import MS Office & Open Office files, the event notifier bar and authenticated RSS support. This is great news for our users. I believe that the ability to import files is a must for any good online office suite. Click here for more info on importing files.

We have also added colour coded folders in the FileManager. This makes it easy to differentiate the special folders from your normal folders.

The green folder is for files that you have imported.

Blue is for other people's files shared with you.

Red is a special folder that contains all files.

Yellow folders are your folders.

You can move files from these folders into another folder of your choice however files moved from the All Files and Others' Files folders will be copied there instead of moved.

Welcome to the Peepel Blog

It's been a busy few months here at the Peepel offices, hence the lack of blog entries!

I’ll be posting some tips for using Peepel, some things to ponder and pretty much anything I find that may interest fellow Peepel users at a semi-regular rate from now on. I intend to keep my posts fairly light hearted and void of technical jargon. Some of this information may also end up in our forums once launched, which hopefully won’t be too far down the track.

Hello World

Welcome to the Peepel blog, this is where we will be discussing our thoughts and opinions on Online Office Applications and web desktops.

We will also be discussing new features of Peepel online office and what we will be bringing out soon.

Any thoughts or comments, love it, hate it - tell us why.