Portable Word-processing Software

Filed in archive Software on April 19, 2007

So you want to be completely mobile with your word processing needs. You may have tried Google Docs as a way of doing your word-processing, or you may have tried Zoho. And possibly, like me, you don't really want to entrust your long word-processing documents to an on-line word-processing system like Google Docs or Zoho.

Well here is how I solved the problem.

I permanently have two or three long document projects on the way, you know, a document longer than 100 pages, or 60,000 words or so. And because I am mobile I have a laptop (or notebook if you really want to be pedantic). However, for many reasons it is often not possible to have my notebook with me, such as, a day trip where I need to travel lightly, or I am stuck in some office setting where connecting to the Internet via my laptop is a big ask. And anyway, I am tired of lugging a computer all around the place with me. So how do I do those long documents?

I bought myself a wearable USB stick (as shown in the picture above). On that stick I have saved a mobile word-processing machine in two flavours -- a Windows version and a Linux version -- and a copy of each of my long documents. Anywhere I go, my documents are always available. I can even go into Internet Cafes, anywhere provided I have a computer.

So what is my little magic word processor? You have a number of choices. Go over to www.portableapps.com and you will see AbiWord, OpenOffice.org tools and others. Follow the prompts when installing the apps and the installation process will ask you on which USB stick you want to install the software.

Anywhere you go with your USB stick, you will be able to work on your documents.