Tuesday, January 20, 2009

No good service for book writing

I need to prepare a small book for someone. So, I was looking for a tool which could help me achieve that online. I found wikis too unstructured and blogs only allowed chronological order, not book structure. I had very simple set of requirements:
  1. WYSIWYG : I want to focus more on writing than on tags or markups. That is why I could not use LaTeX or HTML.
  2. Online: I am on the move and I need the ability to be able to update the pages from anywhere. So, I cannot use MS Word (I do not like it anyway).
  3. Allows structuring: Allows for Sections, subsections etc. Or perhaps I can create one page for each section, just like a wiki. But I want the ability to be able to sort the content. Move pages from one chapter to another etc. This is not so flexible in wikis. If page sorting can be done visually, it would be too good.
  4. Add small external media: I may want to add some photos or diagrams in the book. Basic facility only is required.
  5. Export/Print: In the end, when the book is done, I want to export the content as HTML or PDF so that I can print it offline or send to the publisher.
Now, I had such simple requirements and I could not find the appropriate tool for the purpose. Most tools did not fulfill at least two of the above requirements. the nearest thing I could find was wik.is service. But it still did not provide printing/export feature. Even Google Sites is not good enough. Google Notebook had the sorting capability I wanted, but it did not support chapters and sections like structuring. So, I am lost. If anybody knows a good service, please suggest.

Dell India does not support online payments

I was surprized when I was exploring Dell India website to purchase a laptop. I was shocked that a company like dell still has not endorsed web based payment systems on its website! The horror is that you have to select the equipment, you prepare the shopping cart but in the end, they tell you to call Dell customer care center and they will take the payment details. Funny isin't it? They could simply take payment through credit cards. Moreover I trust secure payments than telling a human on the other end whom I do not know. Maybe some day dell will wake up and realize that they only have equipped some e-commerce giants on internet and forgot to learn the trick themselves. 

At least I will not buy a dell laptop nor recommend anyone unless dell starts accepting online payments.