Matt and the Updated CAR?

[Novelty]

I wonder where Matt has gone... and whether we'll have the full updated CAR anytime soon.  Does anyone know?

[mjharper]

Sorry, I know I haven't been around for a while. Really busy, work, study, looking for a new job, worrying about moving to a new town… Bah. Still isn't all sorted, so although I'll try to re-engage here a bit, my attention will be divided a bit.

Similarly, updating the CAR stalled somewhat. Apologies again. But I was planning to make a post on the subject, and now you bring it up… here's what's been going through my head. Half-baked, but maybe with potential.

As most of you know, I'm a Mac user, and I have been hosting the FAQ etc on .mac. Being a Mac user doesn't mean I can't create doc files or anything, but the CAR was put together in Apple Pages, and it was always easiest for me to just edit that, and post the PDF. However…

I've recently decided to cancel my .mac subscription, now that it's changing to MobileMe. One of the reasons for this was the continued lack of php support on .mac; and my new host (macbay.de) offers this.

[At this point in the story, fact ends and speculation begins. So tread carefully…]
One of the plug-ins I use with RapidWeaver (my site authoring software) allows people with php  to include google docs in their webpages, and that got me thinking. I don't have Microsoft Office on my computer, I don't overly like the Mac implementations of OpenOffice, and converting the CAR to doc format simply to make it easier for other people to edit didn't seem worth the effort. But converting it into a google doc, which can be accessible online to trusted members and also rendered in webpages here on CC seems like a good development to me. What that would involve, and whether it would even work, I'm not entirely sure—as I say, I haven't been on the ball much recently—but that's what I'm thinking. At some point soon I'd like to put together a demo, and see what happens.

That's it for now, I guess. Comments appreciated—in particular, if anyone has any experience with Google Docs and wants to chime in, that would be great.

Sorry for any inconvenience…

[Novelty]

He's alive!!!

I'd suggest keeping a backup copy in your current format whatever you intend with Google Docs...

[mjharper]

He's alive!!!

I'd suggest keeping a backup copy in your current format whatever you intend with Google Docs...

Definitely. Maybe I'll take a look at the weekend…

[Scott]

Haven't tried Google Docs yet, but I'm intrigued. I'm a big MS Office person, but doing the CAR in MS Word seems like a waste of time to me. Something like that I would do in MS Publisher or some other desktop publishing program.

Having it possible for trusted people to help work on the CAR sounds like a good idea, and a web-based medium makes the most sense for that.

[Gantry]

I've used google docs (and use their spreadsheet regularly), but actually i prefer zoho's tools. They can pretty easily be included in any type of web page (like the variant registry, although that's one of their database products). However, ima just keep quiet about all this, as I'm just glad to see you finally back posting!

[mjharper]

@Scott: I don't think Office would be a good idea either, except for allowing other people to edit directly. Apple's Pages is really more of a DTP app, and works well with the CAR, except for only running on Macs.

&@Gantry: It would have to be Google Docks, because that's what integrates with RapidWeaver

Anyway, I have virtually no experience of GD, so we'll just have to see. I'll get the main FAQ site posted to the new server today, then maybe have a little play.

[mjharper]

Quick update

Posted the FAQ to the new address at http://carc.mjharper.de/. Changed a couple of things (removed the controversial anti-IE badge , switched to Google Analytics, added commenting via JS-Kit).

One thing I'd be curious to know: does the site seem to load faster now? My uploading speed is about three times as fast, so…

Edit: Added a bunch of link rels to the header. Probably most useful for Opera users, who are cool people anyway

[mjharper]

Major Update

So, if you click here, you'll find a quick page I set up containing the introduction to the CAR.

I imported the text from my Pages document, pasted it into Google Docs, and added some elementary formatting. First time off I forgot to add the 'Introduction' header, so I went back to GD and added it; the doc saved automatically, and the edit was immediately available online.

Proof of concept, at least. I still haven't examined GD enough to know how it will deal with the kind of layout I've used in the CAR, especially with regard to images, or what export functions there are—after all, we still need a printable document in the end.

Will play more…

[mjharper]

Started a new topic to deal specifically with CAR & GD.

[Scott]

New FAQ site takes ages to load for me. 

[mjharper]

New FAQ site takes ages to load for me. 

Maybe that's the commenting. I'll try turning it off and see if that helps (not too essential anyway).

EDIT: commenting off. Try it now.

[Gantry]

hmm thats odd because it seemed faster to me!

[mjharper]

hmm thats odd because it seemed faster to me!

And is it even faster without the commenting?

[Gantry]

seems about as fast actually