I have been playing around with Google Docs and I am impressed. No longer do I have to email myself files or carry around a USB drive if I am going to be working on multiple computers - Google Docs lets me access a translation from wherever I am. I can even let clients review documents online. Normally if I had to translate a document on some anonymous Windows box I would have to download the Word file and then go through the rigmarole of cutting and pasting any unknown terms into ALC or GLOVA - time-consuming and frustrating. Uploading a document to Google Docs means that you are working within the browser, so browser tools like rikaichan and Moji are available. Well, at least rikaichan works - Google Docs takes command of the mouse right-click commands, so the function "LookUp Word in Moji" is no longer available, and for Moji you are reduced to cutting and pasting. However the rikaichan mouseover function (see image) works normally, and if you select a word or character it is still possible to search using the rikaichan toolbar. Naturally this will never replace my beloved combination of Mac PowerBook and JEDict, but it is a nifty hack for those times when you find yourself without your familiar translating toolkit.
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