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By David Rothman

MobipocketTime for Mobipocket Desktop and perhaps some other e-reading programs to grow up and be word-processors, too?

I know. Heresy. But consider this: The desktop version of Mobi lets me change the distance between lines, choose from a variety of font sizes and styles, and decide between single and double pages, among other possibilities. This Mobi screenshot—a lot less blurry in real life, especially with ClearType in use—might as well be one of a word-processor instead.

Now, what if Mobipocket Desktop could also let me bold selected text. And suppose the “Find” were also a “Find and replace”? I’d be well on my way to a good basic word-processor program once printing capabilities were added.

Far more pleasing than Word for many purposes

The results for many purposes would be far, far more pleasing than with Microsoft Word. Minus the least hassle, for example, I could see my work in double columns on a fair-sized LCD monitor and know how my prose would look in a book. The line between reader and writer would be thinner than ever, and more people would be tempted to write—and maybe even sell their wares through Amazon, which owns Mobipocket.

Just as importantly, with Mobi doubling as an easy-to-use word processor, it would be simpler to do polished annotations of other people’s books. That would add to the value of shared annotations on library servers in the future—or Amazon’s own.

Worth overcoming the tech challenges

Granted, Mobipocket doubling as a word-processor would mean more code. But remember, we’re talking desktop here, not PDA. Beyond that, as the rapid expansion of the OLPC laptop’s capabilities shows, smaller machines are growing more powerful. Eventually it might even be possible for the nontechnical to be able to insert multimedia and do other Sophie-style tricks.

Of course, as a friend of freeware and shareware and, yes, Sophie, I don’t want Mobi to be the only program to break down the line between reading and writing. But Mobi probably has more resources for the development I have in mind, and it could help blaze the way.

The format issue and Mobi vs. rivals: Yes, I hope that Mobi will truly come around on e-book standards and be able to read (and write) in the IDPF format and ideally the OpenReader one as well. Plus, open formats for word-processing, in additional to the usual Microsoft ones. Meanwhile, however, even if Mobi isn’t a format paragon, I give the company its due. By far, Mobi has the best ergonomics of any e-reading software so far—in both desktop and PDA versions—and I’d hope that would extend to word-processing.

Sorry, rivals. But Adobe, even with its Digital Editions incarnation, has yet to catch up. And FBReader,uBook and the wonderful PalmFiction reader, some favorites of mine, lack Mobi’s consumer-friendly interface. Remember, I’m not praising Mobi’s business model, just conveying my objective impressions as a reader interested in ergonomics and usability in general.

The “Do we need writers and publishers?” issue?: Yes, we still do. Easy self-publishing would be great for specialized works and for, say, memoirs directed at family and friends. But I doubt that it would put John Grisham and the like out of business, given the advantages of well-branded and well-promoted wares.

 
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