Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Lovely Charts

I have previously blogged about Smart Draw, and today - after testing it for over a few weeks I decided to share my thoughts on Lovely Charts. It is an online free diagramming service that allows you to create flowcharts, site maps, organization maps, wire frames and network diagrams. I have always wished there was an online version of Smart Draw and I must say, Lovely Charts is looking good and almost ready to be the next big thing in diagramming.

The service is completely free but a premium membership will soon be available at a very low rate. I would love to see it available for multi-user collaboration projects but that is still in the making. Once you have completed your diagram, you can publish it for the public to see or keep it in your account for your own reference. Charts and diagrams can be exported in Image format.

I believe this is an excellent service and look forward to seeing more of its upcoming features! It’s exciting to see all these services available on the Internet. One day, I believe, we will not have any softwares installed on our machines because it will all be available online!

service website: http://lovelycharts.com

Whats your favorite online application? Or what non-existing online application would you love to see?

Filed under: Reviews |

Comments

Marzouq | Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 11.26 am

Thank you very much, I could really use something like this to try it out and see how it fits my usage!

Faraway | Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 12.06 pm

You’re right, one day we’ll find all the softs we need online, it’s the dream of google to propose all the “Gsofts” we need. And of course the nightmare of microsoft if they don’t work more on the online. We can find a lot online, so be Online!

Shay | Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 08.11 am

@Faraway, Welcome, Welcome!
I have to disagree, the rise of web apps is definitely no nightmare of Microsoft! They already have MS Live Office, which is basically an online version of Office.

Sure, its not as simple as Google apps but the collaboration with the softwares on your system that it offers is just amazing.

F. | Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 04.01 pm

I can’t explain why - but I am still not very fond of ‘online apps’. They can be in handy in emergency cases - like if you need to type something and the word processor on University computers is acting up - but a nice, locally installed software is better..because:

1. It’s always available, unlike online apps, which require you to be connected to the internet.

2. You can customize your prefs, what you see on the screen, the workspace, etc

3. You can add words to the dictionary and kill of that annoying red line used to mark words the processor doesn’t recognize (aka, misspelled words)

And other reasons as well… but those three just came to mind.

What do you think about the online vs offline apps?

Shay | Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 04.38 pm

I agree, it’s always good to have something on the system, but internet access is now almost available everywhere, so to be able to edit or create files online on any computer, without having to access your system remotely is amazing.

I don’t think they should replace the existing apps on the system, but I do believe it will one day - not just yet though. Right now, we can enjoy accessing apps from any browser and sync our online files with our system’s software. When you are working on huge projects, you can’t imagine how much collaborated teams appreciate to be able to do this.

You can also customize your prefs in most online apps! Depends on the app though.

Chakkaradeep | Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 01.06 pm

Visio Professional 2007 is the best drawing tool available out there

Shay | Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 02.09 pm

@Chaks, hehe, I knew someone would come at me with that one! Visio is pretty awesome.