Office Tools

Twenty-three office documents, and none of them uploaded

Each of these produces a document somebody has to hand to somebody else: a letter, a set of minutes, an order, a claim, a chart of who does what. They run as WebAssembly in this browser tab and upload nothing, which matters here more than in most of this workspace — a mail merge takes a table of customers, an org chart takes the whole staff list, and a risk register is often the most sensitive document a small company owns.

The thing that makes these documents rather than text is that they are laid *out*. One engine decides every page break in the application: a table heading repeats at the top of each page, a row is never split across two, and a heading never sits alone at the bottom of one. That is the part a word processor does and a template on a web page does not, and it is why a set of minutes that runs to three pages comes out readable rather than sliced.

There is no PDF, and the reason is worth stating rather than working around: writing one means embedding a typeface, and a typeface is a binary asset this workspace does not ship. What comes out is SVG — which every browser opens, prints at the exact size, and keeps the text in as text. Tell the printer to print at actual size rather than to fit the page and a document that says 210 by 297 millimetres measures that on the paper.

Several of them check something, and that is the part worth having. The responsibility matrix says which tasks do not have exactly one person answering for them, because two approvers is nobody. The plan says which tasks start before the one they follow has finished, because a drawing does not show that. The mileage log says which readings do not follow on from the journey before, because an odometer runs on and a gap means a journey is missing. The agenda adds the minutes up and says whether they fit in the meeting.

The letters come first, then the meetings, then what goes with goods, then the records somebody has to sign, and last the planning documents — the org chart, the plan, the SWOT, the matrix, the register and the business card.

Letters and messages

Covering Letter
The four things a covering letter has to say, on one page

Reference Letter
A reference, and the two things it has to establish first

Out of Office
The automatic reply, in two languages at once

Message Templates
Six messages nobody enjoys writing, in three tones

Letterhead
The paper a letter is printed on, with the room it leaves measured

Meetings and documents

Agenda
An agenda with the times worked out, and the total checked

Minutes
Minutes with the actions pulled out of them

Table of Contents
A table of contents from the headings a document already has

Questionnaire
A questionnaire on paper, with room to write in

Goods and deliveries

Purchase Order
A purchase order whose totals are exact and can be checked by hand

Delivery Note
What went, who took it, and the two signatures

Packing Slip
What is in which box, one slip a parcel

Envelope Addresses
An envelope at its true size, with the address where the machine reads it

Records and claims

Timesheet
Hours worked, including the shift that ends the next morning

Expense Claim
An expense claim totalled by category, in one currency or several

Mileage Log
Journeys with the readings checked and the allowance worked out

Mail Merge
One letter filled in from a table of people

Planning and structure

Organisation Chart
An organisation chart from an indented list

Plan on a Timeline
A plan as bars, with the dependency that points backwards named

SWOT Analysis
Four quadrants, with the inside and the outside kept apart

Responsibility Matrix
Who does what, with the two rules checked

Risk Register
Risks scored and drawn, with what a score does not mean said

Business Card
A card at the size a guillotine will cut it to, with its bleed

Questions

What does “laid out” mean that a template does not?: That something decided where the pages break. One engine does it for all twenty-three: a table heading repeats at the top of every page, a row is never split across two, and a heading never ends a page with its first line on the next. A template on a web page hands you words and leaves the pagination to whatever you paste them into; these hand you the pages.
Which tools from the group are missing?: The ones that are a file format rather than a document — anything whose answer is a .docx, a .xlsx or a .pptx, all of which are zip archives of XML with binary parts, and none of which this workspace ships the machinery to write. What is here instead is the document itself, laid out, in a format that opens everywhere.
Why does the responsibility matrix complain about my matrix?: Because that is the whole point of drawing one. It says which tasks do not have exactly one person accountable — two approvers is nobody, and none is nobody as well — which tasks have nobody actually doing them, and which people on the list have no role at all. A matrix that only draws what you typed has told you nothing you did not know.
Can I use what comes out commercially?: Yes. What comes out is a document made from words and figures you supplied. Nothing here adds a mark, a watermark or a line of attribution to it, and there is nothing to sign up for.

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