Does anyone here use software for writing? For example, writeitnow? I sort of like the interface for WriteItNow except that I wish that it would give me the option of saving the file to an MS Word format.
Currently, I use Openoffice Writer. But I think it might be helpful to have a software package where I can have seperate tabs for characters, notes, ideas, If Openoffice had a tab feature for opening up multiple documents (instead of seperate windows) I would probably just use Openoffice.
Are there any software packages that I should definitely avoid?
Posted by JasonVaughn (Member # 4358) on :
The only writing software I've used is NewNovelist. This has seperate tabs for characters, places and general notes. You can also save files to .rtf format.
I find NewNovelist useful for note taking and planning a story. When it comes to actually writing the story though, I find that it is far too structured and tends to impede my creativity so I usually just ignore this section and use the notes I've taken to write from scratch.
Hope this helps.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
I've used WriteItNow and am currently using yWriter2 from www.spacejock.com (a free download, as opposed to the $34 or so for WIN). WIN has a GREAT file system in which to keep track of various characters and their characterisitics, notes on locations and other stuff. I really liked that aspect of it. I didn't like that it's hard to transfer the story files from one computer to the other when I'm traveling and want to write on my laptop. So I work in Word and then have to re-import the file to WIN. yWriter is easier to use in some ways (it's easier to replace an updated file that you worked on in Word, for instance. (Simply right-click>copy the file, then paste it in the appropriate chapter file) For some reason, you can't copy/paste in WIN, or at least I never figured out how. yWriter is from Australia, WIN from Scotland, so you need to reset your spellcheck to US English if you're in the US. Neither program spellchecks as you go like Word does - you have to choose to spellcheck.
yWriter has some nifty features, such as breaking chapters into scenes wherever you have * * * if you tell it to break the chapter into scenes. You can have list the POV character for each scene, the setting, the time, day, year, etc., the goals, conflict and outcome all separately in yWriter. In WIN, I had to save chapters as "Chapter 2 Jake" and "Chapter 3 Ethan" to keep track of POV.
For both, you want to save files in plain txt if you're working in Word. Unlike Word, the layout formatting won't disappear between platforms when you copy/paste, but you will lose italics, etc. To show italics, I do _this_ rather than underlining (which can also get lost in translation). It's fairly easy to do a search/replace for _ when you want to print it out in italics.
Both programs will print out in submission format. Haven't tried it yet with yWriter, but I usually end up going back to Word in order to use the "find/replace" function before printing out anyway.
Hope this helps!
Lynda
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I've stuck with Microsoft Works whatever-version-came-with-my-current-computer. You can get a lot of argument about how good or bad (or "good or evil") it all is, but I've learned to work most of its peculiarities and, right now, it seems to do everything I want it to do.
Posted by elzoog (Member # 4410) on :
The reason I ask this question is because firefox has spoiled me. Having tabs is a GREAT advantage over opening up seperate web sites in seperate windows (like you have to do with Internet Exploder). I just wish that Openoffice also had tabs. The advantage to this would be if I want to write dialog that involves several characters, I could have one tab where I describe each individual character. That way, if I am getting confused while writing the dialog, I could go to the tab describing the characters and then make a decision as to who would say what next.
I could understand the point of having tabs for something running in an operating system that didn't allow multiple instances, but right now I'm discovering that having a program that can run multiple instances and has tabs in each instance is a pain in the butt sometimes.
That's kinda off-topic, but I think that if Microsoft is going to steal another program's features, they could at least avoid imitating the annoying ones.
Posted by Leigh (Member # 2901) on :
Survivor, Microsoft have stolen the Tab system for IE V 7.0 beta, which is the browser I'm currently using, so Microsoft has stolen the idea before.
On topic, I use MS Word, and I know how to use it as it was the primary word processor taught to me during school.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I can see how, given that they use the same program core for several other tasks, it might have been too much trouble to implement total instance control. But all they had to do was make it so that the program interprets a default "open in new window" command to open a new tab. And now that I'm thinking about it, why the heck would they even not run everything in one instance? The windows tabbing between programs is theoretically a function of explorer anyway. Why copy a feature with so little thought for the practical consequences?
Anyway, nobody should encourage me to rant anymore on this subject.
Posted by elzoog (Member # 4410) on :
Survivor:
I understand a little bit your frustration. However, in firefox you can set firefox to open a window in a new tab as a default instead of opening it up in a new window.
Right now on my computer, I am tying this message in the last tab (I currently have 8 tabs going on right now) in my firefox browser. Just to give you an idea about how I use a browser, I have sometimes had as many as 17 tabs going on at once.
But I understand your frustration. I do not like it when I have another instance of firefox running and will very quickly, close extra instances.
Also off topic, I don't like programs that run in my task manager because if I get too many programs running there, it slows my computer down. If I were to decide to go back into programming, I would write a program that kills processes running in the task manager for me. If my computer is slow, that's one of the first places I look. I usually find about 10 programs running in my task manager. After killing about 5 of those programs, my computer starts to run a lot better.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
To get back to the original post's question - WriteItNow does have tabs such as you're looking for. If you want to write in that kind of environment< WIN's for you (and it does let you pop into the character tab and make notes right away, which is a very nice feature - just be sure to save your changes to the chapter before changing tabs, AND be sure to save your changes within the tab before going back to the chapter, or they'll be lost).
I've never worked in Microsoft Works, but I've worked extensively in Word. I had no trouble in Word as long as I wrote in Times New Roman, but when I changed to Courier 12 to fit in with what publishers want, I had lots of problems, such as losing formatting in a long document (all the italics would disappear, or the paragraphs would run into each other, losing their double-spacing between, or various other nightmarish things would happen - additional lines where I didn't want them, etc. Word has a way of bolloxing up long files in amazing ways - but it never did when I worked in Times. *sigh* Go figure. It's also a problem to go between Word and the novel writing softwares, which want the files saved as .txt files. Sometimes your formatting gets lost in translation between platforms. Even my computer-literate hubby has no idea why. He said Word is an unstable platform for long documents. I don't know why that would be, since it's supposed to be created for making documents of WHATEVER length!!! argh. . .
WIN and yWriter2 are both good products, but yWriter doesn't use tabs like Win. If that's what you want, get WIN.
Lynda
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I guess it's an improvement over the way they collapse a bunch of multiple instances into a single annoying block in the navigation bar or whatever that thing's called. And of course it's easy enough to change the default behavior to something a little less annoying, the question is why they would have that as the default behavior in the first place.
What I hate is when a system has a whole bunch of hardware controls in the task manager so that you can't shut them down without losing system functionality. Particularly when the system has been designed with the minimum level of memory. Of course I only encounter this when using others' computers, but that just makes it worse because you don't feel like you can modify anything.
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
This software http://www.jarte.com/index.html has a tabbed interface for documents. Othere than that I know nothing about it.
My personal choice is Rough Draft when i am working in Windows. On the Linux side, I use gedit, which uses tabs for new documents by default.