posted
Thanks, DWD. That's good to know. (I started out using WordPerfect and have had to learn Word because it's more available--and I miss WordPerfect.)
Edited to add:
JeffBarton, I am curious about how other word processors handle this. Thanks for the info on yWrite.
[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited June 11, 2009).]
I agree yWriter is a little lacking in flexibility on its export format, so I also export as RTF, then open in Word as a single doc and apply a manuscript template to it. Since the manipulation in Word is minimal (only being used as a final print formatter), this shouldn't be a problem. Still a bit of a pain, though.
posted
I'll add another vote for Scrivener if you're using a Mac. I switched from PC to Mac a couple of years ago when the Word for Mac was a step backward from the PC.
The things I like about Scrivener are:
Its full screen mode is easy on my old eyes and even easier on my easily distracted brain.
It automatically saves what I'm working on, something I would forget to do if I was being productive and something that I did in Word to waste time when I didn't want to work.
It acts something like a source-code control program, storing sections in files, allowing reversions, block moves, snapshots, and document compile-time options (like not outputting background material in-line).
It produces a formatted manuscript in .rtf without much extra work.
It doesn't try to 'correct me' like Word did by default, so that sentence fragments, odd capitalization, and so forth stay the way I intended them to. It highlights spelling errors but it doesn't automagically fix them without my approval.
It doesn't have a lot of features that I don't use, or a menu bar that is so complicated that I can't find the 'print' button.
It was free to try and relatively cheap to buy so that I didn't have to take a leap of faith to see if it would work for me.
It isn't constantly being patched so that I end up spending no time on maintenance.
The author doesn't over-hype it, the tutorial was complete, and its features are focused on writing and outputting drafts.
Its word count functionality isn't an afterthought.
[This message has been edited by posulliv (edited June 11, 2009).]
posted
Scrivener sounds really nice. Wish it were available for the PC; one day I may make the switch and run Windows in a virtual machine when I need it for work.
I hear you about Word's complexity. It was a much better, more focused product at version 2.0 than it is now at version, um, what is it... 12. It's just about to collapse under its own weight, and the latest UI changes are a constant irritation and source of wasted time as I look around for where some feature might now be hidden.
The very best version, IMO, was version 5.5 of the DOS (yes, you heard me--DOS) product. It was light, fasr, and used style sheets instead of templates--a much cleaner and easier-to-work-with formatting mechanism.
posted
The best version of Word ever, for the Mac, was 5.1. I got a new computer recently and was forced to upgrade to the latest version of Word, and man was I angry. Not only does it now take 30 seconds to open the program (versus 5 seconds in the old version - I timed it) but there is no longer an option to automatically default to Word 5.1 settings. Grrrr...
FYI though, it is possible to turn off all the auto-correct functions in Word. A few clicks of the mouse and you can customize it to act (more or less) exactly the way you like.
posted
I downloaded the free trial of Scrivner (thanks for the tip!) and like it so far. I don't have the patience to sit through the tutorial yet, so I'm just playing around with the features that are obvious to me. So far it looks good though....I particularly like the full screen mode. Word is so bulky, and runs slow on my Mac. This looks like a good alternative.
Posts: 21 | Registered: May 2009
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posted
I downloaded yWriter5 (thanks for the tip!)--I can see where it would be great if I was starting from scratch. But its daunting to consider moving the content of my 41K word outline and 20K word (so far) novel into a different format.
It seems that there are so many places to hide data--tabs for notes, descriptions, goals, and such for characters, scenes, chapters. What if I put something really important into a tab that I never revisit? Guess I shouldn't depend on them too much...
Also I suspect I'd dearly miss Word's track changes feature.
Have any of you successfully made this transition mid-stream?
posted
I've used Word for years, both for personal and professional applications. While it can aggravate me at times, I haven't had any problems with corruption or loss of material since Word 95.
The only story I've lost (about 20k words of a novel) was in writeitnow which I bought earlier this year. Seems like a pretty cool app, and the problem was probably cockpit error on my part, but I've been hesitant to go back to it.
I also have used yWriter, but not for anything serious, and recall it being similar to writeitnow, but not as appealing to me. Maybe the later versions are better.
I also dabble with Q10. It has the nice quirk that it adds a typewriter sound to your keystrokes, and I use it as a scratchpad for ideas--something about the typewriter sounds is soothing to me at times (and I'm not a converted typewriter user). But I don't think it has a whole lot of "power". It seems to be a simple full-screen text editor at the end of the day.
I've found I don't take a lot of advantage of the auxiliary features of apps like writeitnow. I tend to get bogged down in maintaining the outline/synopsis/character sketch type of features and get distracted from proceeding with the story.
I think I must have saved a blank file in place of my work, as even the backup was empty. I even tried running an undelete utility and couldn't find my stuff.
posted
I really love yWriter5. I wrote my first novel with Notepad for the scenes and put 'em into ScribblePapers (yes that's right). My second novel came to life in OpenOffice. After 2 chapters I tried yWriter and instantly fell in love with it. I finished my 2nd and am now writing my 3rd novel with yWriter.
[This message has been edited by A.Windt (edited June 28, 2009).]
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