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Thread: Software for writers...

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    Senior Member godsdog's Avatar
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    Software for writers...

    ...from organising ideas and concepts (MS One Note type) to writing a full novel, screenplay (Final Draft type).

    This cropped up in conversation recently and got me intrigued, it's not an area I'm very familiar with. Open source, freeware, expensive professional software. Options, what are they?

    Explanations, overviews, thoughts, experiences, all welcome.

    Thanks.
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    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
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    Re: Software for writers...

    I still think Woir Perfect (now in its X3 configurations is one of the most versatile and easy to use WPs that allows you to write and format the way you want easily, without having to battle with the way the Wortd Processor writers think you ought to be formatting and laying out text. It also allows seemless publishing to web and PDF formats. Index building is simple, and the great advantage over other prducts (IMHO) is that you can choose view all the embedded formatting codes so that in the event that the text does do something unexpected yopu can see what it is and delete the code as required.

    A truly good piece of software and one of the only reasons that I still use a windows operating system.

    A close second (because it is free!) would be open office, although it does lack the reveal codes function, but again publishes to PDF and HTML, and is compatable with lesser popular word processors (prior to 2007).
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    Senior Member godsdog's Avatar
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    Re: Software for writers...

    I'm pretty familiar with open office and abiword and use both to varying degrees for simple day to day tasks, sometimes just for a change of scenery. A few years ago I wanted a structured tree layout like program for note/idea taking for a couple of projects which needed organising, like an all in one PIM. I found the excellent open source KeyNote and used that for a very long time, but unfortunately the developer just ran out of steam and had to abandon the project in a quite heartbreaking admission that he had come to the end of his creative lollipop - over the years I, and a lot of others, sent him a fair few quid, and thanks, for an excellent project. I don't think anything else quite like it has come out of the open source community since.

    I'm certainly curious enough to give the WordPerfect Office package a try out using the trial they offer. I also noticed the WP Office version 12 up on Amazon for £15.
    Last edited by godsdog; 21-09-2007 at 11:53 AM.
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    Re: Software for writers...

    the absolute bestest for screenplays is completely free, and quite frankly, stomps all over Final Draft etc:

    www.celtx.com - open source

    they've just released a new version, which is amazing. Scheduling, production forms, cast/crewing, online sharing of material, all forms of AV writing, story boarding, etc.


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    Senior Member godsdog's Avatar
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    Re: Software for writers...

    ooooooooooooohh, looksee what eye-spy
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    Senior Member charleski's Avatar
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    Re: Software for writers...

    On the Mac, Scrivener and WriteRoom are great for writers. Scrivener is more project-oriented, with facilities to jot down ideas and fragments, while WriteRoom is designed to be ultra-minimalist for those who want to compose text without any distractions. A similar program for windows is JDarkRoom.

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    Re: Software for writers...

    Quote Originally Posted by charleski View Post
    , while WriteRoom is designed to be ultra-minimalist for those who want to compose text without any distractions. A similar program for windows is JDarkRoom.
    just remember, can also use Word in distraction-free mode - FULL SCREEN option


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    Re: Software for writers...

    Or try Jedi Concentrate... good when you have more than one monitor and want to focus on a single app

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    Ah, Mrs. Peel! mike_w's Avatar
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    Re: Software for writers...

    For writing things like novels, you might want to take a look at LaTeX.
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    Re: Software for writers...

    Quote Originally Posted by mike_w View Post
    For writing things like novels, you might want to take a look at LaTeX.
    celtx is using LaTeX as a foundation, IIRC

  16. #11
    Senior Member godsdog's Avatar
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    Re: Software for writers...

    Splendid, marvellous, splendid - gold stars and pixie glitter all round. ...and what an outstanding program celtx is ...JDarkRoom is a little gem too

    It was mention of LaTex in another thread the other day that partly got the ball rolling for the original post. Anymore little gems, stick em down, don't be shy.
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