Free/cheap writer software

ancientgear said:

Just use Microsoft word, I use Microsoft word 2013 pro plus. I didn't realise you need specialist software's for writing.

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You absolutely do not. But specialty software can accommodate methods of story building and story writing that MS Word is too generic to support, or at least not easily.

FYI, for anyone interested in the last copy of MS Word, Microsoft has Office 365. There's a Home Premium version for $9.95 per month. It entitles you to storage space on Skydrive, to online versions of several MS Office applications, and to up to five simultaneous copies of MS Office installed on computers.

That's $10/month. Not cheap. But if you use MS Office a lot across multiple PC's, it might be worth the monthly fee.

Works for Macs, too.

robjvargas said:

Works for Macs, too.

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Not so much with Mavericks.

Taran said:

I've written a short story and most of my blog posts in Focuswriter.

Most of the time I just use Word 2003. But out of the "distraction-free" writing software out there available for Windows, FocusWriter is the best I've used. Plus it has typewriter noises, and that's always a bonus.

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Thanks for this one!

I use Scrivener for organizing but Focuswriter was really nice to use for getting stuff down. I'll probably be doing a lot in it. Very easy to setup full-screen mode with different backgrounds. Here's my current setup.



Wordcount and toolbar in popups on hover. Spell checking, typewriter sound, what else do we need?
It has a scene navigator, hover mouse far left. Start every scene with ## as a divider.

Another goodness is the small program size and option to make it portable - put it on a usb memory and run from there.

A tip to those installing on windows. create a folder called "data" in the installation directory - or you won't be able to use the spell checking. Known bug it seems but the hack works perfectly.

I love Yarny. There's a free version and an upgraded version. I just use the free one and it's really useful. You can set your word goal for the entire WIP, and then it counts your total word count toward it. It also has the word count on the current scene that you're working on.

On the left are your scenes and chapters, and you can drag to rearrange. On the right are areas for notes.

Yarny is cloud-based and automatically saves, and you can go back to older versions if needed. This has saved my butt a few times.

It's really user friendly for someone as bad with computers as I am. I've tried Scrivener and its setup wasn't a good fit for me.

I like the "learn spelling feature" on scrivener when I'm making up words and names.

Also, Serif pageplus 6-7 (layout software) for those who don't want to pay for InDesign or Quark.

RoughDraft. Free, generally well-mannered, and its multidocument search-and-replace function was the one thing that finally stole me away from WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.

Atlantis is something like $35. It does loads of things — word count, spellcheck, yaddah, yaddah — and you can open the bookmark sidebar and use it for chapters so you can jump around at will. It is a great app. Then there is their free version. Atlantis Nova(?) Jarte is an OK word processor, but doesn't compare to Atlantis.

I have to say Reziac's RoughDraft looks pretty useful. Anything that can drag you away from the wonderful WordPerfect for DOS - WOW.

ancientgear said:

Just use Microsoft word, I use Microsoft word 2013 pro plus. I didn't realise you need specialist software's for writing. But open office is your best bet if you don't know how to get Microsoft word for free, but then again if you use any other word processors other than Microsoft word then you might run into problems if you want to send to someone because they might not have that same software to be able to open you file. But most cased Microsoft word can convert it so it can be opened.

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That's why you should always save as .rtf or .doc regardless of what program you use.

I adore Scrivener, though like others I don't use every little feature it offers. The main thing that I love about it is the ability to switch between things so easily; I work in scenes and I hated (hated) working in Word when I would have 6-7 windows open at a time. It was either start working in one massive document (which I dislike even more) or find another way, and Scrivener is absolutely perfect. Well worth the price, I think.

I use OpenOffice, a free alternative to MSOffice. It has nearly identical features and a much friendlier GUI (in my opinion). Alongside this I use Evernote across all my devices (Macbook, Samsung Tab 2.0, Samsung Galaxy) for instant note jotting anywhere.

I'm running OSX Lion on my macbook with no intention of upgrading.

chompers said:

I love Yarny. There's a free version and an upgraded version. I just use the free one and it's really useful. You can set your word goal for the entire WIP, and then it counts your total word count toward it. It also has the word count on the current scene that you're working on.

On the left are your scenes and chapters, and you can drag to rearrange. On the right are areas for notes.

Yarny is cloud-based and automatically saves, and you can go back to older versions if needed. This has saved my butt a few times.

It's really user friendly for someone as bad with computers as I am. I've tried Scrivener and its setup wasn't a good fit for me.

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Seconding Yarny. I'm using the free web-based version and I love that it auto-saves your work. At my job, I have a bunch of downtime and access to a computer, but when I need to get up and go for whatever reason, I don't always have time to save, and I don't just want to leave my work up on the computer for anyone to come read. With Yarny, I can get some writing done at work, and if I need to get up, I just close the browser and it's saved. It has a word-count but I'm not sure about a timer. Couldn't you just use a watch or your computer's clock for that?

Thank you to everyone who recommend FocusWriter. I now have a new obsession, and it makes a fun noise when I hit the return key.

benluby said:

I realize all I really need is a basic word processor. OpenOffice is free and definitely fits the bill. Then there's yWriter, which I have never tried, and seems to be interesting. I may actually give that a shot.

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yWriter works fine, but you may have to borrow a computer with Word on it to convert it to a format that can be read by others.

I don't know this for sure, since I used yWriter nearly 10 years ago. The guy works on it as a hobby, and he's probably upgraded it further by now.

You can probably find it on downloads.com or just by googling on yWriter.

dangerousbill said:

yWriter works fine, but you may have to borrow a computer with Word on it to convert it to a format that can be read by others.

I don't know this for sure, since I used yWriter nearly 10 years ago. The guy works on it as a hobby, and he's probably upgraded it further by now.

You can probably find it on downloads.com or just by googling on yWriter.

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Or use the link I provided in my post.

dangerousbill said:

yWriter works fine, but you may have to borrow a computer with Word on it to convert it to a format that can be read by others.

I don't know this for sure, since I used yWriter nearly 10 years ago. The guy works on it as a hobby, and he's probably upgraded it further by now.

You can probably find it on downloads.com or just by googling on yWriter.

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I have the latest version.

Go to: Project --> Export Project --> to RTF

I have switched completely to Google docs now.
- its free
- All your writing is stored online, on those bullet proof google servers, so you're not going to lose your work if your hard drive goes down. (Please backup anyway).
- You can access it on any device. I spend 90% of the time writing on my tablet, but if I need to do something on my PC, I just need to log in and the changes are carried through to my tablet in real time.
- every word is automatically saved, so you don't need to worry about the power tripping and losing a half an hours work because you were so into your writing you forgot to save.
- every change you make to your document is stored in your history, so you can recover earlier versions if you later decide they were better.
- compatible with MS word and libreoffice/open office.
- always running on the latest version, so you don't need to keep updating.
- everything you'll need, spell checker, word count etc

cons- need a constant internet connection.

ave said:

I have switched completely to Google docs now.
- its free
- All your writing is stored online, on those bullet proof google servers, so you're not going to lose your work if your hard drive goes down. (Please backup anyway).
<snippola>
cons- need a constant internet connection.

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Another con: Google may change their policy at any moment with no notice. This has happened with public FTP sites more than once (with all files being lost until private copies could be scrounged up, a very iffy proposition).

And if they lose a server (which happens often, they figure about 10% are down at any given moment), they are not obligated to restore the latest version. Great way to lose all your documents.

So.. yeah, make backups.

In a case of interesting timing, my free trial of the newest Word ended last week. A shame, really. I quite liked it, but not a hundred quid's worth of liking.
Now trying open office. So far, I suppose it's all right.

oakbark said:

Very easy to setup full-screen mode with different backgrounds. .

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Scrivener has this feature, too (at least it does for Mac version...not sure about PC). I found an image I wanted to use and loaded it. When in full screen mode it looks like your image attached. Reason I mention this is because I'm new to Scrivener (started using it in July) and mentioned at an RWA meeting how cool that feature was. I got blank stares in return. Even people who've been using it for years don't know what all it can do--not sure about the typewriter sound though...that would be awesome. ;-)

I'm trying the freeware - Snowflake Pro. It definitely helped me clarify some things in my theme and helped me write a better synopsis. I've yet to go to the next stages, but I will.

Reziac said:

Another con: Google may change their policy at any moment with no notice. This has happened with public FTP sites more than once (with all files being lost until private copies could be scrounged up, a very iffy proposition).

And if they lose a server (which happens often, they figure about 10% are down at any given moment), they are not obligated to restore the latest version. Great way to lose all your documents.

So.. yeah, make backups.

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See the bolded section? That's the part of this that is good advice.

The first point is highly unlikely and misses an important point. Even were it to occur, you would still be able to download your content in a format that can still be read and edited in another word processing/data solution. You would still have had the benefit of the free tool for however long you used it. If you got to drive a car for free for a year, and the dealer needed to sell it to make a living, does that make the last year a loss?

The second point is simply not accurate. Unless you include the remote chance that the online copy of the file happened to have corrupted prior to that server backing itself up and deduping around the planet. AND that you didn't have Google Drive turned on on your computer, so you don't have the file still sitting on your machine.

cons- need a constant internet connection.

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Ave - you might want to check into Google Drive (offline files)

In the (free) Chrome browser, Docs and Spreadsheets are both available offline.

Nonetheless, a good backup policy is just good sense. Specifically, and has been stated previously:

"3-2-1"

Keep three copies of critical and important files.

Keep them in at least two formats (Forex, if they are all on a flash drive and your usb ports die, you won't have access without another machine to read the drives.)

Keep at least one copy of your backups geographically separate from you and the other two. If all your copies are in your desk at home, and the twister comes. You don't want to have to hope for a wizard and some ruby slippers to bring your stuff back.

Williebee --
Full time education technology geek and Google Certified Trainer.

Williebee said:

The first point is highly unlikely and misses an important point. Even were it to occur, you would still be able to download your content in a format that can still be read and edited in another word processing/data solution.

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Do you remember Walnut Creek's FTP.CDROM.COM ?? Several online 'communities' relied on their free service as a central file archive. In 1998 or so it was sold to DigitalRiver, who at the time were in dire financial straits. I found out about that and warned the maintainers I could reach to pull copies of their archives (a tough proposition in those days of primarily dialup), because no way was the company going to support it. A few days later DigitalRiver pulled the plug on all the free archives, WITH NO WARNING TO USERS.

One archive maintainer believed my warning -- consequently we still have a copy of our archive. The rest were lost. (Well, one was recovered from a private copy, some years later.)

Free services are not obligated to users, nor to preserve users' data. I speak from bitter experience.

Williebee said:

Ave - you might want to check into Google Drive (offline files)

In the (free) Chrome browser, Docs and Spreadsheets are both available offline.

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I didn't bother to troubleshoot, so maybe something was wrong, but I used Drive for my NaNo project. I wound up converting it to MS Word because the Doc editor wouldn't launch unless I had Internet.

I've since uninstalled Drive.

Instead, I've opted for Skydrive and Office365. I keep my local copy of the document on a flash drive (SD Card, actually). Skydrive doesn't auto-synch with removable drives, so I do it manually.