I'll miss the margin notes.
Check out the comments feature in Google Docs (Insert tab - Comment) - while not quite margin notes, it allows you to insert inline notes into your text
I'll miss the margin notes.
I'll write reviews from the rest of the software during the week.
I just dumped my WIP into Google Documents. It's stripped down, but it's got basic formatting, it gives a word count, it tracks revision, I can access my files from anywhere, and if I want I can give access to (or take access from) my writing group and get review comments online. Those are my reasons for trying it. After I've done this for a while, we'll see what reasons I come up with, if any, for abandoning it. I've abandoned Jer's Novel Writer. Mostly because I couldn't select blocks of text the way I wanted to (the software helpfully selects what it thinks you must want), and I couldn't select the whole file to dump it into other software...maybe I could have, but I couldn't figure it out lickety-split and got fed up. I'll miss the margin notes.
Hello, all!
Just wanted to mention AbiWord.
I just became an ICL student and all my previous 'authoring' has been on web pages and FP98 simply does NOT do manuscripts the way I need them. So, I went on a search of my own.
I found AbiWord at http://www.abisource.com/ and so far it's features equal the best of programs like Publisher and far surpass M$WERD!
You might want to try it out and give a review on it, too.
TTFN
Syl
I would like to hear some of the arguments for and against writing software. The arguments against it do seem to be more sensible to me. Mostly, no cookie-cutter novels.
I don't know if I mentioned this in this thread but I do know that I've said this elsewhere - expecting writing software to actually write the novel is sheer laziness (not to mention a lack of brain cells ). That's not what writing software is about. Good writing software should help you with the writing process and make certain tasks easier. However, plotting and writing is still up to the entity between chair and keyboard So I don't really see how there could be more cookie-cutter novels by using writing software. But then again, maybe you are thinking of those suggest-a-plot or suggest-a-story type of applications when you're talking of writing software ...
I've used Liquid Story Binder before and it is one of the few writing tools that I really liked The notes/source collection feature is great and the fact that you can not only store notes but images as well makes it a great tool to collect all your research for a story in one place. And the fact that it allows you to work in outline mode and has a timeline feature seals the deal as far as I'm concerned. I believe the only reason that I stopped using it was because Liquid Story Binder stores all files for a particular manuscript in one folder and so ends up scattering a bunch of files and sub-folders on the hard disk. I would have preferred everything to be in one single file for the sake of portability.
IBut I don't quite understand what you mean about preferring everything to be in an single file (any publisher taking soft copy will want something in a common word processing file without all your notes and drawings and outlines) or by "scattering a bunch of files and sub-folders on the hard disk." Does it really fling them around, or does it lay them down in a logical, orderly fashion?.
I want desktop publishing software but I see the price can vary from 'free' to over a thousand dollars. My first need is a simple magazine product. I've been lumped with producing the Manx Society's newsletter and want it to look reasonable. Then I'm thinking of producing my own books after the contract with my publisher finishes. Can I do both of these with free software like PagePlus?
If you're a Windows user and don't already have MS Word, and if downloading/installing isn't a problem, I'd go for OpenOffice
-Derek