What software/word processor do you use?

I use MS Word. It works. I'll never change.


PS. Welcome to AW!

Welcome to AW D.L.Steele,

MS Word for me too. My typewriter is dusty.

Enjoy your stay.

MS Word, and that's what all my clients use too! Only exception is if I'm writing a script, in which case it's Final Draft.

For my first draft, I'm using a 1950's era Olympia full-sized manual typewriter I bought at a church up the street on Halloween. For later drafts, I'm toying with getting OpenOffice again (I have a different computer than I had two months ago, so I don't have all the stuff I had before). The thing with OpenOffice is, it's a big program and has more stuff than I need for writing (drawing program, etc.).

I've also used Works in the past, and it, well, works. Not a great program, but it's decent. I've never used Word, though, and I've wanted to for some time if only to find out how well it works.

Open Office, because I'm too cheap to buy Word :

Plus, I use a Mac and putting M$ programs on it seems a bit of a sacrilege.

JimmyB27 said:

Open Office, because I'm too cheap to buy Word :

Click to expand...

Do people actually BUY word? (-;

"Buy???" (Aghast smiley). Shock, horror at the very thought. I use MS Word because I am too scared to change in case I lose, or corrupt any of my large data base of techo stuff, papers and articles.

Hammer, chisel, clay tablets

Word currently, but considering switching to yWriter for fiction.

Word! Actually Word 2007 and yes we bought MS offfice. However, my husband got some kind of crazy deal on it. I think we paid $20 for the suite and yes it is a legal copy. My husband hates the new version. I am quickly learning to love it.

I use MS Word.

Open Office here, because Word 97 stopped functioning and I'm not paying for the upgrade MS demands I get to fix it.

Word 97 because my copy didn't stop working.

yWriter3 (thanks, Hal!) for writing, RoughDraft for editing and polishing. MS Word frightens me

Word (buy it, though??), though now I'm going to check out yWriter....

At the moment, I switch between Microsoft Works and Word 2007. Each one has different features that I like.

For more responses, check out these threads:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72953&highlight=writing+software

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67704&highlight=writing+software

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20278&highlight=writing+software

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36769&highlight=writing+software

New Toy:

I found a small dell laptop (Latitude C400, 1.4 Pentium 3, 512 RAM) in my scrap metal pile I like to call my computer lab-reality is that this is just a bunch of computer parts I'm not willing to part with.

I installed Fedora 7 Linux and use the Open Office 2.2 for composing. I'm used to Word 03/07, so I'm still getting used to this.

Question for Open Office users (this probably belongs in the tech forum). I initially started composing on Word 03 and when I switched, I get get an error in Open Office about formatting and it's not compatible. If I click yes, it sometimes saved what I wrote, sometimes it doesn't. I've lost about 5k in composition so far, and I'm tired of it. The only thing I can think of is that I'm saving to a USB drive and I'm pulling the drive before the save is complete (I've seen this on windows machine so I'm inclined to think this is the problem). I just wondered if anyone else has run into this.

Jack Nog said:

New Toy:

I found a small dell laptop (Latitude C400, 1.4 Pentium 3, 512 RAM) in my scrap metal pile I like to call my computer lab-reality is that this is just a bunch of computer parts I'm not willing to part with.

...Snipped.

Click to expand...

Nice toy. My previous machine was a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a P3, 800 to 1200 MHz dual speed. I sold it to my Mom when I got rid of the Internet a couple months back, and she finally sold it back to me a few days ago. Alas, I now have a desktop and no use for a laptop, and so I sold the laptop to a neighbor who has been wanting a laptop for years. He's not had a computer before, I don't think, so it's a real treat for him.

But that Inspiron was a good machine. It was a business laptop, so it was very reliable (I've heard horror stories about Dell computers for a long time, but they were usually the less-expensive models for home users). I do miss it, if even slightly.

Jack Nog said:

Snipped...

Question for Open Office users (this probably belongs in the tech forum). I initially started composing on Word 03 and when I switched, I get get an error in Open Office about formatting and it's not compatible. If I click yes, it sometimes saved what I wrote, sometimes it doesn't. I've lost about 5k in composition so far, and I'm tired of it. The only thing I can think of is that I'm saving to a USB drive and I'm pulling the drive before the save is complete (I've seen this on windows machine so I'm inclined to think this is the problem). I just wondered if anyone else has run into this.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to mention this while I'm thinking about it.

I have a USB drive and it has to be ejected a certain way, by going to the program menu and actually clicking on an 'Eject' icon (in my case it's in the little bar where the clock is on Windows XP). It's kind of like the way you shut computers down these days. You don't just push the 'off' button, in other words, usually, unless you have a problem with the machine crashing. The same is true for a lot of the USB drives. You don't take it out without the software telling you it's safe to do so.

I hope this helps you out. Best wishes with figuring out your problem.

Sean D. Schaffer said:

Nice toy. My previous machine was a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a P3, 800 to 1200 MHz dual speed. I sold it to my Mom when I got rid of the Internet a couple months back, and she finally sold it back to me a few days ago. Alas, I now have a desktop and no use for a laptop, and so I sold the laptop to a neighbor who has been wanting a laptop for years. He's not had a computer before, I don't think, so it's a real treat for him.

But that Inspiron was a good machine. It was a business laptop, so it was very reliable (I've heard horror stories about Dell computers for a long time, but they were usually the less-expensive models for home users). I do miss it, if even slightly.

Click to expand...

Yep, it had window and then crapped out on me. I had a epiphany for Linux and went to that. I've played with that OS before, but not enough to consider myself great with it. The good thing is, I can't get the wireless networking up and running. I know this sounds like a bad thing, but I like NOT having the internet on it. I just use my desktop for patches and stuff and transfer them via thumb drives.

I just use Microsoft Works - it's more than adequate.

Microsoft Word 2007 is way too cluttered - it took me about 20 minutes to just find the "print" command on the menu - for some reason they thought it was a good idea to stick it in an obscure place. I guess because it's something we'd use so infrequently.

I've been using Scrivener, and so far I love it.

None of the others have Change Tracker, which I consider essential, so Word it is.

I tried yWriter and several others, but none of them track changes and comments the way Word does.