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The best "virtual index card" software for story planning?
- Thread starter Lunatique
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CherryTree Notes
Font, colors, easy re-arranging and ordering, autosave, passworded if you want
AND IT'S FREE
Font, colors, easy re-arranging and ordering, autosave, passworded if you want
AND IT'S FREE
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I took a look and it doesn't seem to have any actual index card layout features. It looks more like the left-hand side of Scrivener--just hierarchy of folders/files you can rearrange. What I'm looking for is actual index cards layout that allow you to arrange them in columns or rows, but with very specific list of features (as explained in the first post).
Writer's Blocks is the one that came the closest, but had a few quirks I couldn't live with. Here's what it looks like: http://writetofinish.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/writers-block-image.jpg
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Yes, I used Writer's Blocks for a while, and it did a lot of things I really liked, but had some really big failings. (Frex, I recall it was very difficult to add or remove columns.) And it seems to have been effectively abandoned at a fairly early stage. For what I need, Scrivener does the card-managing job much much better.
Lunatique: Excluding dragging cards where you want (on top, for example), you can do everything you need in Word if: 1) you know how to format it right; 2) you don't mind in-document linking (to view the cards on other pages). This process is not for beginners of Word. You need to know how to use bookmarks/in-document hyperlinks. Else, I do not know of software. I do all my work in custom templates I make in Word (excluding mind mapping).
*shudders*
^ and that's from someone who had an @microsoft.com email address for a few years...
-cb
cbenoi1: The process is easy, actually; there is a learning curve though. You can change your orientation to landscape, reduce all 4 margins to 0.5 inches (Page Setup), change Paragraph settings to single line space (and 0 pt before and after spacing). Page one is the index (rows and columns), shorthanded with tabled [001] [002], each with clickable links to the index cards, in the same Word document.... Bookmarks and in-document linking with every page having a way to get back to the index.
It's intra-document (in-document) linking, not inter-document linking. Maybe you are thinking about inter-document, Microsoft Excel worksheet linking between workbooks or Excel documents. That's a mail merge couch for sure.
Intra-dcument linking is easy as pie. Type a word on one page. Insert, Page Break. Type a new word on the second page. Highlight the word, page two. Insert, Bookmark. Name the bookmark; click Add. Click OK. Highlight the word, page one. Ctrl+k, click Place in This Document. Click on the Bookmark you made, hit OK. Done. Click on the word on page one, it will land you at the word on page two. This is intra-document (in-document) linking.
Intra-dcument linking is easy as pie. Type a word on one page. Insert, Page Break. Type a new word on the second page. Highlight the word, page two. Insert, Bookmark. Name the bookmark; click Add. Click OK. Highlight the word, page one. Ctrl+k, click Place in This Document. Click on the Bookmark you made, hit OK. Done. Click on the word on page one, it will land you at the word on page two. This is intra-document (in-document) linking.
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This sounds way more complicated, and much less useful as an organizing tool, than using a tool that's designed to help organize ideas. (For which being able to drag them around and re-organize them is typically a core function.)
Or using a pile of Post-It notes or index cards --- which have an extremely intuitive user interface!
I'd rather be writing. Or use a tool that's meant for that kind of document, like a wiki.
But I'm glad that it works for you.
Maybe I am cheap, when it comes to office supplies.
AW Admin: Absolutely; writing is critical. I do not use the process I posted, but it covered almost all of the original poster's needs.
Helix and benbenberi: It takes patience, for sure. I made a post in the Analog forum. In my response, I noted how I use analog materials for organization, but I added a means to do digital post-its with easy manipulation (drag anywhere on one's desktop).
AW Admin: Absolutely; writing is critical. I do not use the process I posted, but it covered almost all of the original poster's needs.
Helix and benbenberi: It takes patience, for sure. I made a post in the Analog forum. In my response, I noted how I use analog materials for organization, but I added a means to do digital post-its with easy manipulation (drag anywhere on one's desktop).
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Not for plotting but I just started using Trello to try and organise some of my feedback from beta readers and other more general feedback.
As a few of you have warned- I am doing it instead of writing but since I'm currently not writing due to being utterly overwhelmed I'm hoping it will at least lead to real productivity.
I say that having written paper notes and something akin to a plan in Word though so I don't know. It feels more useful than sitting here feeling stupid because I don't know where to start.
As a few of you have warned- I am doing it instead of writing but since I'm currently not writing due to being utterly overwhelmed I'm hoping it will at least lead to real productivity.
I say that having written paper notes and something akin to a plan in Word though so I don't know. It feels more useful than sitting here feeling stupid because I don't know where to start.
There are a number of programs that will do some of those things. I don't recall seeing any that will do all of them.
If you like software then read the reviews and see which is least worst for your desirements.
Personally, I find 3x5 cards on a table top to be faster better cheaper easier than any computer program.
Although I can see the utility of them I don't find them compelling for my using of them even if others swear by them.
And you won't find the perfect one that does everything you want. You will have to settle for least worst based on your desirements.
A table top is very efficient. When the time comes, put all of it into excel.
I use columns in excel for:
line number
time sequence of plot points
reference info columns - who what why when where how as needed to jog my memory
and a separate workbook for character details.
I am astonished, never mind impressed, that you managed to fit a tabletop into Excel.
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