What software can you not do without?

Well . . . after my computer was stolen, along with a draft I was very excited about, I switched to Google Docs, but if you're offline that's not a great solution. (Insert PSA: Save Often, Sweetie. Back up your work in a separate place from wherever you put your computer.) I love it because I can access it from any computer.

I haven't tried Scrivener (I've heard it's really good, please update and tell us what you think), I also know that I prefer to have complete control over organization and create my own documents instead of using a program to organize things. On the other hand, I'm also a hot mess.

I sometimes use TextEdit (the Mac's basic word processor) because I appreciate how non-frilly it is. I can't spend a lot of procrastination time messing with formatting.

In college I experienced a lot of compatibility issues with LibreOffice (yes, even when I saved as a .docx) and I sometimes couldn't read professors' comments if they'd used Track Changes or something. For that reason I'm considering investing in Word when it comes time to query.

I'll be following this to hear other people's thoughts and recommendations. Thanks for starting it!

Browsers.
Google search.
Scrivener.
Email.

for writing:
MS Word
Scrivener

for social media creating:
Canva
Lumen5
BookBrush

Dropbox

I like yWriter. I like that I can edit just the scene I'm working on and not have to look at anything else. There are some other features that are useful, like the ability to have character descriptions with images, as well as locations, notes, status, reports, and you can drag and drop scenes from one position to another or to another chapter, which is a big help when you need to do a reorg. And there are some other features that I can't think of off the bat that are useful. And it's fast. It starts in just a few seconds, so if you just want to make a quick edit, you don't have to sit and wait.

Plus, it's free!

I used to use WordPerfect for writing fiction, but it was difficult to check WP files on my iPhone, so now I draft in plain text. I use NoteTab Std, which has an Outline file similar to Scrivener, whereby I can divide up stories into chapters and shuffle the chapters around. But the Outline file shows up as plain text on my iPhone, so I can easily read it there.

For creating e-books, I use Netscape Composer (circa 2000, *cough cough*), followed by the wonderful Jutoh. For covers and banners, I use Photoshop and InDesign. For my day job writing, I have to use Microsoft Word; the only saving grace about Word is that it isn't quite as bad as in previous years.

If I had to choose one piece of software, it would be NoteTab Std. It even has an optional menu that allows me to easily insert html code; I occasionally create web pages that way.

An old copy of Word from the mid-90s that I keep running inside virtual machines because all the possible substitutes have at least one nagging little thing wrong with them that distracts me from trying to write (I still have the installation floppy discs for that version of Office—there are ~30 of them—although I don't know if enough of them are still readable to install the program directly from them).

Other than that, I've probably gone through at least two or three programs in every possible category, including operating systems.

Scrivener
Dropbox
I've found that I need it to look nicely formatted to continue writing, which Word wasn't doing for me- just looked like a massive word dump.

I use Scrivener. It doesn't suit everybody, but I like the ease with which i can move scenes or chapters around in my project.

If you are going to check out the trial version, I suggest you use the blank template for now. You'll get a draft, a research, and a trash folder and I think this is much easier to get your head around.

I cannot do without DropBox because it has every book I've written in the past 12 years, and the word processor I use depends entirely on whether I have an internet connection or not. I like Word and I have a copy of it, but I also use Google Docs. I wrote 17,000 words of one of my manuscripts in Google Docs, and it's pretty good.

I like dropbox because I have the same file structure set up on all my PCs, so anything I save in the dropbox hierarchy is automatically available on all my PCs, as long as there's wifi.

Word

Just LibreOffice, and google drivefor backups (dropbox would also work).

I write in Linux so I don't feel like my whole computer environment is "corporate" somehow... but that's a weird need.

I've been using Google Docs for editing, though I hate the concept of putting my stuff in the docs, it's very convenient for editors.

Paint.net, which sux because I've been using a Mac the last few years. Pinta is ok, but not the same.

I actually write in Evernote.

Also use: Dropbox.

I tried Scrivener, but found it got in the way of my process.

Some of my friends use Google Docs, so I've used those for editing with friends. Some wonderful features there and they interconnect nicely with Evernote.

The biggest plus for Evernote is that I can work on my phone when I'm out, then switch to my desktop when I get home. I recently traveled without a laptop because my phone had all I needed on it. (I do have a widget to allow me to hook it to a TV, keyboard, and mouse...) My life is just a little hectic. If I have a few minutes to write in line or stuck waiting for my daughter, I want to be able to pull out my writing and get to work.

I do also use OpenOffice (cousin of LibreOffice). When I get down to final production, I use Sigil and Adobe InDesign.

I use Gimp for graphics, or Canva. I love Canva.

I've come to not rely on any computer to be working from one day to the next. With everything stored in Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, etc... I can completely swap out the machine and be back to work in not very long at all. Sadly, I live about 2 hours from a decent computer store, so there's THAT. But once I get the machine to my desk, setup is not bad at all.

I do have the paid version of Evernote, so I have access even when I'm offline.

I use Scrivener for writing. I find it incredibly helpful for project organization. I use many of the features, but particularly like the customizable binder, various view modes, document notes, comments, and snapshots. I save my Scrivener project on iCloud drive, that combined with the document auto saves to disk, ensure that my work always exists locally and in the cloud for redundancy. It also has statistics so I can see reports on productivity.

Antidote 10 for dictionary, grammar correction, and content structure analysis. The analysis is nice for any amount of text, from a few sentences to an entire novel. It provides such detail as counts, error types, tenses, conjugation, and more. The geek in me likes that.

Apple Notes for just about anything and everything, including jotting down thoughts I want to incorporate into my book that come to me while away from the computer, notes for various subjects of study, personal stuff, and so much more.

I use Dropbox for file sharing, this synchronises across my different devices that I use for writing.
I use Grammarly as a word editor when not using MS Word itself, again depending on online or offline activity.

I use paint.net for any art and just to play with graphic design, its a great free tool and the plugin library is extensive.

I probably use Evernote more than anything else, but also google docs, libreoffice, final draft

If I had to pick a single piece of software, I'd pick Bare Bones BBedit; it's a text editor, it supports syntax coloring for CSS/HTML/XML/JavaScropt/Perl/pretty much everything, and Markdown. It includes an SFTP/FTP client.

But while I use and love BBEdit, and Scrivener and Bear (iOS and macOS), I still also write by hand a lot.

I use the latest version of Word - I have an Office365 subscription through my job and so that combined with OneDrive means that my files are in the cloud and not only saved locally - but can still be access through file explorer and I can also work offline. I format each scene as a heading, which means that I can easily view them all in the Navigation pane, which makes it easier to find things.

I also periodically back up the file to a micro SD card in my laptop and also copy it to a draft email in Gmail - just to be safe!

I also have excel spreadsheets set up to track my progress (both writing and editing)

I have a long commute, so I upload whatever chapter I'm working on into Google Docs, then port it over to Natural Read (a text-to-speech application). As I creep along the 405, I listen to my work, pause it, and dictate fixes (missed words, botched use of tense, sentences needing to be turned inside-out, etc.). First thing each morning, I have fixes waiting for me.

I really like Scrivener, quite excited to see the new features in windows v3.