Anything but Scrivener, please!

RBEmerson

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My main gripe with Libre Writer is it won't scroll up or down to the next page break. Currently it scrolls X number of lines. I filed a Bugzilla report/feature request to add "scroll to page break". At the moment the Bugzilla item has been confirmed received, and handed off to someone for verification. More news if there is any.

Particularly using the "book mode" (two pages at a time best use of screen width), scrolling partially makes one page unusable without manually re-scrolling. Grr...
 

RBEmerson

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I thought I read it here, maybe not. In LO Writer, use Customize to change the action associated ("bound to") PgUp and PgDn from the default "previous page" and "next page" respectively. To my naive way of thinking, that should get the job done. It doesn't. I bound PgUp and PgDn to "To Begin of Last Page" and "Begin of Next Page". That brings up Top Of Page, as desired. Repeatedly. To the same place in the displayed page. As desired. But! The ToP is displayed in the middle of the screen! Every time!!! Worse, the Find sub-panel has "click here" buttons that... ToP at the top of the screen. Each and every time. What do those arrows do that "Begin of Xxxx Page" doesn't.

I've filed Bugzilla report on the matter. I can't seem to be able (allowed??) to upload screen grabs that would Explain Everything. So I spend a lot of time trying to do the equivalent of explaining pink to a blind person. Grrr...
 

TrinaM

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FWIW...I mentioned Evernote in the other thread. You mention being off-line and writing. Before I sprung for the pro version of Evernote, I was on the free version and went to Unalaska. Silly me. I hadn't realized that when you get off the plane your phone becomes a brick. I don't carry a laptop, so everything is on the phone. I went to the library and opened my notes. Then left the library. Worked all weekend without any problems. When I got back on the plane...everything sync'd up nicely.

I think my problem is that I *do* write in different fashions for different books. I also like to write on the go a lot. So I need to be able to start working on my desktop, then pick up on my phone, then move back to the desktop when I'm in my office.

I use a lot of index notes and outlines for planning, etc. I've also done some visual notes linked to things like character sketches. I have a lot of fun with it and it has super-charged my productivity.

It probably helps that my to-do list, shopping list, and pretty much my life is ALSO in Evernote.

I used another writing software before Evernote, but the company didn't keep up with software updates. I showed it to a college student friend of mine and he said it reminded him of Evernote. In school, he'd been writing his thesis in Evernote. I decided to try it and once I got my head wrapped around the structure, I loved it.
 

RBEmerson

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I gave up on yWriter. yWriter 7 is a beta. I tried 6. Stable but still... for me, it's a straight jacket.

There's no simple way to look at the work as a whole. That alone lead me to some instances of introducing characters twice, treating significant points differently (e.g., one place it's get rid of everything, another place it's keep it all). The editor itself is... not unlike MS Writer.

There's an extensive discussion about importing RTF files. Write in this editor, organize in that editor.

Because the full story was so thoroughly hacked up, I tossed it. It's beyond fixing.

yWriter...? Pass.
 

VeryBigBeard

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If you're dealing with plot consistency stuff, character appearances, and the like, which from the sound of it you are, I'd suggest trying something akin to what editors do as you revise, and making notes of events and details in a separate document. Corresponding page numbers can help. Then you can round back after a full read-through and address inconsistencies with a wide lens. Don't try to fix everything all at once in one document.

I don't quite know what you mean by "look at the work as a whole" but there's no software that'll do that, at least to my knowledge. It's more a professional reading/research skill, but IMO, a good one for writers to learn. I find this method especially helpful for early re-drafts where I know I've made a bunch of mistakes on the first pass, too. Helps control the inner editor.

No matter what: always, always, always version. Drafts do sometimes get cut up, no matter what software. Plot gets turned around in ways one doesn't expect. Ideally, you can fix it with another draft--there's always another draft--but having a previous version to roll back to is a good safety net.

That, and back-ups on different devices, in the cloud, etc., just in case.
 

SapereAude

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I'm coming to this discussion late, but I wasn't here when it was fresh. If anyone is still interested, I may have something to offer.

I currently have on this computer Word 2003, Word 2016, and Libre Office version ___ (either the latest version, or pretty close to it). I keep Libre Office because I have a friend in Greece who uses it, so I try to keep pace with him "just because." And I keep Word 2003 because I prefer the classic menu to the bloody awful "ribbon" menu system Microsoft foisted off on us with Office 2007. But I won't be getting a newer version of Microsoft Office, because it's too expensive for retired folks -- and I won't become a slave to the subscription model.

But there are more office suites in the freeware universe than Libre office (and its sibling, Open Office). Libre Office, to me, is unusable. It's about as slow as molasses in January, and that's on a fairly new desktop computer with 8 GB or RAM and a solid state drive. Some of its operational features are clunky in the extreme, as well.

It doesn't include a database, so not a complete replacement for Microsoft Office Pro or Libre Office, but there is a very good office suite out of Germany by a company named SoftMaker. It includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentations program. It can be set to save files in either Microsoft .DOCX or Libre Office .ODT format. It also gives you a choice between a classic menu and a "ribbon" menu.

The paid version is SoftMaker office, but they also offer a free version called FreeOffice, which includes most of the functionality of the paid version. There is free tech support through a use forum, which is monitored by the staff regularly. I have FreeOffice on several computers, and the Android version on a Samsung tablet. For those who prefer to work in a regular word processor and who find Libre Office to be too slow and/or too clunky and counter-intuitive, I respectfully suggest giving FreeOffice a look.

https://www.freeoffice.com/en/download

Did I mention that FreeOffice is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux?

On that same page, if you scroll down you can also download their FREE PDF editor program.
 
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