Software. - Page 2

Echo Fiction · 09-15-2008

I bought Final Draft before I ever heard of Celtx. If I had known about it, I probably would've went the freeware route, but I'm happy with FD. I write my "audioplays" in screenplay format. I just make sure I don't write any descriptions that are intended to be seen.

For novels and short stories, I used to write in Word, but since I switched to Macbook, I wrote half a novel in Final Draft, as it was Mac/Win compatible and my software serial number would transfer. I didn't want to spend a lot of money to buy Word all over again.

Jerm · 09-16-2008

I'm having second thoughts about using Celtx now. The absence of the word count is kind of a big deal, considering that's our metric.

I'll see.

Wesley · 09-16-2008

I write almost everything in Kate, which is Linux's equivalent (so it's actually a bit better) to Windows' Notepad. I keep trying other things and keep going back to Kate. Simple, to me, is better.

Jerm · 09-16-2008

For the record, in Windows, I lurv Notepad++. Lovely little program. Tried TextMate on the Mac, which wasn't bad. Did not like the idea of forking over money for it, though.

laura · 09-16-2008

There's a whole forum over at the Nanowrimo page on software for writing. I posted a question on software for Macs and had a few suggestions including http://www.jerssoftwarehut.com/ which I might be using and is free. One nice feature of most of this software is the 'full screen' mode - it fills the whole screen (like watching a DVD) so you have more space to write and less distractions. As far as I can see Celtx doesn't do this. I also can't see a way to have the extra things (notes on the side etc) in Celtx when it's in text mode. At the moment I'm playing with a few different things.

Other software which people seem to be using are Scrivener (you have to pay for but a lot of people seem to think is the best) and ywriter http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html which is free but only for Windows

Betani · 09-24-2008

I've used Rough Draft for the last two years, and I like it. It installs easily on a thumb drive, so I can use it at work on my lunch break, then easily pick up where I left off when I get home.

laura · 10-28-2008

In my search for some software to help me with planning (or prevarication as it's also known!) I came across this very useful software http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ It basically allows you to build your own wiki in a single file which you can either keep on your computer, send to someone else or publish on the web. I've got a contents list on the left (characters, settings, etc) which open up their own stubs containing text, tables, lists, images etc. I can also use tags within each stub to cross reference between items. It's pretty flexible and easy to use, is free and (I think) works on any system. The webpage itself is built using this so you can see what it's like from that. My one problem with it is that tables are tricky to do (you have to get spaces and returns exactly right)

Maybe too late for other nanowrimos, but it could be useful for lots of other things. I've just got to work out all the info to go in it now!

Wesley · 10-29-2008

That looks pretty interesting Laura. I won't be able to use it this year but it may be a very neat thing for future tinkering.