Question for the Writers

[Nagoff]

As a software bod who works mainly in the realm of document management systems, I'm curious as to what software (if any!) the writers in the forum use for managing their work.
What editor/word processor do you use?
How do you handle versioning and backup of stories?
Anything else you use or wish you had to help you with your writing?

[Magnus Bergqvist]

I use Word. I frequently make use of the spellchecker and the grammar-checker when writing novels. Would like to have some neat index-system where one could put all the stuff that one encounters in the course of research or things one think might be used at later date. Nope, I am not going to set up a database for it

Backups... Hmm, I take backup-copies sometimes of my documents. which reminds me I am definetly overdue for that. Need to buy more dvd's to backup all my files.

/Magnus

[ed]

i use ms word exclusively. any time i create a draft for review or submission to something, i copy the original file and rename the copy [title] draft [x]. i do this to preserve the counter of how long i've been working on something.

if somebody would create a versioning app that did this quickly & efficiently--in the way that perhaps savegame auto-naming works--but wasn't also the size of a small brontosaurus, that would be a great boon.

ed

[Rhakir]

I use MS Word. Have used other word processors over the years, but have found Word to be more user-friendly and easy to manipulate. Now if only I had a better system for backing things up and saving them...

ed - I've not forgotten about looking for my old writing. I did look. And it is all long gone, unfortunately. Even the backup discs... =(

[ed]

i'm very sorry to hear that, rhak.

ed

[Nagoff]

A couple of follow up questions as everyone seems to use word....

Do you use the 'track changes' features at all?
If you submit stuff, do most places/websites take word docs as a standard format or do you end up just Copy/Pasting stuff into text formats?

I've come to rely on the diff/merge features of version control software and the idea of not being able to easily find what I altered last Friday fills me with horror.... my own answer to the original q is that I use emacs/latex and svn - can you tell I'm a geek ;)

[Kalzazz]

Notepad mostly

I switch to word when preparing to post/submit something so I can spellcheck etc and do word count

Or if I need weird font thingies like the micro symbol

[ed]

if i am working in conjunction w/ folks who also use word and for whom the track changes feature adds any value (e.g., peer-reviewed things as in the case of a collaborative project i'm doing), absolutely. when i submit my stuff to literotica, my editor and i use track changes as well but actually submitting work to that site requires the use of HTML.

my experience however may not exactly by typical.

ed

[Lost Soul]

I use Word, and I usually don't track changes when writing fiction. If I was writing something collaborative, I would, though.

[Rhakir]

i'm very sorry to hear that, rhak.

ed


It happens, unfortunately. Might've been during the last move...

[Haze]

I use word almost exclusively and very rarely use the track changes features of it though perhaps I should.

[Magnus Bergqvist]

Never use the tracking-thing. Not even when I proof-read stuff (stuff that has been printed: 1 fantasybook and one supplement about GMing for RPG's. Things not rpinted yet: 2 more books (sequels to the first), and some rpgs made just for fun). But then I mark my comments in a different colour and put them in conjuncture with the text in question. before sending them back to the writer.

/Magnus

[Origen]

I use MS Word. I know I'm supposed to be all stickin' it to the Man, and stuff, but it's a good product with a long development history. (That said, I use Office 2007 beta at work, and Word reshuffled their features to a maddening degree.)

I don't use the feature to track document changes. To be completely honest, that feature is most useful when you have multiple authors. My first first of a document will generally be Whatever01.doc. When I feel I've made enough changes to warrant a new document, I will Save as and name that document Whatever02.doc. So if I need to back up, or deleted something that I need later, I can. I also give a sufficiently long story a directory of its own.

[Parzival]

Word. "Save as". Versions only in unusual circumstances.

[Hitcher]

AbiWord (http://www.abisource.com/). Don't track changes.

For notekeeping, I either use notepad or treeline (http://www.bellz.org/treeline/).

If I'm going to upload something to a web site, I like NVu (http://www.nvu.com) but I also used to use 1st Page 2000 (http://www.evrsoft.com/).

[BattleNymph]

I use Word and Movie Magic Screenwriter myself.

For tracking, I save dated versions to disk and harddrive.

[Detritus]

I use either MS Word or TextEdit. For personal stuff it's usually TextEdit on my OS X box. If I need to keep track of versions, I put the date in the file name, and maybe a letter if there's more than one version for a given date.

[Archaelos]

I use MS-Word 2000. On occassion, I use Notepad for some ideas. I burn CD backups of my work at dated intervals, so that I can recover changes made over time. I don't use any versioning or change tracking features of Word.

[ldygmr1]

I also use word.

With my extra window for Thesuarus and dictionary on command.

[Janet]

I use TextEdit. Mac user.

[JasonStarfire]

I use TextEdit. Mac user.

I use Notepad, KEdit, or vi depending on the system I'm on, and what I'm typing. If I need it to look pretty, I use Word or Open Office.