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Word Processors…
I'm curious what word processors people use. In the past I've used various incarnations of MS Word and WordPerfect, but I've since gone open source and went to OpenOffice.org and now LibreOffice.
For those that are unaware LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.org. The Document Foundation, the organization that is responsible for developing LibreOffice, formed after a large portion of the community that developed OOo left due to a dispute with Oracle (the company that owned the intellectual rights to OOo). LibreOffice has a quicker development cycle than it's cousin and it's already implementing some long-sought after features.
Oracle donated OpenOffice.org to the Apache Foundation and it shows little signs of life.
I prefer LibreOffice because it's free and, like most web-browsers around these days, it's capable of using extensions to expand it's features.
EDIT: I've been eyeing Liquid Story Binder for some time. After giving it a whirl last night, I'm not sure I like it. Scrivener for Windows is supposed to be released today. I'll be downloading a trial as soon as it's available and testing it out.
Comments
Scrivener
My writing tool of choice these days is Scrivener. It's an outlining mule with word processing abilities almost equal to MSWord. I also use TextWrangler and TextMate, depending on what exactly I am doing. And because I edit for people who send me .doc and .docx files, I use MSWord, too.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Writing tool of choice
Scrivener looks interesting. Does it use a proprietary file format?
Have delightfully devious day,
Yes
It has a proprietary format but you can also save/export in rtf, txt, html, .doc, .docx, and several others.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Liquid Story Binder
I've been eyeing Liquid Story Binder for some times. I'm finally going to download the trial and give it a spin. If I don't like LSB Scrivener might be the answer. Looks like the Windows version of Scrivener is coming out tomorrow.
Hopefully I like LSB because it's currently half off for NaNoWriMo which makes it cheaper than Scrivener.
Have delightfully devious day,
gotta thank you...
for putting me onto scrivener. i've used it for one and a half novels already. very useful and flexible.
not as think as i smart i am
ooohhhh, NICE
I have been feeling frustrated because of not having a tool set that sets up a novel type project and Scrivener actually sets it up exactly the way I have wanted.
I even found and installed the Linux beta.
[ good until january 1 2016 ]
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Word processors
I started out with a basic word processor on the Commodore C-64 back in 1986 (of which I do not remember the name any more). On switching to the PC platform I briefly check out WordStar, but then settled on WordPerfect 5.x/DOS for a few years. Later, through a teaching gig, I switched to MS-Word 6 for Windows 3.1, moving on through MS-Office97. Then, since I did not have the disposable income to continue upgrading the MS offering, I switched to OpenOffice. I started out with the Windows version, later switching to a Linux platform. And now I also using LibreOffice, both the Linux and the Windows versions in my home network (and also the portable apps version on my USB stick).
The transition from MS-Word97 to OpenOffice/Win to OpenOffice/Linux to LibreOffice/Linux|Win has been virtualy seemless. The few issues have been with fonts, page header/footer formating, master/sub documents and the more advanced (less used) features.
My personal experience is that LibreOffice is a very versatile tool for opening and/or converting text documents between various word processor formats, as well as the different OS platforms.
Also, if you have not upgraded to MS-Word 2008 or later, and you recieve a .docx file, you will be unable to open it. Where as OpenOffice/LibreOffice has no problem opening such documents.
Another plus for me is open source / free software licensing model, that allows me to legally use LibreOffice on as many computers as I like for free (for the download). This is especially import for me, since I administer a home network with several computers, and costs are an important factor in our neck of the woods.
Jessica
actually...
MS Office 2007 was when docx etc were introduced. Which, coincidentally, is the word processor I'm primarily using right now. It's an annoying little bugger, and I may try LibreOffice at some point.
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
Just goes to show how long I
Just goes to show how long I have been away from MS products. ;-)
Microsoft Compatibility Pack
Actually, Microsoft released a Compatibility Pack which allows Office 2000, XP, and 2003 to open and work with .docx files.
It can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylan...
You first need to install the various Service Packs, then the Compatibility Pack. That's what I'm doing for my sister; me, I use LibreOffice, my most recent MS Office is 2000.
Yours,
JohnBobMead
Yours,
John Robert Mead
Grammar checker
I use MS Word 2007. I have tried Open Office but gave it up because I wasn't happy with a few minor things, such as the grammar checker.
OK, MS Word isn't perfect, but it pulls up plenty of silly typos, for example it notices the misplaced comma ,which OO does not. Word also seems better at dragging text to different places, so you can quickly rearrange a sentence.
I would be interested to know the advantages of some of the other systems people mention, eg Liquid Story Binder.
LSB & Scrivener
Liquid Story Binder and Scrivener are word processors geared toward writers. I've downloaded a trial of each and found Liquid Story binder's interface annoying. Scrivener has a much cleaner interface, but has fewer features. Of course these are just cursory observations I haven't used either for very long (less than 24 hours). I was able to open Scrivener and start using it almost immediately. When I opened LSB I had to refer to several tutorials to figure out how to use certain features.
These videos will give you a good idea of what each are capable of.
Scrivener basics
Liquid Story Binder basic <--- This is just the first one there are at least 4 that I saw.
Have delightfully devious day,
Grammar and Spell checker
As long as you are working in a mono-lingual environment (i.e. writing in one language only) I agree that the grammar checker from MS is very good. But as soon as your work becomes multi-lingual, I have found MS to be very difficult. To the point of suggesting the instalation (and prior purchase) of a localised version for each language. And if you require three or more languages, that quickly becomes very expensive and also unwieldy. Additional language packs are virtually impossible to get in South America.
Mean while LibreOffice offers many different spell checkers. To the point of localising them to the variations in different countries (e.g. "Januar" in Germany and "Jänner" in Austria). Though the grammar checker is still in its infancy, it is comming along as an add-on quite nicely. Thesaurus add-ons are also in development for the different languages and localisations.
As for dragging and dropping text around, I will just state that I am using that extensively with LibreOffice 3.4.2 on Linux.
I will also admit that the initial switch to OpenOffice took some getting used to. But many of the stumbling blocks have been cleared in the later releases, especially now with the 3.4.x release.
At least to me personally, the price tag of LibreOffice wins hands down over some the quirks and deficencies as compared to MS-Word. Though others have different criteria for selecting their tools, and in my book, they may do so freely.
Jessica
.
P.S. I do not want to start a flame war. Therefor I will accept and acknowledge the weaknesses of word processor of choice. But on the other hand I will also point out the strengths as I see them.
Word processors and speech recognition
If anyone is still reading… I still use the MS Word bundled with Office 2003 for one main reason: that version of Office comes with a little-known (because it does not install from the CD by default, but must be manually selected) speech recognition module that really works. For a time I subscribed to a speech recognition mailing list inhabited by business and medical professionals who used the software to dictate letters and other documents. Consensus on the list was that the MS speech in Office 2003 was more accurate and reliable than better known systems such as Dragon Naturally Speaking. It was also considered to be better than the speech recognition that MS was planning to include with Windows Vista.
I used speech recognition with Word 2003 extensively the last time I was in school to type up lecture notes. I found it to be enormously helpful, saving time and reducing stress to my fingers and wrists. The sound card in my notebook computer was good enough that I could work on my notes at school, between classes.
I don’t do nearly as much writing now, so seldom use the speech recognition. I’ve thought of installing Open Office (glad to know about the LibreOffice fork), but Word 2003 is still good enough for what little I do. Office 2003 also came with an Optical Character Recognition module for scanning paper documents into digital format, but I have never tried it.
I've tried voice recognition
I've tried voice recognition myself, but my tendency to rephrase often in mid-sentence frankly made the whole thing became rather awkward and cumbersome. For those who don't suffer from this particular shortcoming I imagine voice recognition could work quite well.
I do sometimes use Word when I need to hand word files natively and the Office 2007 version is terrible. I haven't used later versions, but from what I've seen of the application layout and interface of those versions, 2003 is the latest version I think I can use without getting a strong urge to tear all my hair out.
Have delightfully devious day,