Author David Hewson on his latest software set up

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Dec 9, 2012 at 07:59 PM

@ Lawrence Osborn wrote:
>I thought Hewson’s article was interesting, though he seems to be
>surprisingly uncritical of Word 2013 as an editing tool. I have read
>reviews of it that suggest that in some respects it is less suited to
>that role than older versions of Word.

My first impression is that, like most programs that have gone from running as (local) software to (Software as a Service) webware, it is unlikely to satisfy users of its previous reincarnations.

@ Franz
> I sold my last Macintosh (a Mac Mini) a few weeks ago because I wanted to trial Curio 8
> but it wouldn’t run on OS X 10.6 and my Mini did not support 10.8 and I couldn’t find 10.7
> for a reasonable price. So: Goodbye to Mac (still love my iPad 2), hello Windows 7 (not 8).

This is one of those instances when the “it just works” motto takes on a whole new perspective…

> I find myself using the outliner pane in Word 2010 more and more - for the manuscripts
>my publishers want to be in DOCX and DOC. LibreOffice’s Navigator pane pales in contrast
> to Word - which is not easy to confess for me, though.

I only started using Word because just about every client I work with uses it. I bought 2010 only this summer, along with a cheap notebook to carry around. The navigation pane was a breath of fresh air. It’s quite remarkable how long it took Microsoft to get it right.

@ Foolness
I’m quite prolific in trying out software but not as prolific a writer. So I’ll take an advice or two from people like Hewson and James Fallows anytime. Such advice may be taken in principle and not in its specific application. “Choose the few tools you need, then focus on what matters most: the work in hand” does not necessarily mean “choose the particular tools I chose (for my job)”. And I can only speak for myself when I say that Thoreau’s “simplify, simplify” is something I need to keep in mind.