Wiki for Fiction Writing

Posted by Derek Cornish
Dec 15, 2008 at 02:58 AM

Steve (and JohnK)

I used Notetab Pro for my last writing project. The “outlining” features really only provide a simple Table-of-Contents. But it is surprisingly useful to be able to navigate section headings in this way.

Here are some of the downsides as I recall them:

1. Bookmarks do not work across outline documents (i.e., sections). Even moving out of one section cancels its bookmark(s). This means they are only useful in single documents, not outline (*.otl) ones. There are workarounds for this, but it’s not “out of the box”.

2. Using “undo”: Once one moves out of the section in question, one can no longer undo a previous mistake in that section. This is a major problem. Again, this only applies to *.otl documents.

3. Detailed formatting has to be postponed until the text goes elsewhere (e.g., into Word) - unless, that is, one uses NoteTab as a LaTex editor.

4. The “Paste Board” function sometimes stops working (this may be owing to interference from Zoot). In any case, using a proper clipboard extender like Clipcache is often more useful…

On the positive side, it is a very elegant program, and has its own versioning system - a major plus IMO… I really enjoyed working inside it. I am hoping that the upcoming Zoot 6 will also provide a decent editing environment, while maintaining its own characteristic understated elegance.

Other programs that may be worth looking at are:

http://www.mytreedb.com/treedbnotes_free.html

http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html [no longer being developed, but excellent]

Derek