How I use Ideamason - and why

Posted by Hugh Pile
Oct 19, 2006 at 11:00 AM

Yes, many thanks for the IM review. It’s prompted me to give it an extensive trial.

It’s encouraging that software developers are moving towards designing a more complete writing environment. However at the same time it’s very frustrating. The ideal outlines (no pun intended) of such an environment are becoming clearer and clearer, yet progress towards them seems very slow, at least for the Windows platform.

All the products in this - admittedly niche - market appear to be some way from maturity. All lack some essential functions, necessitating a process of “cut and shut” to get different programmes to work together, compensating for each other’s failings. The use of IdeaMason for fiction writing - a use for which it’s possibly the best product around, but for which it’s certainly not designed - must be one symptom of this.