Writing tool for MacOs, or for Windows-a question.

Posted by grapeshot
Aug 21, 2010 at 04:59 PM

I guess I’m pretty late in adding my 2 cents, but here it is anyway.

MS Word (and its free, open source counterpart, Open Office) are word processors that let you do both writing AND formatting. They are both very powerful, and ubiquitous. Nearly everyone on earth uses them, and the Word file format, “.doc”, is universal. However, they’re actually not that great for either just writing, or just formatting, and because they’re programs that try to do both things, end up being over-complicated. Both MS Word (or rather, MS Office) and Open Office are available for Windows or Macs. (Open Office is also available for Linux. There is also a version of Open Office called NeoOffice, which runs better on a Mac.) iWork is available for Mac, and is Mac’s equivalent of MS Office, and includes a word processor. These are all the heavy hitters in the Office Suite application world. Apart from Open Office (and NeoOffice), they’re also very pricy, and overkill for just writing.

If Word seems overly complicated (and no one would argue this), then there are a couple of free alternatives that are simpler but will still do the job. Take a look at AbiWord, Jarte, or PolyEdit Lite. (All Windows only, I’m afraid.) Then there’s also GoogleDocs, which lets you write in the Word format—but you will be doing it over the internet and using a browser for an interface. I have never been quite able to cotton to this way of writing, but one advantage is that you could keep your work stored off of your computer and have it available anywhere you can get a web connection. Some people like this for when they’re doing long-distance collaboration. These still are applications that try to do both writing and formatting, but they’re less bloated and use less of your system’s resources. Plus they’re free.

For just writing, you only need a minimal text editor - one that can do some minor formatting like italics, or bold, and some paragraph formatting. Beyond that it gets too complicated when all you want to do is get the words down and all organized in the right order so it makes sense to the reader. At a minimum, you also want to be able to do some printing with it, as most people find that proof-reading or editing is easier with a printed copy of their work.

Picking writing software is very personal. Everyone has different writing styles. I, for example, almost always start with pen and paper, and sort of noodle around with ideas until I feel that I have developed them to a point where they are intelligible or concrete. This is especially true when I’m writing something fairly technical but for a non-technical audience (i.e. upper management) and I’m really struggling with how to be both thorough and clear. Then, depending on what I’m writing, I switch to yWriter (free, excellent, and for Windows only), or MS Word. yWriter is especially good for fiction writing, letting you track characters, objects, and timelines, and also word count, and is designed to make sure you’ve always got your work backed up six ways to Sunday.

I have also used NoteTabLite (free, excellent, and for Windows only), which allows me to keep separate sections on different tabs. Windows itself comes with not only NotePad, which is a very minimal text editor, but also WordPad, which allows you to do the minimal formatting that you would want for just plain writing. However, neither of these do much for helping you keep track of different chapters, sections, or word count—thinks that are important for longer form writing.

You can always use note taking software for this sort of writing, too. I’ve used Keynote (yes, it’s ancient, but I love it) and TiddlyWiki for the early stages of my writing, and then cutting and pasting the texts into other writing software.

Many people like to use a minimal, barebones writing application which fills up their entire computer screen. In theory, this prevents distractions. There is WriteMonkey for Windows, and WriteRoom for Mac. (WriteMonkey also has old-fashioned typewriter sounds available, which can either be a huge distraction, or a fun way to feel like you’re a budding Hemingway or Fitzgerald. Just light up a cigar and knock back a Cuba Libre.)

I had a Mac for several years, but I hated it, and rarely ever used it, so I can’t speak about Mac software—except to say that it seemed to me that there was a far wider variety of software applications and a larger range of price points for the Windows platform. This could make selecting software at once harder, as the choice could sometimes paralyze me, or easier, as I could find the exact software that suited me and my pocketbook the best. On the other hand, most Mac applications are highly polished, and some people find this aesthetically inspiring.

Formatting—which is to get the text into a form that a publisher would want—is another specific task, and usually easier to do after you’ve written your piece. Many people write using some sort of text or writing software, and then import their work into Word (or Open Office) and use that for the final presentation formatting—setting margins, paragraph indents, line spacing, fonts and font sizes, headings, page numbering, footnotes, etc.. For technical articles that use lots of formulas, some swear by LaTeX, or some variant of LaTeX, such as MikTex, MacTex (for the Mac), or LyX. (I’ve tried these, but found them to be extremely complicated to learn, and really most suitable for academic writing.)