Software for Authors

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
May 19, 2011 at 07:08 PM

Hugh wrote:
>I’m sure there’s a simple division here between fiction and non-fiction writers.
>Fiction writers may be able to get away without using MS Word (although
>round-tripping documents with an editor without “Track Changes” may be difficult).

I’m sure there are alternatives that allow one to focus more on the actual writing. Though I don’t write fiction, I’ve seen tools like PageFour http://www.softwareforwriting.com/ that can take Snapshot Copies of work in progress. And with disk capacity being cheap these days one can afford saving versions as separate files.

>Non-fiction writers are much more likely to need all the bells and whistles that Word
>can provide (or may even need to go as far as a desktop publisher such as InDesign).

I know academics that swear by Tex/Latex and can’t even imagine writing in a WYSIWYG environment.

A problem I see in Word is that anyone can use it, without having the slightest idea of what constitutes a good layout. I remember a professor I worked with, who produced an official report of brilliant content, laid out in Comic Sans MS font.