Mac Apps

Hi guys, Ive been away for a while (family stuff, knee surgeries, life), and am feeling the need to write again.
Because of that I'm shifting from a MS based computer to a Mac.
My problem is that when I check the app store there are literally dozens of possibilities, and without actually testing them I don't which to go for.
Not only am I looking for something I can use for submissions here, but also in self publishing.

Almost anything. I have used MS Word, then copy pasted into the submission box here. For larger works (novel-sized), I've used Scrivener, which allows you to move scenes around easily and has many other lovely features. I like Pages better than MS Word, and it allows you to export docs as Word formats, but also as ePubs, PDFs, as well as text.

Pages interfaces nicely with its iPad equivalent. But you can use Pages on an iPad, for example, then export the file as a Word .doc or ePub or PDF to your computer via email (and iCloud).

BogartsBoss said:

Hi guys, Ive been away for a while (family stuff, knee surgeries, life), and am feeling the need to write again.
Because of that I'm shifting from a MS based computer to a Mac.
My problem is that when I check the app store there are literally dozens of possibilities, and without actually testing them I don't which to go for.
Not only am I looking for something I can use for submissions here, but also in self publishing.

Click to expand...

LibreOffice includes a full-featured word processor that works well with many different file formats. There is a Mac OS X version, but I don't think there's anything for iOS.

legerdemer said:

Pages interfaces nicely with its iPad equivalent. But you can use Pages on an iPad, for example, then export the file as a Word .doc or ePub or PDF to your computer via email (and iCloud).

Click to expand...

I use pages, and I wanted to easily switch between my Macbook and my iPad, so I tried using iCloud--for about two days, because it pissed me off.

If you've tried it, did you find that it would change your formatting? I had to go through and re-italicize everything.

mac apps

EverLux said:

I use pages, and I wanted to easily switch between my Macbook and my iPad, so I tried using iCloud--for about two days, because it pissed me off.

If you've tried it, did you find that it would change your formatting? I had to go through and re-italicize everything.

Click to expand...

I have a tendency to stay away from cloud storage - I guess I just dislike the idea of not having my work not completely in my hands.

EverLux said:

I use pages, and I wanted to easily switch between my Macbook and my iPad, so I tried using iCloud--for about two days, because it pissed me off.

If you've tried it, did you find that it would change your formatting? I had to go through and re-italicize everything.

Click to expand...

In truth I haven't gone back and forth that much with formatted text, as opposed to just straight text, but I also never use iCLoud, because I've screwed up my account and can't access it.

So I email myself the files. When I'm on the iPad, if you hover over the file, it will ask you what app you want to open the file in, and Pages is a choice. I haven't had any problems going either direction, but I haven't noticed the itals issue.

BogartsBoss said:

I have a tendency to stay away from cloud storage - I guess I just dislike the idea of not having my work not completely in my hands.

Click to expand...

If you mind, see my post about emailing it between devices in my response to EverLux.

BogartsBoss said:

Hi guys, Ive been away for a while (family stuff, knee surgeries, life), and am feeling the need to write again.
Because of that I'm shifting from a MS based computer to a Mac.
My problem is that when I check the app store there are literally dozens of possibilities, and without actually testing them I don't which to go for.
Not only am I looking for something I can use for submissions here, but also in self publishing.

Click to expand...

If you want a word processor, LibreOffice, Pages, and MS Word for Mac are all popular choices.

I use MS Word because I need good compatibility with Word and other Office products. I do technical editing that involves things like embedded mathematical formulae, so when I get a document that has glitches I need to be sure that it's a problem with the document and not a compatibility issue with my word processor.

LibreOffice is free, and from what I hear, pretty good. I don't use it because of the abovementioned issues, but unless you're trying to do something fancy, it should be fine. Since it's free, you might install LO first and try it out; if it doesn't meet your needs, it hasn't cost you anything.

Pages... I got this cheap with my laptop, but to me it wasn't a big improvement on the free options and it still had some compatibility issues with Word. Might be good if you're looking for high compatibility with other Apple software.

Another product you might consider is Scrivener. This is designed for complex writing projects. You can do stuff like:

- plan your story structure
- structure your work into acts, scenes, etc.
- move scenes around
- tag scenes according to content (e.g. mark all the scenes where Jane appears, so that when you decide to change Jane from a vampire elf to a robotic dinosaur you can find those scenes easily)
- select which parts of the work to output.

For example, say I want to write an X-rated story for Literotica, but I also want to publish a PG version on another site. I can write an X-rated and a PG-rated version of the relevant scenes, tag them accordingly, and then generate the X and PG versions of the story easily. Later, if I need to go back and change some of the shared parts of the story, I can rerun that output so the changes apply to both; I don't need to maintain two separate versions.

Scrivener is not a word processor. It does have basic word-processing functionality, but when it comes to fancy formatting etc. the expectation is that you use Scrivener to write the text, then output that as a Word doc (or whatever) and play around with fonts etc. in your word-processor of choice. Its purpose is more as an organiser/planner.

I wouldn't use Scrivener for a short story, but if you're writing something novel-length you might give it a try.

Time Machine: not a writing program, but an automated backup program for peace of mind. Should probably come pre-installed, though you'll want an external drive for it.

GIMP: free graphics editor. If you're doing your own covers for e-publishing, you'll want something like this. It's not the most intuitive of programs but there are good tutorials around.

mac Apps

Thanks everyone for the input but this thread just went moot for me as the Mac Pro went totally black screen on me after less than two weeks possession.
Needless to say - it's going back!
I have Word on my PC, it's familiar, and I won't be wasting a lot of time learning a new process.