What writing software do you prefer?

[MillieDynamite]

You can still download the products. Unfortunately, I cannot remember how you do this. My dad got a new computer, and we worked it out one weekend. He hates Word online for writing. So do I!

So apparently, I've no longer got access to a downloaded Office product, meaning that all of a sudden I've apparently got to start wrapping my head around Word Online?

In the past, I've just typed in Word, uploaded my submissions, and never had to worry about things like copying and pasting into the Lit submission portal. All my formatting has always come through intact. Clearly, that involved a file upload directly from my hard drive.

If Word is now going to be an online product in my life, does that change my submission any? I assume it'll save my story in The Haze somewhere, but how would I upload that to Lit? I'm fine with using Google Docs now, too, if that's any easier...

Essentially, I'm looking to be able to simply type somewhere and then upload it directly upon submission, without having to mess around with html tags. Failing that, I'm fine with typing (into Docs, say) and then schlepping the text over to the Lit portal... but, again, I'd rather not mess with html.

 

[Voboy]

You can still download the products. Unfortunately, I cannot remember how you do this. My dad got a new computer, and we worked it out one weekend. He hates Word online for writing. So do I!

Yes, I can download it. But I won't pay for it. It's hard, being a skinflint.

With MS Word Online you can do "Save as" then "Download a local copy" then attach that file to your literotica story submission. It's a real MS Word document, so would preserve italics and the other basic formatting allowed in stories the same as if created using the downloaded version of MS Word.

Whether you trust big brother Microsoft and their various gov't and law enforcement partners with having access to your stories is another matter. I don't. I write on a local computer using offline software like LibreOffice, SmartEdit and FocusWriter, all of which can save to MS Word format.

So... I'm dense, but if you'll humor me, how is that local copy saved if Word isn't on the drive? Does it save it in such a way that one can't open it and modify it, like a PDF?

My main alternative will probably be GoogleDocs, which I'm already accustomed to... but I'm leery about giving Google any more access than I want to give Microsoft. It's all quite frustrating.

 

[Devil_PS]

I use Google Docs as I find myself typing stories on my phone more often than my laptop.

...Yes, even when at work.

 

[Voboy]

I use Google Docs as I find myself typing stories on my phone more often than my laptop.

...Yes, even when at work.

I'm not averse to that, but how do you submit it? As a file? Or do you have to select all the text, copy it, and paste it into the field on the portal?

 

[Devil_PS]

I'm not averse to that, but how do you submit it? As a file? Or do you have to select all the text, copy it, and paste it into the field on the portal?

I mean there is a doc converter but I tend to copy/paste and edit the draft.

 

[Voboy]

I mean there is a doc converter but I tend to copy/paste and edit the draft.

Thank you!

Do you need to do anything special with italics and such?

 

[SyleusSnow]

So... I'm dense, but if you'll humor me, how is that local copy saved if Word isn't on the drive? Does it save it in such a way that one can't open it and modify it, like a PDF?

My main alternative will probably be GoogleDocs, which I'm already accustomed to... but I'm leery about giving Google any more access than I want to give Microsoft. It's all quite frustrating.

If you had a local copy of MS Word or anything else capable of reading MS Word files, yes you could open and edit the local copy. But the idea is you do all your writing and editing in MS Word online, saving it to their OneDrive "cloud" storage (the defauilt... it saves automagically).

Only when your story is perfect and ready to submit to Literotica would you download a copy it to your computer. It's only a copy... a duplicate. The original is still kept stored online in OneDrive. Then you upload that copy it to Lit via the story submission page, exactly the same as if you'd created it on MS Word installed on your computer.

Once uploaded to Lit, you can delete the copy you downloaded. If you needed to make changes later, make them to the online version, then download a copy again re-submit to Lit.

You can do the same with Google Docs... work on it online then download a copy of the final version in MS Word format.

Privacy-wise, I trust microsoft more than google, since microsoft's revenue isn't completely tied to selling every shred of information they can glean about you.

 

[Voboy]

If you had a local copy of MS Word or anything else capable of reading MS Word files, yes you could open and the local copy. But the idea is you do all your writing and editing in MS Word online, saving it to their OneDrive "cloud" storage (the defauilt... it saves automagically).

Only when your story is perfect and ready to submit to Literotica would you download a copy it to your computer. It's only a copy... a duplicate. The original is still kept stored online in OneDrive. Then you upload your copy it to Lit via the story submission page, exactly the same as if you'd created it on a local copy of MS Word.

Once uploaded to Lit, you can delete the copy you downloaded. If you needed to make changes later, make them to the online version, then download a copy again re-submit to Lit.

You can do the same with Google Docs... work on it online then download a copy of the final version in MS Word format.

Privacy-wise, I trust microsoft more than google, since microsoft's revenue isn't completely tied to selling every shred of information they can glean about you.

Thank you so much!

 

[Devil_PS]

Thank you!

Do you need to do anything special with italics and such?

I just need to understand the coding in my drafts to then add things like that in the site.

 

[tenyari]

I use LibreOffice. It's free and it's on my hard drive so I control the files. It can save to and open a lot more formats that Microsoft's product - which has been handy when dealing with very old files back when I was exploring options on Mac that were attempting to compete with Microsoft before getting randomly canceled. Apple had this habit of canceling a version of Pages and making it so the new form of Pages couldn't even open the old version's files. I originally went to OpenOffice (what LibreOffice came out of) simply to get those things open again.

Now that I'm on a PC, I just stayed with LibreOffice because I don't need to pay a monthly fee to use my own files...

I can see a lot of benefit to Google Docs if you're wary about data loss. And that therefore would make that my second choice if I needed one.

 

[Handley_Page]

I use my desk-top PC, so I use Word.
However, there's a new version (7.4) of Libre Office out now. . . . .

 

[SyleusSnow]

Now that I'm on a PC, I just stayed with LibreOffice because I don't need to pay a monthly fee to use my own files...

I can see a lot of benefit to Google Docs if you're wary about data loss. And that therefore would make that my second choice if I needed one.

I also prefer LibreOffice and other locally installed software. Does everything I need, especially now that ProWritingAid supports LibreOffice directly.

One thing to be wary of with Google Docs especially: Google can and does delete accounts for little or no discernable reason. When that happens, all files stored in Google Docs ("google drive") are permanently erased. There is no process for appeal, no one to contact and no way to get anything back. They've also been caught deleting individual files that their algorithms thought were copyrighted or otherwise "bad".

So keep local offline copies of everything you store in Google Docs. Same for Word Online and other "cloud" services, though microsoft seems to be far less random at deleting accounts.

 

[jsmiam]

So apparently, I've no longer got access to a downloaded Office product, meaning that all of a sudden I've apparently got to start wrapping my head around Word Online?…

It’s confusing. “Office home and student” (that’s what they call it) does still exist and can be purchased and “owned” for US $149, rather than being a yearly subscription. Total cost of ownership is lower after a year or two, but it doesn’t automatically stay current with new features the way “office 365” does. (It’ll get security updates for a while, but new features, not really)

For software similar to the good ole days, that’s the closest Microsoft comes to it. Libre office as mentioned elsewhere is very good too. Switching isn’t hard.

The old office you had technically wasn’t free way back when. People end up with it through a multitude of possible channels.

If only things could stay simple. Computer crime though, now that it’s enemy nations and professional ransomware perpetrators, means that keeping old software can be risky too. So it’s not as simple as do things the old way either. :-/

 

[PersonalFavors]

When I read the stories here they look like text. Do you actually need an editor with tricks to make it publish a news story or magazine article?
Grammar is not corrected but you can add a spell checker. Heck there may even be a grammar check tool. You have to add it yourself. I use it to check code when I write. I add the spell checker when I add XML, json and whatever else will let me move configs without jacking them up.
Notepad++. All local and in the editor keeps the independent files auto saved in a temp directory. You can bounce your machine and when it comes back open notepad++ and all the files you had open are right there where you left them.
Keep things simple as to not think of something else on top of the thought you needed.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It’s confusing. “Office home and student” (that’s what they call it) does still exist and can be purchased and “owned” for US $149, rather than being a yearly subscription. Total cost of ownership is lower after a year or two, but it doesn’t automatically stay current with new features the way “office 365” does. (It’ll get security updates for a while, but new features, not really)

Other thing to factor into the cost comparison is that with Home and Student you're buying that license on a per-device basis. If you want to work on more than one computer, or if you replace your computer down the road, you'll need to buy again.

 

[Bramblethorn]

When I read the stories here they look like text. Do you actually need an editor with tricks to make it publish a news story or magazine article?

You're correct that outside the image/audio categories, Literotica stories are just text, with a small number of available features. The most exotic things I've seen here are <kbd> and right-justification, both very rarely used. Almost anything that somebody could publish here can be composed in a basic rich-text editor, or even in plaintext if you're willing to hand-code some basic HTML.

In the Literotica context, the case for fancy tools is not for adding bells and whistles to the story, but for things like facilitating collaboration (e.g. gdocs for taking feedback/changes from editors and beta readers) or for organising larger stories (e.g. Scrivener for structuring into book-chapter-scene breakdowns, tagging scenes, and saving research material and bookmarks as part of that project so it's all in one file).

edit: or if you're planning on publishing on multiple platforms with different requirements - e.g. Scrivener makes it a little easier for me to write and maintain a single version of a story while publishing in more than one place, as opposed to maintaining a "Literotica version" and "[other site] version" and having to make parallel edits any time I change stuff.

 

[PersonalFavors]

You're correct......

Exposing that I am not much of a writer. What I did write did not make it to the site. Too much editing as it was real life. I wrote based on my experience and about what turned me on when I was meeting people on web date sites in the late 90's early 2000's. Those conversations were like truth or dare but only truth as we were in a restaurant. What was the first time you discovered something felt good? Turns those I enjoyed were young like me at the time.... And good stories too. Like discovering something nobody else knew and keeping it a secret. Anyway, no time to edit the stories and keep the natural erotic flow of which time was the first time for anything I still find erotic or sensual today.
Simple though. One long story per file....

 

[Bramblethorn]

Exposing that I am not much of a writer. What I did write did not make it to the site. Too much editing as it was real life. I wrote based on my experience and about what turned me on when I was meeting people on web date sites in the late 90's early 2000's. Those conversations were like truth or dare but only truth as we were in a restaurant. What was the first time you discovered something felt good? Turns those I enjoyed were young like me at the time.... And good stories too. Like discovering something nobody else knew and keeping it a secret. Anyway, no time to edit the stories and keep the natural erotic flow of which time was the first time for anything I still find erotic or sensual today.
Simple though. One long story per file....

It depends a lot on what you're writing. I've written a short piece on my phone's memo app, when inspiration struck on a long plane flight. But one of my latest stories here ended up as a full-length novel (100k words) in twelve chapters, written over something like three years with a long break in the middle. That kind of thing is when it's useful to have some kind of system for planning and organising, whether that's software or index cards.

 

[shakna]

Well, I'm going to look like a serious nerd, now... I write TeX with a bunch of custom macros.

Lets me render out into a lot of different formats, whilst maintaining very precise in how to control the representation. Lit mostly just gets the plain text version. But I also build out PDF, ePub, and HTML versions that are all highly tuned towards their own environment.

It also means that my original files are absolutely filled with comments, highlights, tags and so on, that self-assemble into a wiki of sorts, whilst also not appearing anywhere in the rendered books. Making it easier to handle those larger story arcs.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I use Libre Office Writer because I have it in my machine. Any document editor with all the auto-correct and spell/grammar checking turned OFF will do (can't stand that shit). Anything where I can type cut and paste has me ready to go. I'm not even above Notepad. I'm no princess.

Save often and backup regularly.

 

[Duleigh]

Word, hands down best author/editor program out there and getting better every day. I used to teach Word use and troubleshooting and have found nothing out there comparable. There's a LOT of features I haven't used in a decade or more and probably won't ever use them again, but I just love fiddling with Auto Correct so that something like a long name that is typed often is auto created by a pair of key strokes. In Stormwatch I type the name Veronica quite often and I shortened that to vv

 

[Handley_Page]

Further to my earlier comments, I have stopped using Word (it was version 2003)
and I've installed Libre Office v 7.4.2 (See here - https://www.libreoffice.org/)
It behaves (mostly) the same way as Microsoft Office.

But it's getting on and I need a mug of good Tea.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Recently saw someone post about their laptop dying and losing significant work on a story. This is the stuff of nightmares for me, and it’s one of the reasons that I have everything in Google docs.

 

[HeyAll]

I remember reading something a long time ago about how Tori Amos (i think it was her, could have been someone else) got robbed of her bag (don't recall what it was) and she had to plead with the robber to get her handwritten lyrics back. Which she was able to keep.

That was way back, pre-interenet.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Recently saw someone post about their laptop dying and losing significant work on a story. This is the stuff of nightmares for me, and it’s one of the reasons that I have everything in Google docs.

I would never ever trust a cloud for my creations. Especially google. Their entire business is collecting information on anyone or anything and selling it. Why do you think that they bought Fitbit a couple of years ago?

Worried about a crash? We write text. The memory is tiny (relatively). Every few weeks I copy my entire fiction folder to a memory stick. It takes like 3 minutes to copy. I stick it in and pour myself a tea, come back and it's done. Worried about a house fire? Copy it again to a second stick and put it in the shed.

Someone earlier mentioned that they loved the cloud because they didn't have to worry about saving their work. Srsly? Like lazy much? Ctrl-S, come on.