Preferred Writing Programs

[Seurat]

And preferred writing programs out there, especially those for free? I'm still tapping away on Wordpad but, since things like spelling, grammar, and wordcount are in vogue, I was wondering what are the best/free-to-use programs out there? I've seen (presumably) what AI can do to a story (bleah) and real person editors are in short supply. I only ask about 'free' because the pay-to-use ones I've seen are all subscription base and many require you to be online to work; I'm not one to pay repeatedly for something that does not constantly offer something new that I can use, and I do much of my work offline.

Thoughts?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

LibreOffice

 

[RocketGrunt]

OpenOffice. It works, it's free, and no one has fucked with it to make it do anything stupid.

 

[OddLove]

I use LibreOffice too. My favorite part is it's free. My second favorite part is, on the right side, there's a "Navigator" tab, and if you highlight some words in your document like "Chapter 1" or "Part 1" and then click on the "Default Paragraph Style" in the top left, you can change that to "Heading 1" and it will add your "Chapter 1" or "Part 1" to the Navigator tab where you can hover over it to see the word count for each of your chapters, as will as double clicking it to locate where each chapter begins. Super helpful for staying organized.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Obsidian. I'm not going to stop saying it.

I'm also using AndrOpen Office as I'm not at the computer. It's a port of OpenOffice for Android.

Both are free, open source, don't require an Internet connection, and files are locally saved on your device.

 

[TheLobster]

Ghostwriter. It’s plain text, colors HTML and Markdown, counts words, has spellcheck but nothing else, and is overall pleasant to use.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I only ask about 'free' because the pay-to-use ones I've seen are all subscription base and many require you to be online to work; I'm not one to pay repeatedly for something that does not constantly offer something new that I can use, and I do much of my work offline.

I'm not trying to discourage you from using free stuff, but versions of Microsoft Word exist for a one-time license fee, FYI.

 

[darkquasar]

Like the others, for something totally free and offline, I'd suggest LibreOffice.

That said, a couple of years ago, I pivoted to using Scrivener for almost all my writing needs.
It's a one time charge, and doesnt require active internet access once you activate it.
I got it for half off from a nanowrimo promo.
I prefer it because it supports multiple folders and documents in a single project. Perfect for me because I tend to jump from story to story depending on my mood, so I have one project that most of my erotica writing starts out in, each story getting its own folder which has different files for outline, ideas, bios, and the writing itself.

 

[Britva415]

BBEdit, free version. Mac only.

 

[IWroteThis]

I use yWriter. It's software written by a writer to use for their own writing. Registration is appreciated, but not required. There is a Google group that the writer is active in, and he's pretty responsive to bug reports.

It uses a chapters and scenes structure. Both can be reordered by dragging and dropping, and scenes can be moved between chapters the same way. You can also just create one chapter and one scene, then use it like notepad, but there are a lot of other cool features available.

It also has an auto-backup feature, allowing you to go back and recover from bad decisions or prove providence if needed.

 

[onehitwanda]

 

[SyleusSnow]

FocusWriter. Free, Windows + Linux, offline, spell check only, and customizable themes. Saves in MS windows and LibreOffice formats.

 

[ronde]

I'm not trying to discourage you from using free stuff, but versions of Microsoft Word exist for a one-time license fee, FYI.

I'll second that. My old desktop finally died so I upgraded to a new one with Windows 11. That meant I had to upgrade from MS Office 97. I bought a copy of MS Office 2021 that's a permanent license for about $40 that included Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I have also used a copy of LibreOffice and changed back to Word for a couple reasons.

LibreOffice can do some weird things with quotation marks unless you're careful, and it will not find the difference between two slashes for quote marks and the more common "69" quote marks. I know from experiencing a rejection for improper punctuation of dialogue.

It's not easy to search for characters other than text with LibreOffice. You can do the search by searching for the alphanumeric equivalent of things like the quote mark, pound sign, etc, but that's pretty time consuming. Word will search for and highlight anything you type into the search box.

The spreadsheet program in LibreOffice cannot sort dates. You have to convert the date into the "datenumber" and then sort by that. Excel knows how to sort by the text date.

 

[NotWise]

Were you using an older version of LibreOffice? Mine identifies as "24.2.7.2 (X86_64)/LibreOffice Community" (the current version is 25.8.4) and I don't have the problems you describe.

I'll second that. My old desktop finally died so I upgraded to a new one with Windows 11. That meant I had to upgrade from MS Office 97. I bought a copy of MS Office 2021 that's a permanent license for about $40 that included Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I have also used a copy of LibreOffice and changed back to Word for a couple reasons.

LibreOffice can do some weird things with quotation marks unless you're careful, and it will not find the difference between two slashes for quote marks and the more common "69" quote marks. I know from experiencing a rejection for improper punctuation of dialogue.

Two slashes for quotation marks? I've never heard of that. By "69" quote marks, do you mean single smart quotes? Those can't be entered from a keyboard without using character codes as far as I know, but you can put them in the "find" box either by copying one out of your text or by using the "Special Character..." option from the button 2 menu. It finds them just fine.

It's not easy to search for characters other than text with LibreOffice. You can do the search by searching for the alphanumeric equivalent of things like the quote mark, pound sign, etc, but that's pretty time consuming. Word will search for and highlight anything you type into the search box.

I just checked on my WIP. Anything you can enter from the keyboard can be found, included the pound sign. Other marks can be entered (as above) either by copying them from your document, or using the "Special Character" menu option.

The spreadsheet program in LibreOffice cannot sort dates. You have to convert the date into the "datenumber" and then sort by that. Excel knows how to sort by the text date.

I just checked this as well. If you enter text that Calc recognizes as a date or a timestamp then it converts it to a date or timestamp and it sorts as you'd expect.

 

[ronde]

Were you using an older version of LibreOffice? Mine identifies as "24.2.7.2 (X86_64)/LibreOffice Community" (the current version is 25.8.4) and I don't have the problems you describe.



Two slashes for quotation marks? I've never heard of that. By "69" quote marks, do you mean single smart quotes? Those can't be entered from a keyboard without using character codes as far as I know, but you can put them in the "find" box either by copying one out of your text or by using the "Special Character..." option from the button 2 menu. It finds them just fine.



I just checked on my WIP. Anything you can enter from the keyboard can be found, included the pound sign. Other marks can be entered (as above) either by copying them from your document, or using the "Special Character" menu option.



I just checked this as well. If you enter text that Calc recognizes as a date or a timestamp then it converts it to a date or timestamp and it sorts as you'd expect.

Yes, my version is an older version, and it had all the problems I just described. I did figure out how to get around the issues, but it's so simple in MS Office that it was worth the money for me to upgrade. I'm reasonably proficient with computers, but I write for fun and I don't need to teach myself new software quirks if it's at all avoidable.

The quote marks I was getting were just // as a superscript. The "69" quotes are what you see here ( " ") with marks that resemble the number 6 as an opening quote and marks that resemble the number 9 as a closing quote. I never figured out why that happened but I know it did because with some careful editing I found it. I've never had that problem or any of the others with Word.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

The "69" quotes are what you see here ( " ") with marks that resemble the number 6 as an opening quote and marks that resemble the number 9 as a closing quote. I never figured out why that happened but I know it did because with some careful editing I found it. I've never had that problem or any of the others with Word.

Word always changed my quote marks to those, however those ( “ ” ) are pretty much a standard on Spanish. I never heard anyone complaining about quote marks being like that in any space, so it must be a language thing.

I can't say that I tried this, but it wouldn't surprise me if this gets fixed by changing the language to English? LibreOffice I have it on Spanish by default, and the quotes are autocorrected into those, but backspacing does the trick to undo that, if my memory serves me right...

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

If you choose LibreOffice, I have a web-based tool to convert your doc into a format supported by Lit's Story Editor input. Basically, you start with an HTML export from LibreOffice, drag/drop it on the tool, and get a plain text with limited markup for bold, italic, and centered text ready for Lit.

https://waxphilosophic.sdf.org/LitMark/ Click the ? for detailed help.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

^^^ No need for that. Copy/Paste into the submission form works fine.

 

[ronde]

Word always changed my quote marks to those, however those ( “ ” ) are pretty much a standard on Spanish. I never heard anyone complaining about quote marks being like that in any space, so it must be a language thing.

I can't say that I tried this, but it wouldn't surprise me if this gets fixed by changing the language to English? LibreOffice I have it on Spanish by default, and the quotes are autocorrected into those, but backspacing does the trick to undo that, if my memory serves me right...

It's possible that I somehow changed something to cause the change, but it turned out to be just one leading quote mark. I had my new MS Office by the time I got the rejection so I never tried to figure out what happened.

I don't dislike LibreOffice. I started using it when I converted a laptop to Linux and it worked almost like Word. I've just used Word for a lot of years, and I'm really comfortable with it.

 

[NotWise]

It's possible that I somehow changed something to cause the change, but it turned out to be just one leading quote mark. I had my new MS Office by the time I got the rejection so I never tried to figure out what happened.

I don't dislike LibreOffice. I started using it when I converted a laptop to Linux and it worked almost like Word. I've just used Word for a lot of years, and I'm really comfortable with it.

I can sympathize with not learning software you don't need to know. In my case, I don't need to learn (or pay for) Word, Excel, or Powerpoint because Writer, Calc, and Impress work.

The superscripted double slash is probably the "double prime." It's used to denote inches, arc seconds and second derivatives. It isn't a quote mark and it isn't a keyboard character. There's also a similar-looking punctuation mark in Hebrew. In any case, you could enter it in the "find" dialog either by copying it from your document or entering it as a special character.

Converting keyboard quotes to smart quotes is a LibreOffice Autocorrect setting that's on by default. Personally, that's my preference. Someone who doesn't want smart quotes would need to change the setting.

Unless something's changed recently, Lit switches smart quotes back to keyboard quotes.

 

[ronde]

I can sympathize with not learning software you don't need to know. In my case, I don't need to learn (or pay for) Word, Excel, or Powerpoint because Writer, Calc, and Impress work.

The superscripted double slash is probably the "double prime." It's used to denote inches, arc seconds and second derivatives. It isn't a quote mark and it isn't a keyboard character. There's also a similar-looking punctuation mark in Hebrew. In any case, you could enter it in the "find" dialog either by copying it from your document or entering it as a special character.

Converting keyboard quotes to smart quotes is a LibreOffice Autocorrect setting that's on by default. Personally, that's my preference. Someone who doesn't want smart quotes would need to change the setting.

Unless something's changed recently, Lit switches smart quotes back to keyboard quotes.

I can understand not wanting to dive into using Word because there are so many functions, templates, etc. that it can become frustrating. I figure I use about 10% of Word's capabilities because I use it as a word processor and not as a publishing tool. Like I said in another post, I don't have anything against LibreOffice. If I had as many years using LibreOffice as I do using Word, I'd probably still be using it. There are just a few things I do use that are easier for me in Word because I'm more familiar with it. Maybe that's why I couldn't find that quotation error.

 

[ronde]

^^^ No need for that. Copy/Paste into the submission form works fine.

I agree. When I've used LibreOffice, I just used Copy/Paste just like I do with Word and the published text was always identical to the original document.

 

[SugarStorm]

Apple Notes, since I use both my phone and my Mac. You can turn off all the gimmicky features, it syncs smoothly between devices, and as I always end up with a gazillion notes during my writing, it saves me from constantly jumping back and forth between Notes and Google Drive or other apps. It’s also easy to structure everything with folders.

Solid 4/5 much thanks to ease of use and convenience.

(Once chapters are finished, I move them into whatever cloud solution I’m currently using.)

 

[Writer61]

Word (for Mac).

I use it in RL, and I see no reason to switch to something else.