Using word Pad

[Dearelliot]

I'm old, really old, 92...and because of age, not very active...and I love to write porn...so writing porn is one of my favorite activities...and I can do it...maybe not all that well, but I enjoy working at it.
And I am stupid when it comes to computers...I use WordPad to write with because it is easy...but I'm not happy with it, and I want to try something a little better. So I tried LibreOffice...and I'm sure I would like it...but it's too hard for me to download and get started.
My question: Any suggestions for something easier, between WordPad and LibreOffice, that I could try?
I think I asked this question once before, maybe last year, but I can't find it to read the replies.

 

[Duil2]

I'm old, really old, 92...and because of age, not very active...and I love to write porn...so writing porn is one of my favorite activities...and I can do it...maybe not all that well, but I enjoy working at it.
And I am stupid when it comes to computers...I use WordPad to write with because it is easy...but I'm not happy with it, and I want to try something a little better. So I tried LibreOffice...and I'm sure I would like it...but it's too hard for me to download and get started.
My question: Any suggestions for something easier, between WordPad and LibreOffice, that I could try?
I think I asked this question once before, maybe last year, but I can't find it to read the replies.

My suggestion, to avoid the need for downloading anything, would be Ellipsus. It is a dot com www address. You can set up a free account and write directly to a document there. It saves automatically and since the site is anti AI it ensures your work is not shared into the Internet. You can also invite people to collaborate if you have an editor or beta-reader. The functionality is similar to Microsoft Word so might also be close to WordPad although I'm not familiar with WordPad. Hope that helps. Happy writing.

 

[SugarStorm]

I'm old, really old, 92...and because of age, not very active...and I love to write porn...so writing porn is one of my favorite activities...and I can do it...maybe not all that well, but I enjoy working at it.
And I am stupid when it comes to computers...I use WordPad to write with because it is easy...but I'm not happy with it, and I want to try something a little better. So I tried LibreOffice...and I'm sure I would like it...but it's too hard for me to download and get started.
My question: Any suggestions for something easier, between WordPad and LibreOffice, that I could try?
I think I asked this question once before, maybe last year, but I can't find it to read the replies.

WordPad is a bit old-school, so I think we need someone of a certain... respectable age here.

Paging @onehitwanda

 

[TheWritingGroup]

What are you unhappy about with WordPad? There are lots of alternatives, but which one you'd like is not obvious unless we know what you want from a text editor.

 

[BeechLeaf]

She recommends a thing called LyX. If ever WordPad becomes permanently unavailable, that's what I'll look at, as I figure she knows her onions.

 

[Writer61]

If you are on a Mac, try TextEdit. It is already installed.

 

[BeechLeaf]

By the way, Dearelliot, this is your old thread on this, from September last year. I remembered contributing to it and searched for 'wordpad' to find it. That's also where I first saw Wanda's mention of LyX.

 

[onehitwanda]

WordPad is a bit old-school, so I think we need someone of a certain... respectable age here.

Paging @onehitwanda

Oh my GOD.



when I'm done laughing you're dead. dead!

 

[Dearelliot]

Thank you...I'll try..thanks for my old post too...
Re WordPad, I have problems having spilt screen choices with WordPad...so I can go from one to the other, move paragraphs etc. IMO just not as easy to work with as I wish...Most of the problems might just be my ignorance with computers...and there is no simple solution except for me to learn...and Damn learning is hard, I dont have good recall.
But I'll look into the suggestions...Most likely I'll take the easy way out and stay with WordPad...

 

[BeechLeaf]

No, WordPad has limited possibilities, but for me that's much better than the bloat of the all-out word processors. I just want to be able to type text, and to use bold and italics and a few primary colours, nothing much more. For my current WIP I needed a kind of split-screen thinking, so I just created a new file and I'm flipping between old and new. As I copy old text into the new file, I highlight the old text in green so I know I've done it. Then I can ignore that, but it still gives context for the parts I haven't moved yet. I find it a good visual cue.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

If you have decent hand mobility, you can open two WordPad windows and swap between them with Alt-Tab. Takes (me) a fraction of a second, perfect for copy/paste.

 

[IWroteThis]

If you want to stick with something fairly similar, Notepad++ might be a good choice. It has a pretty good split screen mode. You can only view one document on each side at a time, but you can have multiple tabs on each side to choose from, and it's easy to move them between sides.

Now, if you want something geared more to writing, I would recommend taking a look at yWriter. (Registration requested, but not required and there's no nagging.) It was written by a guy who uses it to write his own novels, so he's very invested in the program. He also has a Google group where he's very responsive to bug reports and reasonable enhancement requests. It has some really nice features available, but the basics are pretty simple to learn. You just create a chapter, create a scene, and start writing.

 

[Dearelliot]

No, WordPad has limited possibilities, but for me that's much better than the bloat of the all-out word processors. I just want to be able to type text, and to use bold and italics and a few primary colours, nothing much more. For my current WIP I needed a kind of split-screen thinking, so I just created a new file and I'm flipping between old and new. As I copy old text into the new file, I highlight the old text in green so I know I've done it. Then I can ignore that, but it still gives context for the parts I haven't moved yet. I find it a good visual cue.

Can I add/use colors with wordpad?

 

[Dearelliot]

If you have decent hand mobility, you can open two WordPad windows and swap between them with Alt-Tab. Takes (me) a fraction of a second, perfect for copy/paste.

Now that is interesting...Alt/Tab you say...I dont know how to find that but ...Then maybe my word pad is different...I use windows 11...I dont know...

 

[BeechLeaf]

Can I add/use colors with wordpad?

I don't know if there are different versions. But in what I'm looking at, there are buttons B I U and so on: bold, italic, underline. At the end of that is A with a colour bar under it. By default the colour bar is black. But click on it and you get a small range of colours.

 

[Dearelliot]

I don't know if there are different versions. But in what I'm looking at, there are buttons B I U and so on: bold, italic, underline. At the end of that is A with a colour bar under it. By default the colour bar is black. But click on it and you get a small range of colours.

Gonna try

 

[SmilingLez]

I'm old, really old, 92...and because of age, not very active...and I love to write porn...so writing porn is one of my favorite activities...and I can do it...maybe not all that well, but I enjoy working at it.
And I am stupid when it comes to computers...I use WordPad to write with because it is easy...but I'm not happy with it, and I want to try something a little better. So I tried LibreOffice...and I'm sure I would like it...but it's too hard for me to download and get started.
My question: Any suggestions for something easier, between WordPad and LibreOffice, that I could try?
I think I asked this question once before, maybe last year, but I can't find it to read the replies.

When I was submitting stories on this commercial for profit porn site, I typed directly into the editor and saved it as a draft. Did not need another app. Once I was finished, before submission, I would copy and paste the final version in notepad and save it as a .txt file.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Now that is interesting...Alt/Tab you say...I dont know how to find that but ...Then maybe my word pad is different...I use windows 11...I dont know...

It's a keyboard thing. Hold down the Alt key (usually next to the space bar) while tapping Tab.

I'm a touch typist, so I do it one handed, but they teach you in typing school to use the right hand for Alt and the left hand for Tab.

 

[Britva415]

Alt/Tab you say...I dont know how to find that

Look at your keyboard. There's a key marked "Alt"

Hold that down, then press the key marked "Tab"

 

[Dearelliot]

Yeah yeah, I know...for split screen but I'm having trouble bringing two different stories up from word pad side by side at the same time...so yeah I'll try Alt TAb....