word processor and other writing programs

[Haulover]

I've used dozens - from the old MiltiMate, through Word Perfect, to M$-Word - and numerous systems in between.

I'm equally comfortable with any package, but use usually MS-Word - which has become the software industry's de-facto standard. Also (fairly) standardized are the most basic keystrokes - and it's surprising how many word processing systems use the same or similar keystrokes - most of which were inherited from old-school text editors. (Does anyone remember emacs )

As fiction writers we:
- Should be able to spell-check and grammar-check for ourselves.
- Need almost no special formatting.
- Have to remember to save constantly (i.e. get into the habit of hitting control-S after every paragraph).
- Ought to be intimately familiar with the basic formatting keystrokes for copy/paste, navigating the document, deleting 1 character back or forward, deleting the next or previous word, and so on.


For those who dislike MS-Word - bear in mind that it's primarily designed for business text. Some of the documents I prepare in the corporate world are pretty sophisticated and have very elaborate formatting. I'm glad we don't need to go to that sort of trouble when writing fiction.

 

[TxRad]

I've used dozens - from the old MiltiMate, through Word Perfect, to M$-Word - and numerous systems in between.

I'm equally comfortable with any package, but use usually MS-Word - which has become the software industry's de-facto standard. Also (fairly) standardized are the most basic keystrokes - and it's surprising how many word processing systems use the same or similar keystrokes - most of which were inherited from old-school text editors. (Does anyone remember emacs )

As fiction writers we:
- Should be able to spell-check and grammar-check for ourselves.
- Need almost no special formatting.
- Have to remember to save constantly (i.e. get into the habit of hitting control-S after every paragraph).
- Ought to be intimately familiar with the basic formatting keystrokes for copy/paste, navigating the document, deleting 1 character back or forward, deleting the next or previous word, and so on.


For those who dislike MS-Word - bear in mind that it's primarily designed for business text. Some of the documents I prepare in the corporate world are pretty sophisticated and have very elaborate formatting. I'm glad we don't need to go to that sort of trouble when writing fiction.

Go into spelling and grammar and you can disable most of that business text crap.

 

[TadOverdon]

Grammarly just wanted to correct my word choice from "gripping cunt" to "dripping cunt."

My god, what have I taught this thing? LOL

 

[oggbashan]

Grammarly just wanted to correct my word choice from "gripping cunt" to "dripping cunt."

My god, what have I taught this thing? LOL

My Grammarly will not accept shit, bullshit, or cunt...

 

[TadOverdon]

My Grammarly will not accept shit, bullshit, or cunt...

Yours is possessed of a British sense of decorum.

 

[SamScribble]

I think the first word processing software I used was probably an early version of WordStar. And then I started writing a lot for a magazine that was put together using PageMaker, and they liked their copy in a very basic text format, the name of which I can no longer remember. From there I moved to an early version of Word, and then to Word Perfect. For the past 25 or so years, I have used various versions of MS Word. I tend to use it with most of the bells and whistles turned off.

 

[dmallord]

First Word Processor

My intro to computers began with Scripsit on Tandy's computers. My first was a 12" floppy drive system and later the TRS-80 5 1/4" floppies using a dot-matrix line printer.

My world brightened when I married a Macintosh SE30 and used MacWrite until MS Word for Macs came about. I was never fond of a 'girl' that tried to take me away from my wife - her name was something like 'DOS' or IBM or ... well I never warmed up to her anyway so I don't actually recall her name from so many years ago ... dinosaur days, I figure.

Today, My MacPro replaced my 2011 MacBook when it bit the dust last year. I'm using MS Word still. It handles my writing. Lots of things in it I don't have any idea of how to use, e.g., comparing documents and seeing changes type of things.

This thread has been very interesting. Finding that all those different products and they still produce the written words we all read and understand.

I had wondered about that cloud business. Glad I have stayed away from the messy situation. Thanks for that background bit of information.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I used WordPerfect from the early 90s until the mid 00s. But my profession adopted MS Word as the standard. For a few years I continued using WP and then converting the document to MS Word, but that was tedious and I eventually stopped fighting and just went along with MS Word. I use it exclusively now.

 

[Nylonian]

Web Apps Anyone?

I am a simply guy. Mainly just write.as (it's a web app) because it's light and has what I need.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

<snip>

As fiction writers we:
- Should be able to spell-check and grammar-check for ourselves.
- Need almost no special formatting.
- Have to remember to save constantly (i.e. get into the habit of hitting control-S after every paragraph).
- Ought to be intimately familiar with the basic formatting keystrokes for copy/paste, navigating the document, deleting 1 character back or forward, deleting the next or previous word, and so on.

<snip>

That first line that I bolded, isn't true for any author of fiction who is published in the mainstream. From what I have heard is that the editor for the publisher fix all that for them, in some cases it a complete rewrite. They claim that writers are the worst with spelling and grammar.

The rest I agree with, with some exceptions which I won't go into here.

 

[SimonDoom]

As fiction writers we:
- Should be able to spell-check and grammar-check for ourselves.

I think it behooves an author to learn grammar and spelling, and I'm good with both, but I also like using whatever tools are at hand to do better. That includes things like Grammarly and Word's editing/proofing tools. My writing includes many unconscious mistakes, and the tools help me catch them in the editing process.

- Need almost no special formatting.

True for me. I like to keep it simple.

- Have to remember to save constantly (i.e. get into the habit of hitting control-S after every paragraph).

I recently switched to a version of Word with Auto-Save, and it's one of the most wonderful things imaginable. I never worry about saving documents anymore.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I shifted from Jotterpad to Writer+ when the former started doing weird stuff and begging for money every few minutes for features I didn't want. Recently I've found the hyphen confuses my autocorrect, as if it's stopped recognising it as an alert that the words on either side should be considered separately, and similar for the single quote/apostrophe. I think that's a Google keyboard issue, though.

I'm proud of my training of the autocorrect - it now offers 'arse' before 'aren't' if I type arnet. And various other swearwords.

My first word processor was Wordwise on the BBC Micro, then Lotus and WordPerfect - got paid to do some work using WordPerfect so stopped off to read WP for Dummies on the way, set up a mailmerge...

Mostly Word at work, but since it became hard to find free copies of it for home, I just use OpenOffice now LibreOffice.

I'm still looking for a better offline app for phone typing, as Write+ doesn't do italics, and special characters don't transfer to LibreOffice properly - but doing a final edit on the desktop is a good idea anyway.