Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Writing related programs - Review (?)

(1/3) > >>

Dormouse:
I noticed that there was a large proportion of writing related programs as giveaways in the fundraiser.

I thought that I might be able to do a comparative review if that was something that might be useful.  I have read many reviews on writer sites, few of which have ever told me anything I wanted to know. Many of which stuck to 'programs for "Writers"' rather than including other programs that can be purposed for similar functionality (or examined how to set up similar functionality using a combination of other programs).

I have a surprising number of such programs (even ignoring those that I have forgotten or that faded away on their own). I can think of a number of categories:-

* Typing/Writing space/Word processor - eg Write!
* Database product that combines the above with the resources for a project and tools to help planning - eg Writer's Cafe, Atomic Scribbler.
* Software to help guide revision/edit - eg ProWritingAid, SmartEdit
* Software that prepares ebooks for sale on the major web platforms - eg JutohI have a lot of experience with the first two, some with the third (I have ProWritingAid) and none with the fourth (yet). Also don't have a Mac, which might be needed to do justice to the fourth, since it wouldn't make sense to ignore Vellum.

So I'm probably better qualified to do the second category than the others.
Initial thoughts about the programs I would cover include Scrivener, Writer's Cafe, Outline 4D, doogiePIM, OneNote, Evernote. Not sure about LiquidStoryBinder (2011) or TreeDBNotes (2015) although they are both still being sold. Have PageFour, but not Atomic Scribbler. Also have a lot of others. Happy to co-operate with anyone else who is interested.

PS I was very late to know about the fundraising  :( - my email address was out of date. Now DC seems to recognise 2 of my current addresses, which must be good  ;D

PPS My initial idea about doing this came when I realised that doogie|PIM had many of the 'specialist' functions of writing apps such as Scrivener.

wraith808:
I've committed to doing some, as I'm the reason most of those are there.  But the more the merrier!  I'm planning to do Atomic Scribbler (with the new Smart Edit integration in mind), Write!, ProWritingAid, and some of the others I've trialed will probably sneak in.

I was planning to do them one mini-review at a time, rather than comparatively, other than that section in the mini-review template.  So it looks like a different angle.

tomos:
would be great to see -- straight-forward &/or comparative reviews :up:

Dormouse:
I've committed to doing some, as I'm the reason most of those are there. 
-wraith808 (April 28, 2018, 01:22 PM)
--- End quote ---
Congratulations on getting so many :Thmbsup:

My interest is very much in an overall system and how each program can fit into that, so mini reviews of individual apps would not work for me. Not really a traditional comparative, concluding one is better than another either.

My interest is in a variety of writing - academic papers and books, reports, 'journalism', non-fiction as well as fiction. My observation over the years is that most students and researchers have massively suboptimal methods of managing their information, planning and structuring; OK for a single piece of work but incredibly inefficient if there's a series.

iirc I wrote a paper on the issue 10 or 20 years ago. To mostly little effect. I suspect pantsers proliferate in all fields, but it's harder to make it work with non-fiction. And some just prefer paper.

mouser:
Just want to chime in to say I also would appreciate some mini reviews of writer's tools  :up:

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page