General question to writers

[bktheirregular]

When you're trying to be creative, what sort of word processor/text editor do you generally use to set down your writings? (I've been trying Word, WordPerfect, Notepad.)

And out of curiosity, anyone still use a Selectric?

Comments

[havocthecat]

OpenOffice Writer. Yay for free stuff! :)

[bktheirregular]

oh, yeah, I totally forgot about OpenOffice! (I'd probably be using it today if it weren't for incompatibilities with Microsoft Office - collaborative environments can be hell on gestures of independence.)

[havocthecat]

Yeah, it's not really possible to open a doc saved in their format in MS Office; however, I save all my files as .rtf instead, so they open easily in OpenOffice or MS Word.

There's also Google Docs as an online possibility. I use it for sending fic to friends for betareading, and to betaread fic written by other friends, and that's highly good for fic collaboration. I can't imagine it wouldn't work well for office stuff.

[hawkmoth.livejournal.com]

And out of curiosity, anyone still use a Selectric?

Yup, at the library. Still the simplest, quickest way to type up labels for books, audio material and movies.

As for actual writing, I still prefer WordPerfect to Word.

[bktheirregular]

Yeah, I still like to use WP if I can. (I once threatened to revolt if my office insisted on abandoning WP in favor of Microsoft Word. I got laid off not long after.)

[hawkmoth.livejournal.com]

OK--what we have at work are IBM Wheelwriters. They have limited memory and are kinda cool

[havocthecat]

Oh, WordPerfect, how I miss you (and your reveal codes) so!

[natmerc.livejournal.com]

OpenOffice lately since I go between 3 computers (3 diff OS), and it's compatible with all of them.

I'm going to try out http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html this summer. It's free, so I'll give it a shot.

[bktheirregular]

cool! Looks interesting; I might give it a shot myself.

[havocthecat]

Ooh! Okay, that looks neat. Are you going to post about it when you try it? Because I might have to give that one a try myself.

[natmerc.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm almost (!!!!) finished the first draft of my novel, so I didn't want to switch near the end. I don't think I can realistically start something new before mid-May, but you never know. I've really been spending most of my little spare time obsessing writing, and I NEED to get my house cleaned out and fixed up if I want to try to sell it. But then? It's fair game.

[twistedchick]

Depends on which computer I'm sitting down at. I work equally well in certain versions of WordPerfect and Word, but sometimes all I need is TextEdit for the basics.

Selectric! I adore Selectrics and would gladly use one for ordinary correspondence if I could a) get type balls for it and b) get ribbons. My non-electric backup typewriter is a 1936 Royal portable, for which I still have a few ribbons squirreled away. It's lighter and more portable than a Selectric, but I can't go as fast on it as it tends to jump a bit.

[havocthecat]

I kind of miss my old Selectric. There's something very visceral about hearing the keys thunk down so much when you type. But when I took typing in high school, I was also mid-switch to a computer, and I've rarely ever looked back. On-screen text editing capability FTW.

[twistedchick]

Yes, moving paragraphs and pages without retyping is a wondrous thing -- but the Selectric I used (at the last job that had one) had an erasing function, which saved me more times than I want to think about when I was working on that budget. And I loved the width of the roller, which could take ledger paper longways.

(When I learned to type, electric typewriters were too expensive for the school to have so we learned on large upright Olympus (Olympia?) standard office typewriters, not much different from what my mother worked on in WWII.