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What word processor do you use?
- Thread starter Fry42
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I recently dumped my ancient copy of Microsoft Office for NeoOffice, and so far i like NeoOffice just fine for everyday work that calls for Office compatibility. For casual stuff with minimal formatting, I use Bean. I'm currently learning Scrivener because I want to write e-books with it. (Hope the learning curve flattens out, because I can see how valuable it will be if I can just figure it all out....)
Scrivener
Word 2011
TextWrangler
NeoOffice for those old Word Perfect documents (which I then save in Word format)
As others have said, a lot of what you use is forced by context.
90% of my work is in Scrivener, but nobody except another writer using Scrivener wants to see a Scrivener project, so sending work out means exporting it to rtf or Word, and it's crazy to send out something allegedly converted to Word without looking at it in true Word.
If people need Word documents from you -- or are always going to be sending them to you -- then you're best off using Word itself.
My Word 2011 is working fine with Lion, on all my machines. The only annoyance was re-activation.
Word 2011
TextWrangler
NeoOffice for those old Word Perfect documents (which I then save in Word format)
As others have said, a lot of what you use is forced by context.
90% of my work is in Scrivener, but nobody except another writer using Scrivener wants to see a Scrivener project, so sending work out means exporting it to rtf or Word, and it's crazy to send out something allegedly converted to Word without looking at it in true Word.
If people need Word documents from you -- or are always going to be sending them to you -- then you're best off using Word itself.
My Word 2011 is working fine with Lion, on all my machines. The only annoyance was re-activation.
Depends on what I'm doing.
If I'm just taking notes or laying down ideas, I write them in the RTF editor of DEVONthink, and store things there. That's where I put my RPG campaign, various odds and ends, etc.
For the odd one-off printed material like a cover letter or fax cover sheet, I use Pages. I don't do anything big or ambitious in it.
For big printed works, I use either LaTeX or InDesign. My cookbook is in LaTeX, which is great at keeping the bazillion recipes consistently formatted, doing the index, cross references, etc fairly automatically. My printed RPG material is in InDesign, which is a lot easier for work I want to do visual design on. For example, I did a newspaper for a campaign for a while, and InDesign was great to lay out articles. When using InDesign, I'll usually write the text in something like DEVONthink or another RTF editor first, then import it.
I have LibreOffice and MS Office (the latter through the MS Home Use program) as well, but I only use them for compatibility purposes as needed. For word processing, that's almost never the case. The biggest need I have are spreadsheets that use VBA.
If I'm just taking notes or laying down ideas, I write them in the RTF editor of DEVONthink, and store things there. That's where I put my RPG campaign, various odds and ends, etc.
For the odd one-off printed material like a cover letter or fax cover sheet, I use Pages. I don't do anything big or ambitious in it.
For big printed works, I use either LaTeX or InDesign. My cookbook is in LaTeX, which is great at keeping the bazillion recipes consistently formatted, doing the index, cross references, etc fairly automatically. My printed RPG material is in InDesign, which is a lot easier for work I want to do visual design on. For example, I did a newspaper for a campaign for a while, and InDesign was great to lay out articles. When using InDesign, I'll usually write the text in something like DEVONthink or another RTF editor first, then import it.
I have LibreOffice and MS Office (the latter through the MS Home Use program) as well, but I only use them for compatibility purposes as needed. For word processing, that's almost never the case. The biggest need I have are spreadsheets that use VBA.
I used Office 2004 for a long time because my brother got it with 3 licenses. But now that doesn't work with Lion. So, now I am using LibreOffice. Never had any problems with OpenOffice on Windows. Tried iWorks before, but never had a document convert well to Word and vice/versa. I have nothing against Office other than the insane price. So, LibreOffice is the right price and fits my bill.
That's just what I call my free writing sessions. Ideas and concepts which I'm exploring. Just writing.
I try to do this from time to time; especially when I get a new writing program (GrandView, OmmWriter, etc.) but I can never end up writing anything at that time.
Only when I have a specific purpose such as writing a letter to my gf or responding to some text I read in my philosophy book can I use it >_<
Google Docs. The editor is good enough for me (if I need something better, I'll end up using InDesign), and I enjoy being able to access my documents wherever I am.
Day-to-day I use Word 2011, but I do a lot of writing and editing and need features that Pages doesn't have (track changes, passive voice grammar checking).
If I want to design a really nice looking simple document, however, like a CV, I use Pages.
If I want to design a really nice looking simple document, however, like a CV, I use Pages.
For business, I am using Word 2010 for Windows inside a Parallels virtual machine in Coherence mode (pinch to zoom works nicely in Office 2010 apps that run inside a Windows VM.
For Battery operation, I am often using Word 2011 for Mac because this saves me from starting up the virtual machine which consumes more battery life.
For private projects I sometimes use Pages because of the elegant templates and sleek features.
For Battery operation, I am often using Word 2011 for Mac because this saves me from starting up the virtual machine which consumes more battery life.
For private projects I sometimes use Pages because of the elegant templates and sleek features.
Same goes for me. However, I write my books in Pages as the overall interface and look is better and it gives me built in epub conversion.