Comments | selenay936: I which I am grumpy about changes

selenay936

I which I am grumpy about changes

Oct 07, 2013 14:09

I'm having to make a small change to my writing set-up, which is kind of a pain but may not be as bad as I'd been thinking yesterday.
( Cut for length and discussion of word processing apps )

apps, writing

Comments 12

crankst_girl October 7 2013, 17:41:27 UTC

I've just started writing so have been thinking about set up a lot. I have a macbook and a nexus 7 with bluetooth keyboard. I think most of my work will be done on the latter and uploaded to google drive. The macbook would be fine, it's just too heavy for me to carry when away from home. And, it's shared so I cannot guarantee access when I need it. I really like Pages though. Much prefer it to word for putting documents together. I think I'll use it for putting final drafts together.

I also use Evernote for making notes, keeping clippings/photos of interesting things as I can use it cross-platform on my tablet, macbook and iphone.

selenay936 October 7 2013, 22:26:56 UTC

I'm working on a Windows PC as my desktop, which makes Pages an impossible dream for anything except my iPad. When I first made the switch from Google drive to using DropBox and a Word compatible editor on my iPad, it seemed very painful for about five minutes and then I start to find a lot of positives for it. Mostly, though, that's because I'm heavily tied to Word on my desktop.

I'm one of those horribly old-fashioned and creaky writers who throws most of my notes into a Word doc and supplements that with notebooks, sticky tabs and Postit notes. Some of my friends use Scrivener and they're horrified by how old school my set-up is, but it's what works for me.

At the end of the day, what works for you is the important thing. Can you find a place to write that's comfortably set up and lets you get words down on the page and save them? Can you find your research. Then you're good :-D

I do enjoy hearing how other people do it, though.

fahrenheit_f430 October 7 2013, 18:19:28 UTC

Welcome to the Dark Side. *pets iWork* Honest, Pages is easier to get the hang of than Word 2010. I really... Don't like being parted from Pages/iWork. It's like MS Office went to therapy and came back rational.

But, if you're still wibbly - https://www.rollapp.com/openoffice OpenOffice has an app for iPad. It's not as good as MS Office or iWork (I was using it about 5-6yrs ago and it's probably improved since then. The spellcheck was a nightmare, tbh. And cursed with US English = UK English. :( ), but it should integrate with DropBox and GoogleDocs without a problem.

selenay936 October 7 2013, 22:37:01 UTC

If Pages worked on a Windows PC, I'd be all over it for everything. Sadly it doesn't ( ... )

fahrenheit_f430 October 7 2013, 23:34:12 UTC

I know Pages doesn't work on Windows. I'm congratulating your move to the Dark Side on iPad. :D

That's pretty much what I do only I don't use any kind of cloud storage. I do spend a stupid amount of time fiddling with my CV on both Pages and Word. :D Pages-Word does have problems, mainly with fonts and format issues if you're doing some hardcore tables/embedded data, but for plain typed files in TSR/Arial the conversion is better than OpenOffice-Word.

I hate putting beta notes on a working file (it's bloody annoying), so you're going to be safe for a LOOOONG time.

Yeah, the American English thing is... A thing. /o\

selenay936 October 7 2013, 23:55:39 UTC

I know Pages doesn't work on Windows. I'm congratulating your move to the Dark Side on iPad. :D

Phew!

but for plain typed files in TSR/Arial the conversion is better than OpenOffice-Word.

The fanciest formatting I do in my writing documents is making the titles big :-D Heh.

I hate putting beta notes on a working file (it's bloody annoying), so you're going to be safe for a LOOOONG time.

Phew! Having to scan through a working file to find the beta notes drives me nuts and I always miss some, particularly the tiny things like strike-outs over commas.

Thread 6

tawg October 8 2013, 08:18:29 UTC

This post was helpful, because it has honestly not occurred to me to get a keyboard for my tablet. I've been wondering whether to get a new/legit laptop... but I could just go and get a fucking keyboard. My eyes have been opened :p

selenay936 October 8 2013, 10:53:28 UTC

Keyboard + tablet works really well for me and it's so much cheaper than buying a laptop :-D Glad I helped!

sugoll October 11 2013, 20:57:44 UTC

I've had a play with Scrivener (non-fiction). At the moment, I'm baffled by its obliviousness to decent formatting, but I haven't spent much time working on it - I've mainly bashed things in, and worried about what the words say, rather than how they look.

It's all been on the MacBook Pro, though, which is considerably heavier than the iPad.

Clouds give me the screaming heebie jeebies, as far as storage goes. I want to know that it's mine, MINE!

selenay936 October 12 2013, 18:46:21 UTC

It's all been on the MacBook Pro, though, which is considerably heavier than the iPad.

I have various friends who swear by Scrivener for organising their writing, but it's not available for iPad so it's just not a good option for me right now. Plus I'm horribly old-fashioned - half my notes tend to be hand-written and my writing process doesn't work well with me tabbing through different sheets and pages in a project file. I feel much more comfortable writing in Word and keeping all my other notes in separate docs. If I'm writing sections that need my research notes, I tend to have them scattered all over the desk (or bed) in front of me because it's easier.

At one point in my most recent project, I had four notebooks around me plus some PostIts and my copy of Baedeker's London (1908) was open on my iPad while I worked on my desktop. It was kind of a special moment.

Clouds give me the screaming heebie jeebies, as far as storage goes. I want to know that it's mine, MINE!I feel remarkably OK about clouds for backup and for ( ... )