# What word processor or typewriter (!) do you use to write on?



## Scot McPhie (Jul 17, 2012)

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## sunaynaprasad (Jul 17, 2012)

I use Microsoft Word, but it's actually Mac Word since I use a Mac Book.


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## Tiamat (Jul 18, 2012)

I'm not sure it really matters either way, at least in terms of distractions.  Writing in a notebook might not offer you Email or Facebook, but there's still the "what's on TV?" option or "Boy, it's a really nice day outside," or any number of others.  If you let yourself be distracted, you will be.  Plain and simple.

As for the actual word processor, I ran into a minor issue with this just yesterday.  I use OpenOffice, because I refuse to spend an obscene amount of money on the new MS Word.  However, most markets want submissions in .doc or .rtf, not .odt.  That's a pretty easy fix, but after sending a few chapters to one of my betas (which I had to convert to .doc files), there were a few formatting issues.  Nothing major, really, but I don't want to get a rejection because of a few minor spacing issues due to a file conversion.  I'm not real sure how to approach this, actually.  Hopefully someone more technologically intelligent than me will chime in.


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## Kyle R (Jul 18, 2012)

Tiamat said:


> As for the actual word processor, I ran into a minor issue with this just yesterday. I use OpenOffice, because I refuse to spend an obscene amount of money on the new MS Word. However, most markets want submissions in .doc or .rtf, not .odt. That's a pretty easy fix, but after sending a few chapters to one of my betas (which I had to convert to .doc files), there were a few formatting issues. Nothing major, really, but I don't want to get a rejection because of a few minor spacing issues due to a file conversion. I'm not real sure how to approach this, actually. Hopefully someone more technologically intelligent than me will chime in.



Have you tried Jarte? I use that, ever since my MS Word stopped working. It saves things in those formats.

http://www.jarte.com/

Might take a little bit to orient yourself to the slightly different format, but it's relatively simple. Has all the regular functions of a word-processor: spell-check, word-count, fonts and whatnot. Only thing missing is a grammar-check but I don't miss it that at all.

If anything you can work in your Open Office, then Select+All, copy, and paste into Jarte (just to use Jarte to save it as .rtf or whatever).

Just a suggestion.


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## Sam (Jul 18, 2012)

A word processor is just a tool. It aids in the writing process, but it doesn't make it easier or harder. If you give distractions your attention full stop, it doesn't matter what you use to write -- there'll always be a lingering voice telling you to watch the news, read the paper, make a sandwich. 

If the distractions are so bad, switch the Internet router off for an hour. Unplug the TV. Lock the door to whatever room you use to write. Open your word processor and nothing else. Start writing.


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## MJCaan (Jul 18, 2012)

I have tried Ulysses and while it is powerful, there was just something very...off putting about it.  Maybe it was the fact that you have to go into a completely separate module to edit.  Now I work in word on my macbook and it seems to be working out for me.


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## garza (Jul 19, 2012)

Scot - What Sam said.

Tiamat - If you are running any version of Windows you already have WordPad, which is a small word processor that uses .rtf format. Both WordPad and Notepad are included as part of Windows. Notepad is a straight text editor and its .txt files can be read by any operating system - Microsoft, Apple, Unix, or Linux. It is for writing only and not for page formatting. It's my only writing tool. I copy the .txt files into Word 2010 for page formatting.  The advantages of .docx over .doc justify the cost.


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## ElDavido (Jul 19, 2012)

Ommwriter is very good, and free for the basic one, its a full screen WP that tries to remove all the distractions. You can't see the explorer bar, there's no formatting bullpoo to look round. Just you and the words. Combine that with soothing music and some auditory feedback for each key press (both optional, don't worry) and you've got one hell of an experience.


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## garza (Jul 19, 2012)

What's the difference between that and the basic text editors that come free with Windows and most Linux distros?


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## pgoroncy (Jul 19, 2012)

I usually write my first drafts with pen and paper. I find my writing loses something if I type the first draft. That and the fact that I can carry a notebook everywhere I go, which I can't with a computer. When it's time to copy it over to the computer I use Word.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Jul 20, 2012)

I use MS Word. I like the latest edition because of its nifty shortcuts and applications (e.g. easy in-text citation of reference and automatic bibliography set-up, user-friendly flowcharts and graphs, etc.), but its mostly for school paper stuff, like writing my thesis and whatnot. When it comes to normal writing, you know, the prose and poetry kind, any processor would do. Pen and paper, WordPad, NotePad, MS Office, OpenOffice, GoogleDocs... they offer the same basic service.


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## KatyBlue (Jul 20, 2012)

Where possible, I use a notebook. By which I mean an old school exercise book with all the used-up pages removed, or a shop-bought one.

Why? A few reasons:
- it means I can write anywhere, whether on the train or during lunch hour at work, whilst visiting friends if I have a sudden idea...
- writing things longhand seems to engage my brain much better than typing
- I find paper easier to read from than a screen
- I remember what I wrote better that way, and can subsequently revise and add to it in my head whilst doing other things

I will then type it up, revising it in the process, so that I have a computer copy (MS Word 2003 usually).
Revisions are made in the Word document after this point. Large-scale checks and redrafts involve printing sections/ the whole thing, editing them with coloured pen and then making the edits on the document file.

If I write directly onto my PC, which I do sometimes when I am working at it, there are often gaps in the longhand text - I consider it fairly pointless to fill these in as it doesn't seem to aid editing, although I will do it if I'm short on ideas of where to go from here.


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