Which application, if any, are you using to write?

[Commonmind]

I just recently installed a copy of Office 2007 and am quite pleased with its functionality. I absolutely abhor typing in the format usually required for submission (1-1.5 margin, Courier 10-12, double-spaced, 5 point paragraph indent), I much prefer smaller margins, Times New Roman, and a larger font size, with a much larger indentation (merely because I find it to be more eye-pleasing, and easier to read). This means, of course, that before submitting any work, that I have to reformat the entire document. If any of you have done this yourselves, you know how many problems can arise. One of the features of Office '07 is a style sheet, which allows you to customize a list of styles to apply to the document in real time. Which means I can type one way, mouse over the style I've made, and in less time than it takes me to Ctrl-A I've changed the entire document with no errors (save adding the appropriate headers and a cover sheet).

I missed writing on my Mac (which has myriad applications geared specifically toward writers), but with this latest version of Office I'm starting to enjoy working on my PC again - the flashy new laptop helps a bit too

So, what program does everyone use and why do you prefer it?

 

[mosaix]

I use Word 2000. I have always used Word and this is the last incarnation that I aquired. I know it inside out and would hate to have to learn anything new.

 

[Leaf Face]

I have a mac G4 that I use for everything but writing. I can't believe it is outdated already.

I write on a PC laptop with Word 95 on it. My mac doesn't have a floppy drive, and the PC doesn't have an ethernet connection, so if I want to get my writing to my mac, I have to go to kinko's and upload it to my email to get it on my mac. Pain in the arse, really. But I am going to buy a floppy drive for my mac next week (after 5 years) and finally be able to do this wondrous feat. On my mac I have appleworks, and if you have appleworks you know that conversions don't work. Sooo.... In a few months I plan on buying Word Office for my mac.

Ok, rant done. In Word, I use a dark blue background and bright yellow, size 10 font without page breaks. I love having that color contrast as black on white gives me a headache.

 

[Lenny]

SNAP!

I recently installed Office 2007 too!

Without trying to skew the topic... whatcha think of the new Office? It ain't 'alf a giant leap from previous versions, though I love the customisation you can do with all the templates. Bad point... WHY THE NEW FILE EXTENSIONS FOR EVERYTHING?!!!! *breaks down and cries*

In other news... I'm a-raring to start typing things up in Word all proper like. Once I've done my Maths tomorrow I might make another start on something.

 

[Sapheron]

Wordpad, it's all I have. God only knows why I don't have at least MS Word, but I don't. I used to though, which means I can miss the spellchecker. Then again, wordpad has the benefit of being easy to use.

 

[Commonmind]

SNAP!

I recently installed Office 2007 too!

Without trying to skew the topic... whatcha think of the new Office? It ain't 'alf a giant leap from previous versions, though I love the customisation you can do with all the templates. Bad point... WHY THE NEW FILE EXTENSIONS FOR EVERYTHING?!!!! *breaks down and cries*

In other news... I'm a-raring to start typing things up in Word all proper like. Once I've done my Maths tomorrow I might make another start on something.

Right there with ya; it's not a huge leap, more like a re-engineering of the old format, but in a sense that's the change I wanted to begin with; an updated GUI that was sleek and easy to use. I love the customization too, and I really can't get enough of the tool-bar (or Ribbon, as they call it now). When I was testing it in beta (which I installed on my normal PC, so I didn't give it much time) I really didn't see the point. Now that I've spent the last week actually delving into though, I've got to say I couldn't go back. There, as you said, are some small idiosyncratic changes made that were either unnecessary, or slightly frustrating, but I kept my old copies of Word and Excel installed for anything that causes issues.

The best part about it is the fresh new look and slick design has been oddly inspiring and I've been getting quite a bit of work done since I loaded it up.

 

[Commonmind]

Wordpad, it's all I have. God only knows why I don't have at least MS Word, but I don't. I used to though, which means I can miss the spellchecker. Then again, wordpad has the benefit of being easy to use.

You could always try some of the free word processing apps out there Saph. They'll give you a lot more than Wordpad and most of them are really easy to use. Programs like Open Office actually allow you to save in Word formats, as well as open Word documents. There's others out there too, check them out and I'm sure you'll find something up your alley...

OpenOffice.org: Home

 

[Lenny]

Right there with ya; it's not a huge leap, more like a re-engineering of the old format, but in a sense that's the change I wanted to begin with; an updated GUI that was sleek and easy to use. I love the customization too, and I really can't get enough of the tool-bar (or Ribbon, as they call it now). When I was testing it in beta (which I installed on my normal PC, so I didn't give it much time) I really didn't see the point. Now that I've spent the last week actually delving into though, I've got to say I couldn't go back. There, as you said, are some small idiosyncratic changes made that were either unnecessary, or slightly frustrating, but I kept my old copies of Word and Excel installed for anything that causes issues.

The best part about it is the fresh new look and slick design has been oddly inspiring and I've been getting quite a bit of work done since I loaded it up.

I can see why it might seem "oddly inspiring". On my monitor I seem to have the blank page in the middle, and miles of empty space to each side... makes you want to fill it all.

How different to the finished product was Beta? I know a few people who were Beta-testing it, and they said that the Beta version has hundreds of little features that the final product doesn't.

 

[dustinzgirl]

OK I have used office 98 for like, um---ten years. I like all the old ms office packages, up to 2007.

2007 MS Office Enterprise Edition was just installed in my new computer by my hubby, who was very sweetly trying to help me.

It is confusing, I can't find anything, I can't do all the stuff that I could always do because everything is in the wrong place.

It is evil and it is a conspiracy to frustrate me. Microsoft, the devil, and my hubby are all in cahoots to make my work day much, much, much more irritating.

PS: 2007 Excell can die. It is horrilbe and I hate it and if it were a person I would stab it in the eyeball with a pitchfork.

 

[Talysia]

I feel so out of place! I use a good old fashioned writing book and pen! (No doubt I'll have to type it up at some point, though!) I guess I don't use an application, then.

 

[dustinzgirl]

I feel so out of place! I use a good old fashioned writing book and pen! (No doubt I'll have to type it up at some point, though!) I guess I don't use an application, then.

I would do that except that:

1. I am lazy.
2. I can't read my own handwriting.
3. I spill coffee on anything I print or hand write. Its like, a force of nature.

 

[Commonmind]

I can see why it might seem "oddly inspiring". On my monitor I seem to have the blank page in the middle, and miles of empty space to each side... makes you want to fill it all.

How different to the finished product was Beta? I know a few people who were Beta-testing it, and they said that the Beta version has hundreds of little features that the final product doesn't.

So far from what I've seen it's a carbon copy of the beta, save some stability fixes and a few added features in the options menu that most of us will probably never use. Other than that everything is there, and in refined, blue GUI goodness.

 

[Lenny]

Ooooh 'eck no. I can't stand the blue! I've changed mine to the black GUI.

 

[dustinzgirl]

Ooooh 'eck no. I can't stand the blue! I've changed mine to the black GUI.

Me too. That blue was way, way to bright. It hurt my eyes. It only took me like, 10 minutes to change it to the black, which I love!

 

[Lenny]

Too right. Black is a lot better than blue. And it matches my desktop... which is black. Black is the new black!

---

OK I have used office 98 for like, um---ten years. I like all the old ms office packages, up to 2007.

2007 MS Office Enterprise Edition was just installed in my new computer by my hubby, who was very sweetly trying to help me.

It is confusing, I can't find anything, I can't do all the stuff that I could always do because everything is in the wrong place.

It is evil and it is a conspiracy to frustrate me. Microsoft, the devil, and my hubby are all in cahoots to make my work day much, much, much more irritating.

PS: 2007 Excell can die. It is horrilbe and I hate it and if it were a person I would stab it in the eyeball with a pitchfork.

Just noticed this post.

Just keep at it. Yes, it's all very confusing to start off with, but you get used to it the more you ise it.

I don't know what you see is wrong with Excel, but I personally dislike Access. I've got to use it for my Computing project, and I've just realised that I haven't the faintest idea how to get everything to work in Access 2007 like I do with Access 2003.

 

[jenna]

I have an old Mac clamshell that I use exclusively for writing, it has one of the older versions of Word on it, not sure which one. But I don't have Word on my desktop Mac yet, so I can't transfer between them properly. My sister just got the OSX compatible Word for her new laptop, so I'll be stealing it off her soon..

 

[Duchessprozac]

I use Open Office. It may not have all the latest doodads that MS Office has, but for writing it does what I need it to, which is enable me to get words and sentences into something tangible to work with and that's all I expect from it.

 

[The Ace]

I've used Office 2000, office XP, and I tried 2003, but I find that Open Office is easy to use, takes up a lot less disk space and is free. I've never seen any reason to change it.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I feel so out of place! I use a good old fashioned writing book and pen! (No doubt I'll have to type it up at some point, though!) I guess I don't use an application, then.

Same here, Talysia. I find that the sentences flow more when I write by hand. And it's not just my story...I handwrite essays and such, as well (and then copy them up accordingly).

And when I do copy them up, I use...Microsoft Office XP apparently (this is what it's telling me, so I'll go with it). Strangely everytime I open it, it starts installing itself, stops halfway through when it realises it hasn't got a disk, shouts at me for not having a disk, then proceeds to open anyway. Tsk.

 

[Daniel Hetberg]

I'm using LaTeX with TeXnicCenter.

Nothing kinky, it's a sort of scripting language where you enter the text in any editor, interspersed with commands like \emph{your text here} to emphasize something. Now this sounds really stupid at first, it's not wysiwyg and you have to learn some commands, but the major upside is, it looks like a book, and not like something that came off MS word.

It's also great with automatic chapter numbering and all that, if you use references to other chapters (as in academic writing).

Of course, if you want to get something published professionally, they will have somebody who handles the layout and you're supposed to submit everything as a text file, or word or what have you. But if you want to write something to give to a couple of friends, or even publish yourself as a PDF or whatever, latex might help you make it look nice without paying a cent.

Try this link for a comparison why somebody thinks Latex is better than word. The reasons he gives are largely on a higher level, but I prefer Latex because the finished document just plainly looks better. I don't want to turn this into an advertisement thread, but I'm happy to give people pointers towards resources and where to download what (it's all free).