I like geek-toys. Software, gadgets, you name it. But I like them to have some purpose<\/i>, not just be shiny for the sake of being shiny. I’m sure part of it is that it’s more fun to play with new tools than to use them, at least for me, and another fraction of it is the “If only I had the perfect $X, I’d get so much more $Y done” mentality. Still, shiny.<\/p>\n
Writing is one area where I’ve thought a better tool might help. Nothing too fancy, as that inspires font-fiddling rather than writing. I’ve done a lot of writing in VIM<\/a>, but while that is first rate for editing code and data files, I find it suboptimal for managing large writing projects. It’s hard to beat for speed-drafting, but not great for project management. I’ve thought about putting together a text-file project management system using various linux tools, but I’m pretty sure that veers waaaay into time-wasting territory. Somebody’s got to have already done it, and snazzier than I can manage.<\/p>\n I’ve been a bit jealous of Mac users for a while, because Scrivener<\/a> sounds just lovely. I used to be a Mac owner, once upon a time, but dumped for linux when I developed a need for fancy scientific software that didn’t exist for other platforms. That restriction has pretty much gone away with Mac’s BSD base, and I’m occasionally tempted to go to Mac for my next laptop. I’m unlikely to do so because of the need to maintain compatibility with work projects (on linux) and so that I have access to a Windows computer for the occasional highly-annoying work requirement that won’t work on linux no matter what I do. (You’d think an online training system could be cross-platform, but you’d apparently be badly confused.) A Windows-linux dual boot system works very well for me as my personal laptop. And yet, there’s Scrivener. <\/p>\n I’ve tracked down a few Windows options to try that sound possibly useful. I want a writing part that is just writing, no fiddling, and I really don’t care if it has formatting options (fonts, margins – the word processing stuff) as long as it’s a clean interface and can be exported into something a word processor can read for the final formatting. Spell check would be convenient, but isn’t necessary. I also want a project management portion that makes it easy to rearrange chunks within the overall flow, and to go back and fill in parts around a skeleton. <\/p>\n yWriter<\/a> is well-liked by at least part of the online writing community. It claims to do everything I want, and is free. It doesn’t look terribly polished in the screenshots, but function before form, right?<\/p>\n