Writing apps or software for Mac?

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Writing apps or software for Mac?

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1bonsam
maj 5, 2015, 2:22 pm

Looking for sound writing program. I don't need (or want) loads of bells and whistles.... Just basic program to prepare outline, keep notes, reference materials and, of corse, compose! Have tried Scrivener, which I find too complicated and just Word too.
Suggestions?

2Keeline
maj 6, 2015, 12:20 pm

My wife who is writing her first mystery novel for publication has been pleased with Scrivener and likes it well. She has even given some seminars at one of her employers, San Diego Writers Ink, an entity with a wide range of short-term courses on writing topics.

James

3GaryBabb
feb 25, 2017, 4:03 am

I am happy with the Pages program for Mac. I like it better than Word or WordPerfect. Pages doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles though, but then I don't need or want them. I don't do a lot of plotting. I just let the characters tell me their story, while I type it.

4Keeline
feb 25, 2017, 5:22 pm

I am wary of any program that uses a proprietary file format. Over my 30 years with the Mac (since 1985) I have been burned multiple times by companies that abandoned programs, making it hard to move the content to a new file format (MacWrite, MacPaint, MacDraw, MacDraw II, WriteNow, PageMaker for Mac, etc. on just the text side of things). Even Apple has dropped a good number of file formats (for text and other types of files) with few upgrade paths. At least with Scrivener the text is stored in RTF which can be read by many programs.

At the very least make sure you have something like a PDF which can be laboriously pulled out with copy and paste as a last resort.

James

5alexmarsh
mar 17, 2017, 7:02 am

I found Scrivener changed my life, which might sound a little dramatic - but it cut out all the major struggles that I had with daunting pages upon pages of a large Word file.

I appreciate that the bells and whistles can be daunting (as per the first comment) - but I use it only in a very, very basic capacity, and something about the environment seems to allow me to focus, whether this is writing 'from scratch' or in going through an edit.

6Keeline
mar 17, 2017, 5:36 pm

Being able to take a snapshot of a chapter before you do a rewrite and knowing that the original is still there for you, including "diff" comparisons of changes is a pretty valuable feature.

The ways to let you outline and keep notes on characters and scenes is also a valuable part of Scrivener.

I should use it more myself but I write nonfiction reference materials and I haven't adopted it into my workflow yet.

James

7CAEdwards
mar 21, 2017, 9:15 am

Scrivener is what I use to write my first drafts in. I then export into Word to do the final edits and prepare to export into ebooks and print. I just started using Vellum the other day for ebook prep, so I may add that permanently to my collection of programs.

Other authors like to use Ulysses and Storyist for their writing. Both are available to Mac users.

8blackfeather
dec 8, 2017, 5:24 pm

I keep all my work in plain text format until it must be submitted (for publication, or for critique) at which point I import it into LibreOffice. I'm a coder/developer for my "day job" and so I know the tools used in that field. There's a format and program called "git" which allows me to keep every version I want, a snapshot of the whole project, along with comments. There are also free private git remote hosts out there, e.g., bitbucket and gitlab. So I push my story out there, and have multiple backups, in addition to every saved version. Git will also handle binary files, so .docx which is binary (in that it's not plain text) can also be added to the project. Unfortunately, the diff tools don't work on it.

For plain text editing, I like Atom or Brackets.

Programs mentioned: LibreOffice, Git

9Nostrand
feb 11, 2018, 10:45 pm

I use NisusWriter Pro for general purposes. Before that, I used Nisus for general use.

I generally use Textures for STEM articles.

You can use Grammarly to partially automate proof reading. It can not handle book length text, but can usually deal with chapter length text.