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I was actually considering a Surface for a brief moment, since to this day, I'd really love to have Writer's Cafe on my Transformer, but it wouldn't run Windows desktop apps, even lightweight ones. I get the whole "different cpu architecture" issue, but seriously, that's the ONE feature that would make a Windows tablet compelling: without it, why bother?

bad typography seems to be a religion.

Fighting both with tradition & with vendor marketing...

( ragged-right's more readable than justified - and has been for 500 years,
space-endash-space is more matching the "this is an interjection" concept than nospace-longdash-nospace - visually, that is,
can't get good typeface families with expert chars, etc etc etc. )

BTW, if you get the chance, try Scrivener, maybe on a Frankentosh/Hackentosh or http://www.efi-x.com/ machine - best good-writing prog around http://www.literatureandlatte.com/ - if you prefer your publications be well writ.. :)

Both Corkboard & Infinite-Paper, among other things...

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/ is *sorta* similar: its StoryLines gives one the ease of arranging the bits-of-story into several ( visually ) parallel streams of story, so one can SEE what one's work's structure be -shrug- Writer's Cafe runs on Linux/Windoze/Mac, unlike Scrivener...

I'd outright ban wordprocessors from author's submitted copy, if necessary, to get fully-worked work.

Cheers

BTW, the kerning in your PDF sucks: the word AVERAGE is particularly bad, and the word "weight" also shows bad optical distribution.

Try the font "Utopia" included with X in SuSE: it seems to be through and through quality. Interesting how clear the LaTeX is, in comparison, though, I'd never seen a a/b before, and am probably going to have to learn it, now. I owe you one. (:

Always Persue Excellence!

Ok, I dabble with some writing, so your question prompted me to do a quick survey.. maybe there is some interesting stuff out there now?...

Here are a couple of options I found:

http://www.celtx.com/features.html
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/scr2
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/node/909
http://www.write-brain.com/power_structure_main.htm (notes that it works under Wine)
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html (under Wine)
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2008/03/an-equivalent-o.html (How to get "outline mode" in Open Office)

The other route, that will help if you don't want to keep a second machine around to clutter all that desk real estate, is to install VirtualBox under Ubuntu (easy under 8.04) and then put Windows inside that with FD or MM etc on it.

Fundamentally, writing is wordflow, & if
one is wrestling with formatting while wrestling with wordflow, then
one is sabotaging one's success in writing.

Unfortunately, basic formatting is required to get the wordflow right
( italics, etc. ).

One thing I've learned, with word-processors, is to use hard page-breaks to
force the damn things to respect my intent.

But Scrivener only may be becoming available for Linux,
if the contributors who posted on this page are able to make it so. . .

Right Now(tm), however, there's a writing-environment that already
works in Linux & is available as a demo version.

I consider writing environment to be crucial for effective & fluid writing, & also
there is one other killer app: Stein On Writing ( Sol Stein )
http://www.amazon.com/Stein-Writing-Successful-Techniques-Strategies/dp/0312254210/

NO writing-book I've ever read gave me as much as that one did.
Think William Zinsser's "On Writing Well", except instead of
the high-school level stuff, the university-level stuff:
techniques for reading for writing,
techniques for torquing words into communication-strength,
even techniques for concisification. . .

Enjoy, eh?

As for the Linux installs easily & doesn't force headaches theory -shudder-
I've been living in Linux since 1996 ( Slackware, back then ) &
consider Ubuntu to be nearly evil:
what it did to Linux-itself is unholy.
That it Microsofts any previously-installed Linux distro's boot capability, too, is comical.
I've fought with more damn config problems & hw problems in Linux than in MS-Windows, but once it's set-up then its stability rocks.

See StoryLines:

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/features.htm

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/

The demo is at:

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/download.htm

I tried it, and liked it. But, as I'm doing some more esoteric stuff along these lines, I cannot fully use theirs. Besides, since 1994 or so, I'd been compiling my blueprints and paper information and along came Lotus Approach and Lotus WordPro, so I have something for myself and my future fanbase.

But, for those of you not aiming for my level of esoterica, Storylines may be right up your alley.

It used to be called StoryLines, then they apparently branched out the Writer's Cafe bit, and now I'm still searching/looking to see if StoryLines still exists as a separate, other-features-featured product.

Ah, see them here:

http://www.anthemion.co.uk/products.htm

From Writer's Cafe. This couple has a screenplay application that works with OpenOffice.org, at least last time I checked about two years ago.

See it and more screen shots here (same as a link above):

http://www.anthemion.co.uk/products.htm

Here is a description of StoryLines & Writer's Cafe...

"Writer's Café is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer's Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay. Designed by published novelist Harriet Smart, it also includes a notebook, journal, research organiser, inspirational quotations, writing exercises, and a 60-page e-book, "Fiction: The Facts", distilling 20 years of writing experience. Writer's Café is designed to be a playground for the imagination, making writing fiction fun and fulfilling."

See StoryLines:

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/features.htm

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/

The demo is at:

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/download.htm

I tried it, and liked it. But, as I'm doing some more esoteric stuff along these lines, I cannot fully use theirs. Besides, since 1994 or so, I'd been compiling my blueprints and paper information and along came Lotus Approach and Lotus WordPro, so I have something for myself and my future fanbase.

But, for those of you not aiming for my level of esoterica, Storylines may be right up your alley.

It used to be called StoryLines, then they apparently branched out the Writer's Cafe bit, and now I'm still searching/looking to see if StoryLines still exists as a separate, other-features-featured product.

Ah, see them here:

http://www.anthemion.co.uk/products.htm

From Writer's Cafe. This couple has a screenplay application that works with OpenOffice.org, at least last time I checked about two years ago.

See it and more screen shots here (same as a link above):

http://www.anthemion.co.uk/products.htm

Here is a description of StoryLines & Writer's Cafe...

"Writer's Café is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer's Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay. Designed by published novelist Harriet Smart, it also includes a notebook, journal, research organiser, inspirational quotations, writing exercises, and a 60-page e-book, "Fiction: The Facts", distilling 20 years of writing experience. Writer's Café is designed to be a playground for the imagination, making writing fiction fun and fulfilling."

See StoryLines:

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/features.htm

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/

The demo is at:

http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/download.htm

I tried it, and liked it. But, as I'm doing some more esoteric stuff along these lines, I cannot fully use theirs. Besides, since 1994 or so, I'd been compiling my blueprints and paper information and along came Lotus Approach and Lotus WordPro, so I have something for myself and my future fanbase.

But, for those of you not aiming for my level of esoterica, Storylines may be right up your alley.

It used to be called StoryLines, then they apparently branched out the Writer's Cafe bit, and now I'm still searching/looking to see if StoryLines still exists as a separate, other-features-featured product.

Ah, see them here:

http://www.anthemion.co.uk/products.htm

From Writer's Cafe. This couple has a screenplay application that works with OpenOffice.org, at least last time I checked about two years ago.

See it and more screen shots here (same as a link above):

http://www.anthemion.co.uk/products.htm

Here is a description of StoryLines & Writer's Cafe...

"Writer's Café is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer's Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay. Designed by published novelist Harriet Smart, it also includes a notebook, journal, research organiser, inspirational quotations, writing exercises, and a 60-page e-book, "Fiction: The Facts", distilling 20 years of writing experience. Writer's Café is designed to be a playground for the imagination, making writing fiction fun and fulfilling."