Slashdot Mirror
Goodbye Cruel Word
theodp writes "The problem with Microsoft Word, writes the NYT's Virginia Heffernan, is that 'I always feel as if I'm taking an essay test.' Seeking to break free of the tyranny of Microsoft Word, Heffernan takes a look at Scrivener and the oh-so-retro WriteRoom, which she and others feel jibe better with the way writers think. 'The new writing programs encourage a writerly restart. You may even relearn the green-lighted alphabet, adjust your preference for long or short sentences, opt afresh for action over description. Renewal becomes heady: in WriteRoom's gloom is man's power to create something from nothing, to wrest form from formlessness. Let's just say it: It's biblical. And come on, ye writers, do you want to be a little Word drip writing 603 words in Palatino with regulation margins? Or do you want to be a Creator?'"
The problem with Word and notably Microsoft, is that they have attempted to make both Windows and their apps, notably Office, all things to all people with an interface that has not really changed at all over the course of its lifetime.
I used to think that the reality of the situation was that you really could not have a professional class word processing application that does all things that professional writers need used by the same audience that merely wants to write school reports or letters to friends. However, it is all in the interface and Pages from Apple has shown that many of the "professional" features in word processing have to do with page layout or formatting issues as well as integrating not just text and fonts, but also images. Fundamentally the issue with interfaces is not providing features piled on features, but figuring out how to craft a tool that people can use to get work done rather than having to learn how to use the tool. I want my word processing environment to simply let me craft written word and images into a form that allows me to communicate my intent to the audience without getting in the way or making me learn arcane and occult methods for getting my page numbers to appear just right or getting the text to wrap around an embedded image without constantly having to reformat an entire 80 (or more) page document. Writing my doctoral dissertation in Word back in 2003 was a repeated lesson in pain as every time I changed a single image, the formatting of the entire document would be altered with entire paragraphs seeming to disappear or get hidden outside of margins and I never want to return to that world.
Granted, I still have to return to Word from time to time as Pages is not yet perfect, still needing better integration with Endnote, but it is getting pretty close. The perfect environment would be Pages that can read and edit Adobe Acrobat files along with markup, comments and notes along with full Endnote functionality that would also run on a tablet that takes advantage of gestures...
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
I am just wondering if the author has a problem with MS, MS Word, or how the package works and "feels".
OpenOffice is presented similarly, but "feels" different. Like Office 2007 does, only better.
I enjoy writing in OpenOffice more than with MS Word, but that just may be because that which you use often gets familiar, like a favourite pair of shoes...
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
It's the "killer ap" that got me to convert to linux full time.
http://www.lyx.org/
For long projects I've found LyX to be the easiest environment due to its WYSYWIM paradigm and easy handling of references, notes and citations. It's just very easy to simply get down to work with LyX. I'll grant you that I quite like the feature of Scrivener where one can have inspirational/reference material included in the appropriate section folder, but I wonder would it become distracting?
With Eclipse, it just feels like there's too much there, too much to distract me. Sure, it's powerful, but sometimes you just want a text editor that will stay out of your way.
The best green-screen creative writing environment is Vim. Which comes free with every Mac, already, if you've the wit to open a terminal window. (Although I'll give you a free pass if you prefer Emacs.) WriteRoom stinks to me of an attempt to sell a reinvented wheel to folks who don't know any better.
http://texmacs.org/ FREE!
from the looks of the front page you would think math geeks would only use it but it also functions as an excellent word processor...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Be a Creator?
Hey, I'd be satisfied with just a passel of rib-DNA-generated gender-flipped quasi-clones.
Not sure if that'd make them my wives or daughters, but I think I can deal with the metaphysical ambiguity.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
Anything that is larger than 3 pages (requires structure) I do in LaTeX.
I can't watch "Juno" and read that article in the same day. My brain is really tired of text and dialogue as dense as a ten-year-old Christmas fruitcake.
Can anyone here translate into "concise" for me?
A guy with a brand new Fender Strat doesn't sound like Jimi Hendrix. Nor can you drive better in a Lotus than an xB.
What's more likely is that if you think you're doing better and that helps you, so much the better.
Document composers for mass mailings, labels, newsletters, all need different features that aren't part of the word processing function of creativity, rather its creative exposition. I'll write (a dozen books, thousands of articles so far) on whatever, and won't go to Jerry Pournelle's years of bitching about the nuances. It's the content, Jerry. It's the content. Word, Word Perfect, WordStar, Zedit, Joe, Vi, textedit, don't much matter. Grammar checkers, spell checkers, syntactical analyzers, pretty printers, code-indenting hoohaa, I don't care. Let me write. Grace and elegance are for those that need glitter and swan-like moves. They look pretty, but it's only style, and style will always be subjective. Content rules; fancy-assed WYSIWYG twelve-key-combo-crap drools.
Just my 2c worth.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
There is no "tyranny of Microsoft Word," only the feeling to need to follow the mindless masses. There have been many excellent "alternatives" to Microsoft Word ever since it debuted on the Macintosh in 1985. Yes, once Microsoft gained its massive market share, there were reasons for many to use it (file compatibility, because, you know, all simple memos _must_ be saved in .doc rather than as text or the much simpler .rtf), but those reasons do not exist for independent writers.
Microsoft Word. Light of my mind, fire of my frustration. My sin, my soul. Mi-cro-soft-word. The mouth contorts with anti-poetry. My. Crow. Soft. Word.
This was a coffee-out-the-nose moment for me - it's a parody of the very first paragraph of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
"Here's the basic problem: you're writing a text editor. Stop doing that. It's 2007."
Read my blog.
I've used Word since version 1.0 when it came on two 5-1/4" floppies and included a mouse in the box and ran on the original IBM 8088. Before that I used Word Factory, Wordstar and Zardax. I've used every version of Word since 1.0. It is now certainly bloated and busy. It's advanced features such as multiple indexing can drive you crazy with their ineptness, but at heart it is simply a blank screen for you to fill in. Turn off the Nazi grammar feature and it pretty well leaves you alone to do what you want. If you aren't creative, Word won't make you so. If you are creative, Word isn't going to regiment you into not being so. To claim otherwise is an excuse. Maybe you just aren't, like, creative at all. Blaming the software won't turn it around any more than the paper you use. If 8-1/2 x 11" paper is too authoritarian for you, try Charmin to better express your creativity. By all means use another word processor if it makes you feel better, but I don't think a few people looking for another cause are going to lead an exodus away from Word any time soon.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Agree. Kind of strange selling stuff to mimic the tools from the good old days, when the tools from the good old days are still around.
word perfect 5.1 with reveal codes. word processors, notably ms word, have just gone downhill from there. more complexity with less control and more bloatware. I don't need 50,000 features, I just need 100 that are intuitive, work properly, and work quickly.
There's something to be said for a writing tool for writers.
First, professional writers need only minimal formatting capability. Formatting is someone else's job. Any formatting done by the author will just interfere with page makeup later. Writers need to be able to insert chapter breaks, and that's about it.
Second, the word processor should not interrupt the flow of writing. Auto-completion is usually not wanted. Spell checking is probably better done after the fact, not during writing.
Third, not losing the text is important. The writer should not have to "save". A word processor which guaranteed it would never lose the text, backed up by continuous remote backup to multiple sites and an insurance policy, would probably have a following among pros.
There are newsroom systems like this, on which reporters compose stories.
... who misread the title as "Goodbye Cruel World". Thought it was going to be a /. suicidal note... God I NEED COFFEE!
Damn ... Scrivener looks like something really neat for a freelancer writer. But it doesn't run on Linux!
I read TFA, and these guys seem to be worried about the wrong thing. Word menus, etc, are easy enough to deal with. What makes it a god-forsaken piece of shit are all the bugs. Documents are always getting corrupted, figures don't do where you want and stay there, can't save sometimes for no apparent reason, the entire thing just bombs out, etc. We had a "Platinum Support Ticket" or some similar nonsense open on Word for a few years. The upshot, direct from a Microsoft senior support line, was that if we wanted documents to not get corrupted, was to print it out on paper, make sure it was right, then use a scanner and save it as a TIFF. Thanks, that's good advice.
What is so pathetic is that I have ordinary technical documents from the late 50's and 60's that are laid out better, have better graphics, and are still perfectly readable today. While at the same time, a Word document I saved last week either can't be opened, or has all the symbols corrupted.
Brett
> What is it with this "it's been done before, thus it can't be improved"-philosophy?
Writeroom is not actually trying to sell itself on being an improvement on anything, it sells itslef on notalgia to a time where there were zillions of text editors. Problem is, these text editors are still around. If vim is too strange, try Emacs as the poster suggested. Both have all the features listed, and are rather easy to learn if you only do simple stuff. And if you want it even simpler, pico, or nano, or jed, or joe are also available.
That appears to cover everything, and more, that WriteRoom offers, and Scrivener just looks silly and distracting to me.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
90% market share in the business world means that a Disney-lemming-feeling isn't the only reason you're going to be using Microsoft Word at work. And sure, you can use "alternatives"... but your choice of "alternatives" -- 90% of the time -- is constrained by Microsoft Word compatibility.
That's tyranny, any way you slice it. Your feel-good post has a nice sentiment but is totally wrong, nigger.
Someone has writer's block and is taking it out on Word. If they really want to be the 'creator' then perhaps they should try making some rice paper, some ink, and a pen. Then they can get to work.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
The one thing that I ask of a word processor is that it begin with the assumption that I am writing something that will be printed on paper, not as a web page. Why oh why do programs like Word default to turning blue and underlining anything beginning with http or containing an @?
Three Squirrels
I never use Word. Each time I've gotten a new system, I've deleted it. I use TextPad for quick and Word Pro for professional.
That said, I just read her article. 'Twas a tale told by an idiot apparently. She can't do what is easy and carps about that which is nothing.
I've used various versions of Word (and before that, the original AppleWorks on an Apple ][e) to write books and book-length dissertations. Just so you know where I'm coming from, I still think the best version of Word for the Mac is 5.1a.
For the last decade or so my strategy was to use Word's outliner then fill in the text. Pretty straightforward when you know exactly how things are supposed to go, like for a paper or a report. Unfortunately, I found them wanting for my creative writing, where I tend to write from the inside out, starting with a scene or a character or a funny sentence but not knowing where that bit would fit in a story. Sure, I could just dump everything in the ol' slop file, or link a bunch of individual files using Word's master document, but it was always forced and clunky.
Last October I was looking for a new tool for Nanowrimo and I experimented with WriteRoom, Jer's Novel Write, Lyx, CopyWrite, Storyist, and Scriviner. In the end it came down to Storyist and Scriviner. I liked how Storyist had novel templates, but they seemed overly restrictive--and the software cost twice as much. I ended up buying Scriviner.
What I like about Scriviner is that it gracefully handles working with both long chapters and little scraps, easily allowing you to change the views to an outline or index cards on a cork board with synopses, or as individual documents, or all run in together in a single window.
but if you want spartan, why not just use vi?
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
So, why not change to a better operating system?
...dude, where's my car?
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Word was never meant to be for "Creators", it was made for office slaves, sitting in small office jails, typing up corporate blahblah at 120 words per minute.
Use LaTeX instead of plain TeX, it allows you to concentrate on content without the distraction of presentation.
The time needed to to be spend on presentation of a 250 page LaTeX document (and yes, I have written a handful such documents) is around 10 seconds, if you are willing to live with the (somewhat boring) default layout, plus some sloppy spacing.
[ It is actually one of great advantages of markup based typesetting systems, over wysiwyg based systems. AT&T did measurements when trying to switch from troff to PageMaker. Internal regulation demanded a pilot project to show benefit. Management wanted to switch, but the troff based beat out the PageMaker based team each time, despite both teams having no prior knowledge of the tools. The PageMaker based team spend too much time too early on layout. ]
Could somebody please translate all that dribble into proper English?
I remember when I first got a computer with a mouse, I had a lot of fun with paint programs. I'm no great artist but I could be quite creative. I tried a different application. Somehow I couldn't do anything. It seems that the toolbar was on the wrong side. Bottom or right I can create. Top or left, I can't.
These days I find a similar issue with developing code. I need as much of the screen dedicated to the editor as possible. A second monitor was a godsend! Just wish I could remove all the extra junk around the editor. Trouble is, that occasionally comes in useful.
is that it's narrow (narrow (narrow (narrow (narrow (narrow (narrow (...))))))).
You must have an open environment such as Smalltalk where everything is at the same level, not dumb applications that live in their own universe and communicate through shoddy wormholes. *shudders*
Take the Sophie project as an example of a good thing:
http://sophieproject.org/
Watch the demo!
*Anything* other than the application concepts of today is good!
Damn, people. Wake up from this nightmare of MicroSoft and operating systems!
That's not made for human beings..
Mod parent up, it really sums up everything worthwhile about the subject.
"Curse these personal computers!" cried the novice in anger, "To make them do anything I must use three or even four editing programs. This is truly intolerable!"
The master programmer stared at the novice. "And what would you do to remedy this state of affairs?" he asked.
The novice thought for a moment. "I will design a new editing program," he said, "a program that will replace all these others."
Suddenly the master struck the novice on the side of his head.
"What did you do that for?" exclaimed the surprised novice.
"I have no wish to learn another editing program," said the master.
And suddenly the novice was enlightened.
-- from "The Zen of Programming" by Geoffrey James, 1988.
...above all else can i create revenue for apple?
can i create the impression that i am living the apple "dream lifestyle"; never mind the fact that anyone who sees or meets a strident mac user is likely to come to the impression that they are all sad and gullible twerps.
look, maybe if i spend enough things will change! maybe...
What the article didn't mention is that with Scrivener projects you can use MultiMarkdown, a derivative of John Gruber's excellent Markdown plain text to HTML converter to format text for other uses. You can then export the marked up Markdown files to HTML or LaTeX. That makes Scrivener not only an excellent writing program but a brilliant formatting one.
You can, of course, also read and write RTF and DOC formats if you don't want to manually format text.
http://smultron.sourceforge.net/
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
I like your comments
.rtf format
for my money Ms. Word is over-kill
in particular I don't like it trying to guess what I want it to do
and especially in a numbered list WordPerfect did numbered lists and outlining very nicely. Ms. Word programmers just don't "get it"
the numbered list should start by indenting both the left and right margin and then resetting the left margin inside the number for the start of text. I should be able to type several paragraphs separated by blank lines with each reference number. and get the next numbered item in the list by means of a command key such as ^Enter
I should be able to break a numbered paragraph or parts of a numbered paragraph into sub paragraphs such as 3.1 and 3.2
yeah, you can get Word to do this stuff but it's a PITA where WordPerfect 5.1 did it beautifully
my writing needs at this time don't go much beyond the trusty Office Memo so I just use PolyEdit and
Word processors have their uses, but so far I've found that a typewriter fed by a 250 foot continuous roll of paper the best trick so far.
I'm about six feet into my current project.
I've known for years that "Goodbye" is a cruel word. That's why I use friendlier terms like "Cheerio", "Adios", "Ciao", and my personal favourite, "Fuck off ya sodding prick".
oh right because windows has an office suite out of the box... oh wait. just trial software which apparently in the case of 2007 likes to save your documents in the 2007 doc format which is dare I say incompatible with pretty much everything else. Which pretty much means the only way that you can open those files correctly is by buying MS's software, all 150$ of it. good example there troll.
One of the things I grew very used to in WordPerfect was reveal codes. IIRC, pressing F11 would reveal all the formatting tags. If you somehow created a mess, you could go in, find the problem and fix it with minimum fuss.
The idea with WordPerfect was that you could just start typing and not have to take your hands off the home row. Microsoft Word never quite measured up.
The reason I use emacs in the first place is because it helps me format my python and, as long as I don't use certain commands, I can run my programs from within emacs.
Now I find that it is more convenient to just write stuff in emacs and format with html. It gives me a blank slate and, just like WordPerfect, if I screw up the formatting, I can find and fix the problem. With two screens, I can have a browser open on one to check the formatting and emacs on the other to compose. The result is that I spend much more time writing in emacs than I do in OpenOffice or even NVU.
YMMV, a chaque un son gout, etc.
Some people liked word, others liked word perfect. I hated them. Me, I liked wordstar. 3.3, no other. You could even write programs with it in non-document mode. Fancy feature, that.
I moved on, did different things. Now I'm content with nvi and troff (groff, really) and my own macro set. There's lots of things it doesn't do, and I know full well that once I need those I'll need to move to something bloated like LaTeX. I'll cross that bridge when I have to. In the meantime, I likes my setup, I does. Especially because, except for my few pages of custom macros with letterhead and so on, all tools come with the (FreeBSD) base system I'm using already.
But, personal preferences are merely that. The real problem is lack of interoperability.
It would be just spiffy if there was some sort of format that allowed everybody to swap files with each other and better yet, everybody understood how to do this. This in contrast to the current practice of looking at the droppings your bog-standard bloated tool leaves on your desktop, because that's user-friendly, and toss it on an email and expect the other side to have an exact same setup with the exact same release of the exact same tool on the same OS to, ehrm, exchange documents. 'All the world's a vax' deja-vu all over again.
Such magic would indeed allow people to choose their tool and preferences and so on.
But so far, I don't think even ODF can be converted back and forth between groff+macros for me, LaTeX and its macros for someone else, and used as or converted to any other blob format for droppings-watching warm bodies.
But hey, at least dreaming hasn't been embraced&extended, forcibly standardized and fast-tracked, tightly controlled using some legal instrument, or outright outlawed for being subversibly different, yet.
Wow, I feel your pain. After Word couldn't reliably handle a small 100-page thesis I wrote, I switched to Mellel for the rest of my time as a student. Highly recommended. Does everthing a dissertation needs, is easy to use, looks nice, and is fast.
XMLMind + DocBook might also be a good option.
But please, whatever you do, avoid Word at all cost. It's just not suitable for this kind of writing.
I remember hearing about this issue with the trial version of Word 97 converting all files it was allowed to touch to Word 97 format. Some things never change....
This is an area where I think Sun is far more on the ball than Microsoft - for one, SO/OOo defaults to saving in the same format as the original document. More importantly, the file formats are better documented than the ones for Word, so you should be able to read them for the forseeable future. The downside of SO/OOo is that it is too much of a clone of MS-Office and dealing with all the formatting issues does get in the way of writing.
I've been thinking of getting a Mac specifically to be able to use Pages.
I have to agree that, for me, the best writing environment is a terminal with vim (often using Compiz' ADD Helper to dim the desktop and all other windows)
... both an upside (freedom) and a downside (something you have to figure out and that might distract you).
... who knows?
...
... don't we use vim because it's what we use all day, anyway? As sysadmins / programmers / etc, it makes sense for us to use the editor that we always use (which is available on all OSes, as well).
Also, a lightweight markup language, like Markdown, lets you write normally - but be able to convert your document to XHTML, LaTeX, PDF, etc etc.
The biggest downside to using vim is that, unlike Scrivener, it doesn't give you explicit places to put your notes / outline / etc. So, using vim, you're free to put your notes / etc wherever you want
For drafting, I often using an SCM like git or subversion, but for little snippets and free-writes, etc? They might be written down on paper, they might be in a random note file
It might be worth it to use screen or vim split screens to reproduce something like Scrivener provides, with designated places on the sides to have notes, etc etc. I think I might try that out
But, come-on, really
I use vim for my writing, because it's what I use all day anyway.
I use git for keeping track of my files / drafts / revisions, because it's what I use all day anyway.
I use markdown for my markup, because it's what I use all day anyway.
a freeware editor that is not distracting: q10
I read the dead-tree article earlier today (yes, we get the Times and yes we're under 65 years old!) and thought it was pretty interesting. Professional writers are finally getting sick of the bugware that is M$ Word.
My solution when doing creative or business writing is to use a text editor for writing, usually Emacs but whatever works. Emacs is nice because it is free, familiar and runs on anything. After the writing is done, I lay out the text in an Adobe InDesign book. It's very easy to "flow" text through the pages, make text wrap around images, etc. with InDesign. It's powerful because it is a full publishing package unlike Word, IMHO. It also integrates with Photoshop/Illustrator in ways the M$ fails to do. Final output is usually to PDF.
YMMV, but splitting writing completely from layout/design has improved my work greatly.
Josh
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
it cannot even read it's own formats over time. sometimes between single revisions.
or in other words, it's crap
I believe writing is in the mind, and a good tool can do little for a bad writer. However, a good writer will get his/her thoughts out regardless of what's available to them.
Of course I was lucky, my first serious writing tool was a brand new IBM Dual-Pitch, Correcting Selectric II. The finest machine of its kind at the time -- and it cost more than a good Dell computer, WP program, and printer does today.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
One consistent criticism of most word processors is that they promote presentation over content - programs like WRITE, WriteRoom shift the focus back to content. The same could be said of most text editors, with the choice being a very personal matter.
The needs of the writer have not changed since Word was first published 20 years ago so they've been forced to add unnecessary crap and change save formats to get people to upgrade. Sad really.
If she can organize her large bust to keep it out of the way when she needs to get other things done, she might be great at other organizational skills as well.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
do i want a professional quality brush in the hands of an novice painter or the cheap art store brush in the hands of a professional painter.
to spell it out for some slashdotters: if your tool stops you from being professional grade you were probably not professional grade to begin with.
I have been using LaTeX for about 95% of my texts (including short notes, ToDo-Lists and letters) since 2002. I agree with the OP that it really takes 10 seconds to format a text, when you leave out the actual typing work. It's as easy as typing
Of course, doing the layout for something containing your blood and sweat, like a PhD thesis, takes much longer. But still, doing so for my Masters thesis was much less work than having to do so in Word. The reason is that thesises, especially those heavy on maths, are exactly what LaTeX was built for. My thesis had pdf-links in the table of contents, an index, lots of beautiful formulae and a link from newly defined mathematical symbols to their definition earlier in the text, and a lot more. All of which was but a few lines of code, using the right set of packages, of course. But best of all: Although the final pdf output (including big figures) was about 120MB in size, the document never became unstable or difficult to use, as opposed to a Word-Document of that size, on a less than brand-new machine. The whole layouting cost me about 3 days (out of a 1 year thesis). A lot of time was saved on not having to reformat the whole thing several times during production, as the writing phase was automatically separated from the layout phase.
I agree, though, that it's not the tool of choice for a concert-flyer.
to get hurt? Touch an authors PC and change something on it. I know an author, good author, who uses windows 98 with an ancient version of '97.
You don't screw with it and you don't 'fix' it. It's a fast track to being bodily harmed.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Someone here linked to this which has so many good points I have no problem with reposting it.
But anyway: These people are being silly. The text editor problem has exaustivly been solved about 10 to 15 years ago. Since then we've gotten a few more, nearly all for free and one better than the next. And to all those who after 20 years of GUI computing still haven't gotten it:
YOU DON'T WRITE TEXT IN A WORD PROCESSOR!
If you're thinking "I know what I'm gonna do now - I'm gonna write a text." then DON'T use a word processor. Use an Editor of which there are countless around and available. Word processors are for formating and making documents print-ready. Repeat after me:" Word processors are *not* primary writing tools. " And don't even dare think of using a word processor for programming. There's a special place in hell for people who do that. Really.
I've been programming and writing for more than two decades now and the last time I abused a word processor as an editor for writing down my initial draft was with AmiPro on Windows for Workgroups 3.11 running on MS-DOS4. And only because I was a n00b at writing on computers, it was a print document from the get-go and AmiPro was good enough not to suck at writing and Win 3.11 lacked a good editor. I've been using jEdit for allmost a decade now and have recently picked up Emacs (not recommended for people who don't know what awaits them) because it runs on the CLI which I often have to use.
Bottom line: It's called Text Editor, or 'Editor' for short, folks. This type of programm has existed for over 30 years. Pick your favorite. And they've all got a fullscreen mode too.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I guess screw Scrivener with it's fascistic Mac OSX only approach. They recommend page 4 for Windows users. It's that kind of elitism that makes me want to insert a Smith Corona up someone's......well see Goatsx for the general idea. They don't even mention those people who may use unix of some sort. I guess it's back to vi for me......
Hey, you think your house is cool?
vi?
Sharper than the edge of Ockham's Razor.
Is there any way to filter out NYT articles on slashdot?
I did use LyX for my 300 page thesis and it was awesome.
I had to print a friends 150 page thesis that was written in Word and that was a nightmare.
The exception to your rule is for screenwriters. Scripts are required to be in proper format for consideration - even original master scripts. Although I've done scripts in WP and MSWord, my preferred script tool is Final Draft, which simplifies what I previously had macros and styles for in MSWord. FD also does a very smart job of importing MSWord documents and formatting the properly. So some writers do have special needs.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Microsoft word?
LaTex?
Word processing?
You people need to get over your obsession with paper.
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
Huh? I got the impression they were writers, wishing to maximize their work, like "The happy, broad-minded, process-friendly Scrivener software encourages note-taking and outlining and restructuring and promises all the exhilaration of a productive desk", or "you also get to drop the curtain on lifes prosaic demands with a feature that makes its users swoon: full screen", or " you must enter the WriteRoom, the ultimate spartan writing utopia", or "What I mean is this: Black screen. Green letters. Or another color combination of your discerning choice. But nothing else".
Now, tell me, where did running fucking micro$oft games enter into all that? Perhaps you didn't read the fucking article at all, did you? You just ran at the chance of becoming just another fucking, obnoxious, micro$oft shill, right?
Ctrl-Alt-F1 then "vim".
In windows, one can pick any of three editors out there, for ex: Notepad2, Notepad++ etc...
Pick your favorite font, increase the font size or zoom in to make the fonts a bit bigger than usual. Change the default color scheme (maybe black background with green text?)...
Ensure that you font smoothing turned on.
Go full screen if you wish. Almost all text editors have this feature.
That's it... you're done. Problem solved! Want inspiration too? Get some image editor that'll show you a slideshow of images... if it doesn't have a feature to 'always on top', then get some freeware program that performs this effect on any open window; I'm sure one exists.
Problem solved.
Some word processors are good for some purposes and some are good for others. Admitting that MS Word does have issues with bugs, corruptions and usability in many areas, it is still a wonderful tool for someone who needs a lot of different functionality. It is the most customizable word processor I know of. It has some of the best scripting support. It has more than decent support for Chinese and Japanese. Paste special, master documents, grammar checks in multiple languages, split windows, opening the same document several times in separate windows. It can do it all.
You never wanted that kind of functionality? Well, then there are other products out there that are much better. But if you do need it, it is difficult to find any product that supports so much functionality equally well.
Even though the grammar check mostly is a joke, there are things it catches that some people appreciate.
I hardly ever recommend MS Word to people who ask for my advice, but that is not because Word is bad. It is because those people usually do not need anything as powerful and expensive as Word. It is not right for them.
Some people need it. Some people don't.
For Screenwriting you could use Celtx, which is based of Gecko rendering engine. It's Free, but it requires to create an account and connect to some server in order to generate a pdf. And it's missing from the repositories of every major distro, so it's quite difficult to install for the novices.
The first word processor I started using heavily was Word Perfect 5.1. It was very different from v4.3 which is what I'd first gotten used to. Ah, that was back in the day when a blue screen did not yet give me that puckering sense of horror. My first encounter with Word was 97. Between college and various jobs, I've become intimately familiar with all of Office. I don't have much bad to say about Excel but I really, really hate Word. On every new release I check out the problem with tables and guess what? They still suck. About the only thing I use in the program that has shown improvement is the visual formatting of the collaboration tool, that's it! All of the old bugs persist, probably because nobody gives enough of a shit to force improvement.
I really like the idea of styles. I think it makes a lot of sense. I like the idea of being able to format the whole thing stem to stern and make revisions that are propagated across the whole document. That being said, I've never seen the styles work properly. You always end up with goofy-ass problems that make the whole effort more trouble than its worth.
I'm also not very impressed with the graphic design elements of Word. I suppose that's what true desktop publishing apps are for, I've never put forth the effort to find out. I just know that Word really has problems with layouts, weird scaling for design elements, and all sorts of weird little glitches that make it work in ways contrary to what's documented.
Overall, I'm quite happy that alternatives are making themselves available. Word's passing will be marked by few, mourned by even less.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
AArgh. Missing Link.
http://www.celtx.com/For 30 years people have been trying to get at the perfect computer tools that fosters creativity. There is no such tool. Before the computer writers wrote with pencils, pens, quills, typewriters, chisels and animal fat paint on the cave wall.
Did you know for instance that the sort-of-great Victorian English writer Anthony Trollope wrote on a clipboard using a stopwatch to time his writing down the minute? He did this because his day job was railway inspector and he was shackled by the station to station train times.
If she can organize her large bust ...
Who says she has a large bust size? When choosing a PA on bust size always make sure it is small, otherwise the missus at home will make your life hell!
Am I the only one totally confused by this story? I hate submissions (or more likely, the editors) that are lazy and simply assumes I know wtf it's talking about. What's the "tyranny" of Word? That's it's part of Office? It's closed source? It's interface? The way those squiggles uglify everything when your grammar gets nit-picked? What the hell does "You may even relearn the green-lighted alphabet" even mean? The submission should introduce the articles and give the readers a clue as to if they'd be interested in them, not the other way around - where you're forced to read the articles to understand the sub.
http://www.talknerdy.org
They're masochists. It's hard to imagine a clunkier, fussier, more limiting and more annoying UI than a typical word processor (ms word or OOo, makes little difference). It's a torture. Now, the reviewed software appears to be better than nothing (I can't try it since both are mac-only). Perhaps they will fit the bill for those who prefer prepackaged solutions. For myself, however, I built a custom system based on XEmacs. It has all these conveniences - full screen, collapsible outlines, plus many more: one-key access to dict.org and to internet-wide concordance (actually just phrase search on google with results in a new buffer, very convenient to see how often and in what contexts a word or phrase are typically used). My analog of Scrivener's "snapshots" is much more powerful - it just commits the document to its svn repository on each save. And since my local svn server is always on, I can work on the same document from any desktop or laptop in my home easily. Plus, of course, one-key access to scripts for export to XML, PDF, HTML, etc. And many, many other small conveniences I have been adding for years. Perhaps the cruelest thing about Word is its search. I can't believe - even in office 2007 it's still a pop-up window that jumps on you, obscuring your text, and then jumps around like crazy when you try to search forward. It's absolutely insane. XEmacs's incremental search with highlighting matches, from statusbar at bottom, with autocomplete working, is a godsend by comparison, though in fact it's just the natural thing to do. And yes, you do need to search your text all the time when you are just writing prose, not only when coding programs. Here's a chance for OOo to differentiate itself on usability, if it cares about this kind of thing.
I too have come to realise that word processors (AbiWord, KWord, and OOo Writer; don't talk to me about MS Word) have too much stuff that I just don't need for most writing tasks.
For the novel I'm writing, I've started using NoteCase, which is a small open-source application for keeping notes on things. It organises things hierarchically, so I can very easily work on separate chapters, sections and appendices, and then change their position in the hierarchy of the document without cutting and hunting for a place to paste them.
When I've finished, I'll export it as a single html document, and open it in OOo Writer for a final spellcheck and conversion to PDF.
Lets make something anti-MS with all these different whatevers. The idea is the same, it has nothing to do with what people want overall, but more with what some people want right now. Flash and Bling in the apps do nothing but pull your user away from what they are trying to accomplish.
:P
What professional writers need? What? Are you being serious? Professional writers don't need better tools, they need better ideas and imagination. All you need to be a professional writer is a pencil and paper or a typewriter, remember those? Almost ever piece of legendary written work was done before computer word processing. And some of the best today are hand written before hand.
Last time I checked there are over 1000's word processing applications out there and growing. I've never once heard a scientist, non-fiction/fiction author, academic professor or a government offical ever write a piece of information that suggested there outcomes could have been better if had .
P.S Sorry for some bad grammar/spelling, I'm eating.
Microsoft word is one of those programs that works well for about eighty percent of what I have to do. For an additional fifteen percent, I can make it work okay but, I have to work at it. For about five percent of the stuff I want to do, it simply falls very far short of what I need. I can turn this around too. I probably only need about twenty percent of what Word can do for the things that I do on a regular basis. There are some other things that are very nice to have for those rare occasions when I need them. And then there are things that I'll simply never use.
I know that this is probably the case for most people. Unfortunately, the things that we all want, need, and use are different. This makes Word a bloated behemoth. Which is one of the things that I hate about it.
Why can't Word come in as many flavors as Vista? Word-Home: a stripped down version for writing letters to grandma. Word-Student: a stipped down version for college students. Word-Basic a version that is used for small offices where most of the work is done by an individual on one computer and so on.
There are some things that I find very difficult to do in Word. I can't find a good way to make a series of organized notes to myself for future use. For instance, to make sure that I reference the same exact information on page six and thirty-three. I think that the collaboration feature sometimes makes documents very hard to follow. Sometimes the formatting features just drive me nuts, keeping me from getting things just right. Worst of all, I will delete a bunch of stuff and the file size will go up rather than down! Makes me believe that the deleted data is still in there (which sometimes could be embarassing).
Still, there isn't much better out there. I use Open Office at home and like it a lot but it isn't better than Word. It does the job admirably. If I could get away with it, I would use it at work. Still, Word is the tool of choice because it does more of what everyone needs than anything else.
Any slashdot article that's bitching about microsoft word needs at least one person sadly referring to the wordperfect reveal codes option they so miss. I didn't see it being referred to yet so here I am, karma in hand. (Knowing it's off topic and all) I guess I'll finally bow down to the masses, this will be my last cry for the good old days of the reveal codes screen. The alt-F3, the underwaterscreen as we used to call it... whether due to mass ignorance, evil microsoft package deals, or maybe we reveal codes lovers were just the weird ones, and the word meta-information handling won due to it's actual superiority. I don't know, but it's absolutely too late now, and I need to let it go. But why why why does openoffice emulate that Word crap to the extent that when using that suite you run into the exact same horrible formatting issues! Press backspace, and suddenly the whole text document is bold. You can't get that picture to move down one line, unless you want the formatting of 2 paragraphs to turn into a complete mess, and blank pages added. Why why why? I want my underwaterscreen! Please god give me the strength to let this go and not long for something archaic and so much better than everything the rest of the world uses for some weird reason. I mean, there even was a time when word perfect 8 was available on linux! where did that time go?! Ok that was it, I promise I'll never rant about that again. I hope I can do this.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
The author should submit the original text with no formatting. The editor and publisher should feed it into a CMS that provides access to multiple versions of the content for copy editors, editors, marketing, IT staffers and the rest. Of the many CMS's available, here are two that handle workflows.
Plone
Silva
Initially, it was obvious that word processing and desktop publishing were two very different things, and never the twain shall meet. We'd all be a lot better off if this distinction had stayed, because the problem with word processors today is not that they're trying to be all things to all people, but that they're trying to do two different things at the same time.
Personally, I'd take your position even further. The tools we need today are not the same as the tools we needed in the '80s. Documents are not handled in the same ways, nor published via the same media.
I think there are at least three major areas of interest for a modern document preparation system.
Clearly the first of these will typically be used in combination with one or both of the others, but the tools and application interface required in each category are quite different (but sometimes overlapping).
On top of this, there is the fact that a document won't necessarily be published in paper form these days. Distribution in electronic formats such as PDF is widespread, and on-line collaboration in the writing and editing of a document may be as important in many business contexts as the finished article that gets signed off. Then there's web publishing: while the same content almost certainly won't be appropriate to use in both formal/printed documents and web pages unedited, providing a common interface so that a single application can target multiple media with professional quality output is likely to become increasingly important IMHO.
In other words, traditional word processors, DTP packages, typesetting systems and HTML editors are all dead; they just don't know it yet. Frankly, most software in these industries sucks badly, but no-one has been brave/foolish enough to attempt a comprehensive, professional standard replacement to bridge the gaps and make the others literally redundant.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Tried LyX lately? It does what you just described---you type your type, you type your equations, and LyX takes care of most of the other drudgery for you---and allows you to insert TeX code should you need to do the low-level stuff. LyX then outputs a .tex file and uses LaTeX for typesetting.
I once had a signature.
I'm currently enrolled in an MFA program in creative writing, and I have to say that WriteRoom is my favorite word processor, the one I begin all my new work in. To have a completely blank screen, and a simple set of controls is very important-- it leaves my mind free to attend to the words on the page and nothing else. Pico and Vim and Emacs are excellent for what they do, but they are primarily programmer's tools. Just as it's possible to drive a nail with a shoe or dig a ditch with a spoon (or turn a bowl with a patternmaker's lathe), you can write a novel with pico or vim.
Writing prose is a fundamentally different process from writing code, if only because code doesn't live on the page. Code lives in it's execution-- compiled and run, beauty emerges. But prose, unless you read it aloud, stays where it's put. It's only ever compiled in the mind of the reader. The cliche is that you write to find out what you think, and when my writing is at its best, it most closely resembles reading, and the words that I write are fresh to me, as if someone else had written them. A tool that lets me "read myself" as simply and unobtrusively as possible is the one I want to use.
(Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't programmers actually do a lot of their thinking on whiteboards?)
The program I use to write has the same level of importance in my mind as the room I'm writing in, or the town I'm living in. None of them are essential to me, and it's easy to waste time worrying about imperfect circumstances-- you need to write the novel even if you're not at MacDowell. But anything that helps me improve my discipline, and WriteRoom certainly does, is a blessing.
Thanks for coding such a wonderful program for writing.
Wouldn't work here. The missus knows that I prefer small.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
WriteRoom is cute, but it reminds me of too many occasions back in the early 90's in the TeX newsgroup when someone would complain that all the buttons and menus were too much of a distraction in Word, ergo they preferred TeX/LaTeX and a text editor, apparently oblivious to the fact that Word has a full-screen mode. Of course, these were the same people who would complain (and probably still are complaining today) that TeX can do such and such that Word can't, usually in reference to some feature Word has had for the last decade.
Mind you, Word has any number of annoying bugs, and I actually do most of my writing on an old amber-screen 386 using an ancient DOS text editor called QEdit before importing it into Word (or, increasingly, OpenOffice) to do formatting. But the moral of the story is that most people don't bother to explore and learn the applications that they use, and as a result, they often needlessly deprive themselves of functionality that they want. (And a small fraction of these go on to pontificate about their ignorance on newsgroups and websites.)
That said, Scrivener certainly looks cool. Too bad it's not available for Linux or Windows.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
I remove all toolbars and the status bar from oowriter. I then setup the ADD tool in compiz fusion to black out all but the active window. This works for me.
Anyone actually enjoying Microsoft products must be a shill, ehh? Thanks for helping to prove my point about anti-MS rhetoric. And considering the vast majority of the Slashdot crowd is in the must-kill-MS crowd, a few voices actually supporting Microsoft hardly constitute a force.
(P.S., your comment loses 50 credibility points for saying M$... Can't the anti-MS crowd ever grow up?)
I love my sig.
Well, if it isn't the guy who put me on his 'Foe' list because I asked him to make a point rather than accuse people of being shills. I see you haven't changed your modus operandi much, huh?
Let's try this again - are you going to contribute or just name-call?
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
The last time I used Word Perfect was maybe three years ago. I had to give it up because of the work I do (formatting issues, etc). But on the placement of images and page layout, Word Perfect is a word processor with decent layout capabilities. You want a pic right there -->, just put it there, the text moves around it. Best part, it stays there when you scroll the page. Amazing.
Best part, if your formatting got really horked, you could "View Codes" and remove the firking tags. It would even remove the other side of balanced tags for you.
The ribbon would be Ok if it had only replaced the toolbar. As a replacement for the menu, it's not very friendly at all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
q10 editor hopefully this fixes the link to q10 editor...
Given that the main alternatives brought up were Mac only, why on The Lord's green earth were they ever using MS Word?
I thought simply having a Mac was like branding "NO MORE BILL" on your forehead. I guess I must be wrong.
Seriously though, what kind of market share does Office have on Mac? I woulda thought the alternatives would be both endless and better...
Compatibility?
No... that is a FOSSie outlook. Lunix is a server. Lunix is a desktop. Lunix is a laptop. Lunix is for grandma, and for junior, and for professor. Lunix is both a floor wax AND a desert topping!
On the other hand, MS has always been focussed on one single area: enterprise users. MS Office is written to be used by companies with thousands of users, and to create documents which have thousands of pages. MS does not care so much about little Johnny writing his book report. MS does not care so much about mommy writing out her grocery list. MS does not care so much about you writing an MS-hating article for your school newspaper.
Yes, MS does put work into making sure Word can do those simpler tasks, which is why they keep creating Wizards to assist in auto-creating documents. But the application and tools themselves are focused on helping people who know how the program works, and understand how to get it to do what they want. It's not made for neubs, which is why knowing MS Office is actually a job skill.
If you want something simple or approachable, try MS Works, or Open Office, or all the other third-tier document applications. Once you are ready to step up into a professional-level application, MS Office will be waiting for you.
http://www.nerdgod.com/images/wordperfect-style.gif
You just have to know these things.
In a writers head it is like a storm of words and they mere seek a simple white area to find a new home. In many modern editors though it is like having 4 helpers sitting next to you, 2 advisors and 2 stylists! And an archevist! That doesnt works for a writer who merely wants to dump the words on the pages, formatting is an issue later right now there are words and meanings to put down.
And that is ammis indeed, my best writing experience isn't open office nor word. It is Wordperfect 5.1 (for windows even), so simple that you have all the rest you need to just get down what you we're planning to write!
Codefile Defected to another Hexadimal Range refresh your CHAOSTACK.NLM file with a new copy
I dunno about the "heads and shoulders" claims. If you are 1 user, there aren't any of the problems I deal with.
The gui is different, but it's a very complicated argument to justify its betterness.
I support a small office with a mix including 2007 desktops and I still have the same old support issues with "smart" formatting battles, odd (per-user basis) gui design. The same old troubles with trying to "upgrade" the file in question at every possible moment is hopefully in check. Interoperability between versions remains problematic.
Word (still) reminds me of a cheap swiss army knife. It doesn't do anything particularly well. I hope the writing projects have enough stuff to keep going.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I'm not bashing tex. I wish wholeheartedly that I'd had the time to use it. But I'm not alone in not having the sort of time it takes to get the best out of tex. If we all did, there would be no market for MS word, or Openoffice for that matter.
I find writing in LaTeX takes a lot less time than in MS Word.
WriteRoom is pretty cool. From my dotfile, here's how I build something very minimal out of Emacs:
:box nil)
(defun project-writing()
(interactive)
; Download this separately
(autoload 'longlines-mode "longlines.el"
"Minor mode for editing long lines." t)
(defun writing-hook()
"Long lines instead of auto fill"
(interactive)
(longlines-mode)
(turn-off-auto-fill)
)
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'writing-hook)
; Large font, minimize extra details
(set-frame-font "-apple-monaco-medium-r-normal--14-140-72-72-m-140-mac-roman")
(dired "/Users/flast/Documents/Writing/*.txt")
(change-color-style color-style-writing)
(toggle-scroll-bar -1)
(menu-bar-mode -1)
(setq line-number-mode nil)
(setq column-number-mode nil)
(display-time-mode)
(set-face-attribute 'mode-line nil
(set-cursor-color "#676767")
(setq auto-save-interval 150)
; Intended to go full-screen. YMMV on the frame size; this is for
; the specified font at 1920x1200 on my Mac, so it is quite large.
(set-frame-position (selected-frame) 0 0 )
(set-frame-size (selected-frame) 238 63 )
(split-window-horizontally)
(shrink-window-horizontally 35)
(find-file-other-window "/Users/flast/Documents/Writing/scratch.txt")
(redraw-display)
)
If the summary was written using the features of this software, I want nothing to do with it.
A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?
I'm surprised nobody has linked to this definitive essay: Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient: Says it all.
"Indeed, it is wise never to consider any form of electronic data as final." --Arnold Robbins
MS Word 5.5 for DOS (with Y2K patch) is available for free. http://download.microsoft.com/download/word97win/Wd55_be/97/WIN98/EN-US/Wd55_ben.exe Simple enough for me.
Given the quality of most of what I read, forget Creators—I'll settle for being able to write in complete sentences.
-JS
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity...
I agree. I've used Word a little, and Open Office, but I keep coming back to WordPerfect (version 9) because it's just plain better. The overall file format hasn't changed since WordPerfect 6 (they've added features, of course, but at least until WordPerfect 12, the program uses the exact same file structure, and the older versions simply translate codes they don't understand as "Unknown" or something, then ignore them. Better yet, it's true WYSIWYG (that's where the term originated, if I'm not mistaken), it's extremely customizable (I can add/remove keyboard/toolbar access to just about any feature (major or minor) easily), and there are editing features that I've never seen in any other word processor, such as Reveal Codes, Center on Margin, Right Flush, and Indent. I can't imagine writing a book, or anything else important for that matter, in Word.
The reason WordPerfects file structure is better is because it's stream formated; codes that change the way the text is supposed to appear are inserted within the text, like on an HTML page.
Word (up until 2003; I have no desire to try and work out 2007) is "Object Oriented", meaning each character, word, sentence, paragraph, page, etc. can be treated as an individual object, but the way it's actually done is there's a text string up front, then all of the formatting codes after it.
WordPerfect's method is better because all you have to do when you edit the document is insert the new text/codes where it needs to go, whereas in Word, when you edit, you have to update pretty much everything for each letter/word/sentence/paragraph/page/etc. that you insert.
As for content, WordPerfect makes creating content easy and straightforward, something I've never seen in Word.
It's long time since Slashdot has been anti-MS.
And MS has a long history of astroturf, whether it'd done internally, farmed out to consultants like DSG or DCI, or by encouraging MVPs and partner companies to "contribute" to Wikipedia and tech discussion sites.
As to whether it's happening here, I'd be surprised if it's not. There's plenty of evidence - Slashdot posters who almost always recite the exact same "talking points", the catchy phrases that come from a template supplied by Bill Hilf's crew, manipulation of the moderation system, red herrings and trolls to sabotage threads that might go counter to MS goals, etc, etc.
I'm interested though - what sort of evidence would it take to convince you that MS was hacking Slashdot? HR documents showing MS is hiring "Blog Readers" and "Commenters"? MVPs admitting they'd been paid to make posts? Contract documents to this year's equivalent to DCI?
The way things are going, you might even get your smoking gun before Halloween this year...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
abiword
alive to the universe, dead to the world
I'm a dedicated, active user of Scrivener, doing a project in it right now and I can tell you, Scrivener isn't distracting -- it's that rare piece of software which just lifts you into a state of one-ness with your tools.
It never gets in the way, it's not bloated like word (which I abandoned only about 2 years ago). Scrivener is a gem. In edit mode (toggle by keyboard) I enter Flow State. Hours pass. Pages materialize.
Then when you want to zoom out, you pop open the "cork board," re-order your scenes like index cards, zoom back in on one of them and you're in the zone again.
You can even create versions of each chapter, independently from the rest of the novel.
It's like someone who really truly understood what writers need went out and learned UI design and programming. Which is what happened. Every vocation should be so lucky as to have a dedicated word processor made just for them.
Before Scrivener, my old system: 99 different files with names like "chapter14.5a_v2_late(pre-change).rtf" cluttered into a directory sorted by date modified. The new system: Scrivener.
"I've been told that there are third-party tools that can fix a lot of the problems I had. But the fact that it needs third-party tools to make the interface acceptable suggests to me that MS got it wrong in the first place. Not wrong in the sense that the interface is wrong for everybody, but wrong in that it assumes everybody works and thinks the same. One size does not fit all."
The same could be said for the GIMP, Blender and Gnome/KDE interfaces. Good thing slashdot is as hard on open source giffaws like that as their closed-source counterparts.
No, not everyone who enjoys MS products is astroturfing, but SnprBoB86's post falls into the "it sure sounds like it" category. Scroll up and read it. Why? Mostly because of his tone, but the fact that he was able to cough the exact page on microsoft.com ththat addresses this complaint would need is suspicious. Sure, one might be able to find it with a search engine, but I'd bet my keyboard they'd get a lot of other pages that answer the same issue before that one. And finally, we all know good and well that the major companies -- MS, Apple, Sony, you name 'em -- have astroturfers here and on other sites like Digg. If someone tried to claim that they don't it would be an insult to the intelligence of our pets, let alone us.
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
For people who want something like LaTeX, only less complicated, there's Lout. It's a text markup language, only more "high-level" than LaTeX. I found out about it when I bought the Rapid GUI Programming with Python and Qt book recently. That book is was typeset with Lout. It looks good.
copy con ed.bat
@copy con %1
^Z
not for wordprocessors anyway. Because as you type or put newlines in, it has to rework where everything goes. Your monitor isn't the right aspect and isn't possible to get it place accurate because of this and that it isn't 100% Life Size.
With Word, it isn't what someone is going to see either when they open it because, in order to try to get what the printer will put, Word uses the same rendering as the printer being printed to which isn't necessarily the same. If it was REALLY WYSIWYG, it would save the printer definition in the file so that you could see what the original author saw.
#
\section{Sure}
% TODO: rewrite this paragraph
LaTeX allows you to concentrate on content\footnote{If you are able to ignore all the clutter in your text that makes it illegible.}. There is \emph{no distraction} whatsoever.
http://erichsieht.wordpress.com/category/english/
That is why the play chess, go for a walk, get involved in politics or do something that does not involve sitting in front of a fucking computer.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
This is a lie. Let it be dead please.
...
Modern distros like Ubuntu or Fedora install almost by themselves, the only sticky point at the moment is WiFi support.
And with machines like the EEE PC this will be a non issue
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The problem is, there are writers, and there are people who write, and then there are people who look at a page of text and either drop it or say "ooh, pretty!!!" Word went downhill steadily from about Word for Windows 2.0 on. Word was in competition (well so were Wordperfect and a number of other extinct word processors so-called) with desktop publishing programs. Writers don't NEED the features that Word, or WordPerfect, or Open Office provide. They typically are constrained by very specific formatting rules - things like "type face - Courier," "two spaces after a period," "page numbers at upper right," "single tab at beginning of paragraph," etc. Effectively all they need IS a glorified typewriter (no more carbon paper, no more white-out, and cut and paste no longer demands scissors and paste). Publishers have very, very explicit requirements and all the menus, pop-ups, drop-downs, and general eye-candy just get in the way of a writer. So less is really better - honestly, WordStar was a great tool. Now, if your documents are the product of a one-man band, self-published (because no publisher will touch your manuscripts in fear that the crazed air you exude is contagious), then yeah, you need a word processor like Word - and a really big stapler. Or, indeed, if your employer never actually reads your reports or memos, and your income and raises depend on his appreciation of the "professional, polished appearance of your memo [about excess use of coffee by other staff]," then yeah, again you might be able to use Word effectively. But, for a writer, a scientist, or a real analyst, content is king and all that's really necessary is that lower case "L"s can't be confused with the numeral "1" by the reader, and the publisher will accept the manuscript without comments like, "type it over, correctly, and we'll see."
------ The only greater hazard to your liberty than n politicians is n+1 politicians.
what the fuck did all that gibberish mean?
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
Yes, "we all know good and well" except nobody has ever provided a shred of proof. In fact, the existence of such astroturfing would be a great story to post, don't you think? So why, with their full knowledge of IP addresses and locations of every poster, hasn't there ever been a "M$ ASTROTURFS /. LOLZ" front page story?
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
As I remember, I can not even create a simple table in markdown. That kills the deal for me.
Don't blame the tool if you're using the wrong one instead of the one true Editor
P.S.: Don't use TODO comments in LaTeX. The FixMe package is much better.
UnNetHack: NetHack Improved!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For those who like the semantics-first approach of LaTeX but don't want to type out formatting codes manually, LyX serves as a good compromise. (some weird bugs notwithstanding.)
see: Markdown Extensions
I use Maruko (ruby) but the most popular, so far as I can tell, is PHP Markdown Extra.
A lot of people like Textile, but it feels like writing HTML to me.
Compare (Textile): To (Markdown): ... I can look at my Markdown files and easily see that outline. Not so, in my opinion, with Textile.
Example Markdown Extra table (i tried putting it in the comment
I use a combination of Notepad and Adobe FrameMaker for technical writing as a profession.
Granted, I haven't tried much else, but the combination of very basic, just text notepad and the power/formatting for FrameMaker works for me.
FrameMaker doesn't do anything that Microsoft Word can't, the difference is that with FrameMaker I was able to figure it out. I also don't feel the need to constantly go back and check formatting to make sure things didn't get messed up by adding an image or changing a margin or anything.
I don't know if it's the best tool out there, but it works for me, and I prefer it to MSWord.
When the first expensive "desktop publishers" came out, an editor pointed out to me that they weren't "publishers" at all, they were typesetters.
He said, "A publisher is somebody who hires a hooker for an advertiser."
From the article: "For those of us who learned Basic on a Zenith Z19 and started word processing on a Kaypro (anyone?), the retro green-and-black now takes the breath away."
I started word processing on a Macintosh 128K, the very first model available, as a student at Drexel. I changed colleges and moved from the Mac's GUI to the Kaypro's black-and-green screen. And the _content_ of my writing did not suffer one bit, although my professors were less impressed with the _appearance_ of my papers.
Think I'll look for an Linux alternative to Scrivener.
I may be one of the few people who still uses groff for typesetting. It's not quite as powerful as LaTeX, but I find it easier to use, for my purposes at least. Between eqn, pic, tbl and grap, I can create pretty much any document I need with groff. It's installed with every Linux distro, it should get used more.
No, Lunix, as you term it, is a kernel. While it can be used in all of the applications you name, you aren't expected to use the same damn one everywhere. I wouldn't want to run a stripped down text mode distribution for my main media machine, but nor would I run a full featured, shiny OpenGL system on my server.
As for Word, I would never like to use it for documents thousands of pages long. I use LaTeX, and trying to go back to Word is just frustrating. No, I don't want to indent this, realign that, and have such stupid text layout engines. I want to write my document, tag markup as it's needed, and then care about how it looks. I don't want to have to go through by hand and tweak italics, I don't want to have to worry about fiddling text sizes, or anything of the sort. When I'm writing, I want a text interface that gets the hell out of my way, and a simple, sensible way of indicating markup, that doesn't slow me down, doesn't break too much, and actually knows a thing or two about layout.
Hence, I use LaTeX. I write the text, adding \emph{} and so on as I go, and then just hit a key and it formats it for me. If there's something I don't really like, I tweak it a little. Word makes me draw my document while I write it, as opposed to writing it before I format it.
If you want something simple, TextEdit or WordPad, or MS Works. Once you think you can step up to a real program, then go for Word. And finally when you want a truly professional program, you go and work in LaTeX.
"Lisp
..you lose...
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
I'm interested though - what sort of evidence would it take to convince you that MS was hacking Slashdot?
I think we need to have a discussion as to what hacking is and what it isn't... It doesn't bother me in the least if Microsoft hires people to do PR work. Nothing unusual about that. It would be surprising if they didn't hire people to do PR. But what's important here is the nature of my own comments. I'm not connected to Microsoft in any way. My comments are my own. I like Microsoft products and I find them to work very well. I am amused and frustrated with most anti-Microsoft criticism because it is often directly contrary to my own experience. The products work and they work well, that is my experience and that is what I share on my comments. Are any of the products perfect? No. There are a lot of things I would do differently and there are some things I do stay away from. To give one example, IE 7 is a big improvement over IE 6 but it still needs work, so I prefer Firefox. But in the area of operating systems and office software, I haven't used anything else that I think really comes close, with the exception of OS X itself. Leopard is a good alternative to Vista, if someone wanted to avoid Vista. But OS X has its own issues and my own preference is for Vista over Leopard.
Is this shill? Is this paid sponsorship? No, this is one man's opinion from my own experience and my own years of exposure to a host of software solutions and platforms.
I love my sig.
And the _content_ of my writing did not suffer one bit, although my professors were less impressed with the _appearance_ of my papers.
I still remember when a few instructors insisted on "typed" papers when dot matrix printers still ruled the day. That didn't go away until laser printers became more widely available.
Natch?
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
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/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.
Try also my gallery: http://photo.net/photos/AntrygRevo
I've known dozens of novice computer users who were fooled by free software zealots like you who refuse to acknowledge or accept any faults of Linux when compared to Windows and claim it is the superior OS for all users in all situations no matter what.
In every case their Linux experience lasted as long as it took to encounter the first problem.
All your lies do is encourage novice users to switch to Windows that much faster. And probably keeps them away from Linux forever.
What an improvement on conventional word-processor for structuring documents.
I've only tried StoryLines, thus-far ( one of the components of the prog ),
but it's worth the entire price of the package, right there.
Gives you several dimensions in which to organize your writing/story:
Story Lines
Order of cards, within a story-line
colour-coding of a card, to indicate what kind of element it is
each card includes sections for Description, Content, Setting, Annotation, Image, & Players
Try also my gallery: http://photo.net/photos/AntrygRevo
Thank you for the most hilariously ironic post of all time.