absoluteley microsoft word!

i only use microsoft word, it is the best for me to use.
do you also use word?

 

Hell No! Anything but. I do most of my writing in a simple text editor, like iword, notepad, whatever. I write on mac and linux, android. I don't care for most word processors. Open Office or LibreOffice if I want to get super fancy.

 

My college gave me word 2003 when I went. Haven't used anything else since.

 

I use MS Word. I don't love it, I just... use it. It's fine. It does what I want without getting in the way.

 

I don't like Word. It's not that there's anything really wrong with Word; it has all the features I could ask for. It's just that almost everything else is better. I don't use Word for anything more complicated than a grocery list. For any actual creative writing, I use Scrivener.

 

I've always worked with Word and it has always worked for me. Because the laptop I write on is offline and I don't want to pack dictionaries all over the place, I have downloaded the WordWeb dictionary, which can be accessed with one click without having to leave Word.

 

I use Word as well. I just need something that puts words on the page when I hit the keys, and does some basic formatting/spellchecking along the way. Plus my publisher uses Tracked Changes for the entire editing process.

 

I actually use a multitude of different writing tools. I use Microsoft Word for how it corrects simple grammatical mistakes and acts as a good point of reference for fragments, misspellings, and even the word count. I then use Google Docs because I feel their spell checker is better. Then I use Grammarly to further refine my grammar. Then I re-read, re-write where necessary, do it again till I'm satisfied.

Then, I use Open Office for formatting because I like it's formatting better.

Word Doc usually gets used as well for minor, simple things.

 

I use Word. So far, everybody I've interacted with in publishing also uses Word.

I get it free, though. If I had to pay I'd use Libre.

 

How do you get it free?

I use libre and hate it. I like the fact that it's free and nothing more.

 

Through my job. I used to use OpenOffice and it was fine, but I heard Libre is the better option now.

 

I use Google Docs, as I can access it anywhere that has internet, on any computer that might be available (relatives' house, friends', etc). It's been enough to just have a word processing system that gets the words down on the page. But @Apollypopping was giving me a great talk up for Scrivener the other day, so maybe I'll go sniffing around to see if it catches my fancy. Expensive, though, to my miserly mind...

 

Ugh it is so expensive. Especially for us Australians.

I would pay for it twice though, thats how great it is.

 

I have paid for it twice. I gifted it to a friend, that's how much I love it.

 

And I wouldn't pay for it if it were FREE!

DOWN WITH SCRIVENER!!!

Or, in a more moderate tone... I think it's a great program for a certain type of writer--I think those writers are people who want to hop around in their MS, or who... I don't really know, to be honest. Because... for another type of writer (the BAYVIEW type!) it's a total waste of time and money. Word works fine for me. I just sit down and start typing, and then I keep typing, and then I'm done typing. Word works fine.

So, no, I'm not slamming Scrivener, really. But if it's super-expensive where you live, keep in mind that it may not be as useful for you as it is for other people...


ETA: DOWN WITH @Wreybies!!!

 

I uhh... use Notepad.

 

I do really embarrassing word spew when I do this and then I have to clean it up.

Stinks the house out.

I need my writing in smaller more managable chunks, it's upped the quality of my output noticably, and I'm deleting less, which for me is an issue, I delete everything.

Ctrl+x ctrl+x ctrl+x

 

I've looked at Scrivener and I can honestly say I would have no use for 99% of its features. And I think the reason for this is actually mentioned on their website:

Particularly suited to writers who don’t always think in a linear fashion, Scrivener is a revolutionary program that will help you manage and complete your next creative project.

I am an extremely linear thinker in many areas of my life but particularly so with writing. I start with chapter one on page one and just keep going until I write the words The End on what winds up being the last page. I don't even work on multiple books or stories at the same time; I did that once back in my fanfic days and I was a distracted, unfocused mess for three months.

Just the description of the Corkboard feature gives me anxiety: In Scrivener, every document is attached to a virtual index card onto which you can jot a synopsis. Use the corkboard to shuffle these index cards around - which is instantly reflected in the structure of your draft. "Shuffle" is not a word I associate with my writing process at all.

 

I use word because I got it for free. My only complaint is that if I use ctrl+shift to start a new page sometimes it becomes difficult to edit the previous page. The spacing and margins start distorting.

 

I use MS Word for work-work. I need its particular bank of formatting tools for the kind of product I have to produce. In that sense, it's utilitarian, but so is a minivan. A minivan is not my choice for a Sunday drive in the country. I want something a little zippier, a little sexier, a little drop-top-ier, a little hug-the-road-ier. I want a five-speed manual transmission. Gears change when I say. For me, that's Scrivener.

ETA: I am very non-linear in my writing, but I do concede (@Laurin Kelly) that if one is very linear in one's process, a huge chunk of the utility of Scrivener, and the utilities built onto the underlying utility, would feel somewhat pointless.

ETAA: The fact that one can modify the GUI in Scrivener - including the toolbar - speaks to the shade-tree mechanic in me who wants to tweak the motor to my liking.

 

If anybody wants to do this (I find it useful to proofread on a Kindle) I use CalibreLibrary, which is free and really easy to use.

I also found Scrivener mostly useless and very unintuitive.

 

I thin being a non-linear thinker is why I can't enjoy books or other media that feature a lot of time or dimension hopping, or have more than 2-3 POVs. I just need my entertainment delivered to me in a fairly straightforward way or I get confused and irritable.

Also, I don't have the faintest idea how to drive a manual transmission and no desire to learn. I just want to get from place to place with as little effort as possible. So there's that too!

 

And on that lovely Sunday afternoon, Laurin and Wrey stretched metaphors like salt water taffy, the breeze in their hair, the iodine smell of the ocean ever-present on the boardwalk.