1. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    2018 - for those that have used lots of Free editing/typing/notes software, specifically on desktop

    Discussion in 'Writing Software and Hardware' started by needdabestwritingsoft, Apr 2, 2018.


    what have you used within the last year that you would suggest me?


    * it has to be free

    (but if it isn't, there needs to be examples of what exactly about the suggestion that is helpful is you)

    - no gdocs, no word, no evernote

    * has to have been updated/made better (in some good way) within the last 6 month


    what am i typing/writing/editing?

    anything & everything (im not able to predict the long future)

    what do i currently use?


    onenote (but moving away from it)


    if you are familiar with, and have many suggestions

    1. what would each be good for?

    2. and what does it do exactly that is good for that?



    also looking for something free that checks writing style

    also something free that checks for conciseness of your writing

    - this can be part of the software

    - or a separate software, it doesnt really matter


    any other absolute needs besides just free + updated?

    has colors for fonts is important

    - the software that doesnt have color would be for different uses

    - & the software that with color would be for different uses

    so the suggestion doesnt need to have color


    --

    free feel to reply anytime in a week a month year,

    just looking for good helpful answers

    please be respectful of potential good answers to these questions so as to not clutter up the thread


    --
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2018
  2. Ksenia Tomasheva

    Ksenia Tomasheva Member

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    I use Grammarly to check my grammar and Hemingwayapp to check the style. Both are free, but you also can buy/subscribe.
    thesaurus.com for synonyms.
    For writing, google docs forever, as I'm used to writing everywhere: desktop, phone, tablet... besides, you can save directly to epub that works with google books.
    the big issue is that neither Grammarly works with google docs, nor Hemingway has an Android or iOS app, so I'm limited to making the final edits on PC only. that sucks, cause I prefer a tablet for writing, but much better than nothing.
     
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  3. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    all those provisos have the look of an academic exercise - if so do your own homework

    If not - Open Office or Libre Office
     
  4. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    here, that works with gdocs -- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/languagetool-grammar-and/oldceeleldhonbafppcapldpdifcinji

    ppl say it's generally pretty good but there's always things to be made betterr, not as good for other langs ppl say


    doesnt that only do a short amount of text or something? im pretty sure
     
  5. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    heard both open libre were basically dead inactive

    no significant progress from those

    anyone have good suggestions?

    also dont spam my post with nonsense

    read -->> "please be respectful of potential good answers to these questions so as to not clutter up the thread"
     
  6. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    also if you dont know the answer to something,

    dont spam the post of others with nonsense

    be respectful
     
  7. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Is this supposed to be ironic?
     
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  8. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Neither libre or open are dead - both are alive and kicking (open office 4.1.5 was released on December 31st 2017. libre office 6.0.2 was released 1/3/18 and is still in beta, the previous version 5.4.5 released on 9th of feb 2018 - this is the most current mature version)

    on the other stuff -you won't get far with that attitude. Its the mods and the site rules that determine what is acceptable to post in a thread, not the thread starter
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2018
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  9. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    The easter holiday/spring break are upon us
     
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  10. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    You heard wrong about Libre Office and Open Office. And the only nonsense I see in the thread is contained in some of your replies.
     
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  11. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    On the correction thing Prowriters aid is the other option - I find it better than grammarly for picking up misused words, but it doesn't understand that people don't speak perfectly correct English so it throws a lot of false positives in dialogue.

    EOTD you can't beat a human proof reader but that costs $$$
     
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  12. Ksenia Tomasheva

    Ksenia Tomasheva Member

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    oh, I need to try this one as well. Misused words are something that I do a lot.
    For now, a combination of Hemingway+Grammarly has proven to give a good result for me. At least, I've shown both versions (before check and after) to a native speaker, and he said it was a great improvement, not only in terms of mistakes and typos but in terms of style and readability.
    BTW, I managed to make a good use of the advanced version options of Grammarly without buying a subscription ;) Frankly speaking, I like it more this way. A free version shows you hints on advanced issues you have in your text and amount of those of each type (like "3 Incomplete sentences", "2 Word choice", etc.). So, the trick is to put some thinking effort into finding each mistake in your text and fix it without a software thinking instead of you. Takes tons of time and sometimes you just need to use a grammar textbook or thesaurus to find a solution, but... you do learn in the process, and next time you just make a way fewer mistakes of this type. I realize that it might not work for those who need work done faster and with a fewer effort, but I'm a lazy person. It's easier to learn now and then just avoid the mistakes than correct them every time :)
     
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  13. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    just yours
     
  14. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    then dont put nonsense

    as already said, be respectful
     
  15. needdabestwritingsoft

    needdabestwritingsoft Banned

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    -

    they fit the requirements at least one of them free


    but how about,

    "made better (in some good way)?"


    let's see --

    "OpenOffice is as good as dead atm. LibreOffice, to date, as far as I can tell, mostly focused on fixing the mistakes from OpenOffice days" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563902

    "OpenOffice is mostly abandoned and has had issues even marshaling the resources.." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16266334

    "Technically, LibreOffice is playing catchup with Win Office." - https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/libreoffice-6-review.html


    for libre at least,

    tho sadly it seems to be a better release than the past, which means now i need to look into and test it

    it has release notes changelog w/e you wanna call it -- https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/6.0

    so i can see what can do, this is a plus for sure

    so looks like it'll need to downloaded

    if not guess will have to go evernote or i dunno?


    --

    no real conclusive answers on any good 1) style 2) grammer good checkers existing in current day society tho,

    and that's a sad thing, it's 2018 already
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2018
  16. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    No nonsense in any of my posts - the only nonsense is your strange belief that two of the largest and most widely used pieces of free writing software aren't being developed.

    As to being respectful you might like to consider the proverb about people who live in glass houses
     
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  17. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    Be respectful
     
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  18. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    and don't put nonsense :D
     
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  19. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Ok, bub, you seem to be confused as to the arrangement. The forum has a staff and you are not part of it. The above posters actually gave you information. You started the thread in a dictatorial fashion and committed the silly error of invoking the Streisand Effect, more than once. You have been posting duplicates of threads you already started. Posting duplicates of threads, that's spamming. Answering threads with verifiable information is not spamming.

    You've earned my attention. Not a very auspicious start.
     
  20. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    In terms of grammar and style checkers - there's a good article here https://firstsiteguide.com/grammar-checker-tools/ As said above Grammarly and PWA are the most widely used. apart from those I've used Ginger on work writing and its pretty good if you are using MS word ... I write my novels in Open Office, and my non fiction in scrivener so its not been much use to me on serious writing.

    Gramark is an open source version of grammarly, however as i'd paid for the upgrade versions on both Grammarly and PWA I didn't bother with that.

    As I said above you can't beat using a professional editor/proofreader but if you are either mean or poor a combination of Grammarly/PWA/ and a good dose of common sense about how to apply them (i.e not to try to make things so grammatically perfect that they lose character and realism) is the second best option
     
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  21. TheRealStegblob

    TheRealStegblob Kill All Mages Contributor

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    Yeah okay ignoring the Very Good Posts being made by people in here, let me give an answer;

    I wouldn't recommend Open Office. It's lightweight and it works well, but it's infamously buggy and prone to all sorts of really bad problems. I myself was using it when writing my first manuscript and I ended up losing an entire draft of it when Open Office suddenly decided to turn my whole document into hashtag symbols and give me no way to recover a previous version of it. Googling the problem lead to numerous threads across the internet where people had the same random problem happen to them. Using Open Office doesn't mean you'll eventually have this issue, but why test fate when there are better alternatives?

    These days, I use Google Docs. It's better than any Microsoft Word-like program and it's cloud storage so you can write where ever you want and even dynamically share your documents with other people with only a link, and they can even leave notes and edits on your stuff if you let them. It's very good and at this point I see no real reason to use anything but Google Docs.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2018
  22. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Can you use google docs offline ? If you can't The only issue i'd have with it is that i frequently want to write in places that have no internet connection ?

    (our picky friend specified no Gdocs in the OP so you can probably look forward to an ill mannered response suggesting you 'be respectful' shortly)
     
  23. Ksenia Tomasheva

    Ksenia Tomasheva Member

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    Sure you can, you just ned to make sure you have offline editing option turned on for the doc, and you synch online before starting to edit your doc from another device. It doesn't merge automatically and would just treat the latest edits made online as the latest edits in general (though I guess there is a possibility to merge manually from the previous changes you made)
     
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  24. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    You can use Google Docs offline. I think you have to use Chrome as your browser, but it definitely works. I like the word processor pretty well, personally.
     
  25. ThunderAngel

    ThunderAngel Contributor Contributor

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    I've used Open Office in the past, now I use LibreOffice; either choice should have everything you need. :)
     

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