Anyone have any suggestions for writer's software (a la RoughDraft) for the Mac?

January 5, 2005 3:26 PM

Anyone have any suggestions for writer's software (a la RoughDraft) for the Mac?
posted by absalom to (11 comments total)

I've played around with CopyWrite, and like it a good bit. I slightly slicker, but also more expensive, similar product is Ulysses. If you're down with the whole wiki thing, I find VoodooPad to be a surprisingly useful brainstorming tool during the creative process, too.
posted by jammer at 3:44 PM on January 5, 2005

I did some research on this today, and just a few minutes before you posted this I decided on (and submitted payment for) Copywrite, which seems right for my needs. The other major player seemed to be Ulysses, which I tried for a while but didn't like quite as much. Both aim to help with organization while de-emphasizing formatting and allowing for notes, but Ulysses was a bit too spartan--no italics or bold text, for example. The only thing I liked better about Ulysses than Copywrite was its more flexible exportation options. Also, Copywrite is significantly cheaper.

Again, though, I haven't been using either for very long, so I'd strongly recommend that you try the demo versions of both, as well as a few other writer-oriented word processors like Mellel.
posted by Acetylene at 3:45 PM on January 5, 2005

rough draft looks interesting ... i'm going to try that out ... thanks
posted by pyramid termite at 3:52 PM on January 5, 2005

I've tried CopyWrite and Ulysses, but in the end I just use Mellel. It's great, and it lets you focus on the text just as much as Ulysses by making formatting so painless and sensible. It's the best word processor I've ever used.
posted by josh at 5:43 PM on January 5, 2005

I don't know from any of this software, but I have a friend who years ago used Final Draft. If I'm not conflating it with some other product he mentioned, then it does things like helping you think out characterization, etc.
posted by kimota at 6:38 PM on January 5, 2005

What Ulysses has that no other Mac word processor or editor has is a full screen mode. (An actual one, that gets rid of everything but your text.) I so dearly need that. I tried the 30 day trial of Ulysses and loved the full screen, but hated the no bold/italic. I didn't want to fit into their style of organization.

I currently use VoodooPad for most of my non-academic writing nowadays. It's really inspiring to be able to have a second train of thought encroach and you can swat it by just typing ThisOtherThingThatIllGetToLater. If I really need fullscreen I am not adverse to opening pico in an xterm and firing up X11's fullscreen mode.

Just today I was told about something called "Hog Bay Notebook" that is part outliner, part iTunes Smart Playlist. In 5 minutes of playing I might end up using it, although it overlaps with my beloved VooodooPad.
posted by neustile at 7:42 PM on January 5, 2005

I should think it would depend on exactly what you mean by "writer". Surely poetry would imply different needs than churning out thousand page fantasy thrillers?

For example, you'll laugh and be right to do so, but Emacs was exactly what I needed to get through nanowrimo. The options to interactively outline, creatively color, collapse and expand, and just generally play around with the text were of the utmost utility.

But clearly not to everyone's taste.
So I say you need to tell us more about what you want....

OP: voodoopad looks pretty durn cool.
posted by freebird at 10:19 PM on January 5, 2005

VoodooPad is a great tool for keeping complicated notes, but after playing around with Hog's Bay Notebook I might think about switching. Thanks neustile.
posted by aspo at 12:39 AM on January 6, 2005

This may be a stupid question, but does anyone know of software like Hog Bay Notebook or VoodooPad that lets you store notes on a network? The idea of not needing filenames or directories is intriguing, but it would be even better if the notes weren't stuck in one particular computer. For, like, taking notes at work and reading them at home (without having to manually email or ftp).
posted by hartsell at 10:16 AM on January 6, 2005

VoodooPad has a wiki server that it saves to as an option. It's called VPWiki. I used it for a short bit once.
posted by neustile at 12:07 PM on January 6, 2005

Instiki could be an answer to hartseil's question, but not absalom's so I won't mention it.
posted by Prince Nez at 11:00 PM on January 6, 2005