Creating an index of first lines, from a group of many poems, each stored in a seperate .txt file. Are there any applications or scripts that would help me to do that?
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posted by dylan_k
on Dec 8, 2012 -
7 answers
Researchers, Writers, Grad Students, and Professors: Tell me about your technical setup (hardware and software). What do you use, and what couldn't you live without?
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posted by NotMyselfRightNow
on Nov 2, 2012 -
25 answers
When leaving a comment on mefi, does looking at that "live preview" window below the edit box make you a better writer too? What's up with that?
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posted by tempythethird
on Jun 10, 2012 -
6 answers
The way I research (academic or otherwise) is increasingly incompatible with the tools I have. Reams of handwritten notebooks, and hundreds of word docs vs a highly tagged website only add to my self-created confusion.
I'm drawn to Tinderbox software as a possible solution, but as an adamant PC user I'm locked out.
How do you order your research? / How to write-up my PhD now my brain is fried?
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posted by 0bvious
on Mar 16, 2012 -
10 answers
Hello,
Is it possible to lock an application open? Say I wanted to use Focuswriter (or some other text editor) for one hour without being able to access anything else (like an internet browser) or shutdown, is there any way to do that on Windows or Linux?
posted by cimuir
on Dec 1, 2011 -
7 answers
I'm looking for examples of websites that have successfully enhanced a research community (academic or artistic) with a dynamic online/social/mutual-portfolio presence. Blog and social media based hubs, perhaps, that showcase the possibilities of web portfolio/research integration for
academic and
creative purposes.
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posted by 0bvious
on Sep 16, 2011 -
3 answers
I'm writing a technical book - and intending to self publish, mostly electronically. OSX - Best of class software? For writing? For publishing? Other deeper writing and self publishing questions inside!
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posted by filmgeek
on Aug 15, 2011 -
6 answers
How do writers keep track of huge casts of characters in sprawling epic novels like Game of Thrones? Is there software for that, or do they use notecards or what?
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posted by empath
on Jun 20, 2011 -
23 answers
I am a PC Windows/Word/Scrivener user with Dropbox and Google account; I want to write lengthy prose on the move (at cafes, hotels etc.) using my new WiFi iPad 2 with Apple keyboard and keep my text safely synced/compatible/accessible back at home. What apps, accounts do I need?
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posted by Hugobaron
on Jun 19, 2011 -
14 answers
i saw a video of software that played back the history of how a text was written, showing all the changes the text went through. I can't remember whether it was existing software or a mock up. Do you know what it was?
posted by compound eye
on Mar 25, 2011 -
13 answers
Great books for a newbie software help system writer/maintainer?
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posted by swift
on Jan 19, 2011 -
1 answer
What is your process for writing, and what tools do you use to help your productivity and creativity?
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posted by philipy
on Jan 14, 2011 -
10 answers
John Mcphee wrote about a nifty custom word processor in
Wired 7.01 that allowed him to code his notes and reassemble them by topic. What other cool, specialized word processors do you know about?
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posted by mecran01
on Oct 9, 2010 -
12 answers
We're two people collaborating on a large academic text at a distance, and can't find a service or app which fulfills our requirements. Please advise.
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posted by monocultured
on Jul 11, 2010 -
14 answers
Perhaps this is just a fantasy, but is there any application or online tool that could search through the references of an article I have saved as a PDF, in order to check whether I have those cited articles in my larger PDF library? It would be perfect if it would highlight, link, or somehow display cross-referenced relationships between all my articles. I am already familiar with many referencing/PDF organization software such as
Papers (Mekentosj),
Sente, and
Devonthink. I suppose what I have in mind is a similar tool, but with the additional power of something like ISI Indexes. I have a fairly large library (about 300 references that I'm actively using, and more than 2000 total) and I'm just trying to get some "big-picture" grasp of how all these sources relate to one another.
posted by samac
on Jun 20, 2010 -
5 answers
Does anyone know of a free, online program that, for lack of a better phrase, I'll call a random sentence scrambler? I see there are a lot of anagram makers but I want one for about 500 word bodies of text. Theoretically I could paste in the text and it would spit it out with all the words intact, the sentence structure preserved, just arranged into a new sequence. Thanks.
posted by holdenjordahl
on Aug 16, 2009 -
10 answers
I'm trying to construct a digital worksheet that will walk someone through an outlining and drafting process for creating a report. Basically, the user should be able to answer the questions I put forward (either in a textfield, list, or textarea) and what would come out is an outline for a technical paper, grant proposal, etc. Is there software or features of software to support this? Microsoft Office or exportable formats are preferable.
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posted by miasma
on Jun 28, 2009 -
2 answers
I often have a whole bunch of 500-3000 word articles to read - all reasonably plain English with headings and sub-headings (and occasionally images). Is there any software out there which will take an article (or articles) and write a reasonable one or two paragraph summary of the article, or produce a list of key points?
posted by zaebiz
on Jun 16, 2009 -
13 answers
software for writing (i.e., organizing) a novel on a windows machine?
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posted by gcat
on Dec 29, 2008 -
8 answers
When I was in high school, we had a writing lab with some type of mainframe-ish type terminals setup, where there was writing software available which would list frequently repeated words, point out large paragraphs, spelling errors, document complexity, punctuation errors, etc. This was awhile ago, is this type of thing freely available anywhere these days?
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posted by ceberon
on Nov 26, 2008 -
5 answers
I don't like Microsoft Word much; it feels really bloated to me, and has so many features I never use. I've been looking for an alternative for some time. What word processor does the hivemind recommend for academic writing?
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posted by synecdoche
on Jul 10, 2008 -
35 answers
I have a macro that takes an un-styled document, and tries to put text into the right styles based on what its formatting is.
But, if the document already has some scheme of styles, the macro doesn't work very well.
So, I would like to transform a Word document into an un-styled version of itself-- but one that retains ALL of the original formatting (italics, small caps, font size, spacing).
What would be the most correct way to do this?
I have Word 2003 (which the macro needs) and 2007, as well as Word 2008 for Mac.
Also-- HTML doesn't work, as it doesn't retain small caps.
posted by yesno
on Feb 22, 2008 -
10 answers
Is there a Mac application that can help me keep track of hours, dates, and time I spend writing?
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posted by agent99
on May 2, 2007 -
13 answers
Can anyone recommend some good research/study/outlining software that assists your writing? Either freeware or paid. Basically I mean software that alows you to collate ideas and notes as you read, as well as lets you do outlining - all this in preparation for writing a report or paper or essay.
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posted by vizsla
on Apr 25, 2007 -
11 answers
Please help me find a way to electronically organize my magazine article collection.
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posted by marylynn
on Apr 12, 2007 -
6 answers
Ulysses or Copywrite enough to switch to Mac ? Oh wait ! It looks like there's
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posted by Baud
on Feb 6, 2007 -
10 answers
Please help me find something to organize this monstrosity of a novel. Oh yes, there is definitely
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posted by sperose
on Oct 17, 2006 -
10 answers
Are there any great
online tools for working on writing a novel? I've seen previous posts on desktop software for this purpose, but I haven't found any nifty online tools.
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posted by tastybrains
on Sep 19, 2006 -
8 answers
So I asked
this question about writing software more than a year ago. I finally decided on Copy Write. Now I need hints, tips, or any tutorial you can point me to.
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posted by sugarfish
on Jul 1, 2006 -
5 answers
Back in the day (about 7 years ago, anyway), Windows came with a utility that allowed the savvy user to edit compiled help files.
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posted by dbmcd
on Jun 15, 2005 -
5 answers
Sometimes in LaTeX I notice bad-looking rivers after the period in someone's title, such as "Mr. Jones" or "St. Thomas." I assume that this is because it is treated the "." in things like "St." as if they are sentence stops, and spacing them accordingly. How can I get this to stop?
posted by yesno
on May 9, 2005 -
5 answers
