UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Agony Aunt
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Word Processors: Which do you use
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Scrivener. All the way. Does everything - fingers & imagination in one end, .mobi and .epub out the other.
I use Openoffice and worry about converting stuff at the other end. I love it and wouldn't change. But then I still submit everything to at least one pro market before even considering self-pubbing, so ebook formats aren't my first concern.
Nobody here going to act all old school and insist they still use a typewriter? :)
I use OpenOffice and am very happy with it.Being a computer games programmer, I wrote my own utility for generating Kindle ebooks.
My pipeline is thus: write book, save from OpenOffice as a html file, run through my utility (sorts out all the formatting, TOC, NCX etc. for me), get a .mobi file at the other end ready for uploading to KDP.
My utility also has the option for copying to my Kindle so I can check my work very quickly.
End result: no stress on formatting and I can focus on writing.
I still use a very old version of Word. However the spell check function is temperamental. I would like to move onto Scrivener but I'm going to wait until I can afford it from my book sales. I'm sure it would be an investment but its not a priority, at least not at the moment. I find word simple to use and once I'd worked out the formatting process, it was straightforward.
I used the trial version of Scrivener and found it superb, so that's where I'll be going, eventually!
I've also used Open office and, whilst it's also excellent, the final formatting and creating a TOC were a nightmare, I wouldn't use it again.
R.M.F wrote: "Nobody here going to act all old school and insist they still use a typewriter? :)"Well in terms of actually composing text, I use a hardback notebook and a fountain pen. Generally in a pub...
Word all the way for me (2007 edition), I've not had any major issues with conversions yet.
Sarah wrote: "I use OpenOffice and am very happy with it.Being a computer games programmer, I wrote my own utility for generating Kindle ebooks.
"
Are you selling it? If not, why?
J.D. wrote: Are you selling it? If not, why?"I'm not interested in making money from it. Besides, it's a bit rough around the edges, does just what I need it to do. Only took me a few days to write (once I'd figured out all the formatting). I could give it away, but it would need an instruction manual. It needs a bit more front-end to make it a more user-friendly utility.
I wrote it after trying out various other programs and options, none of which did what I needed. Mine rips out all the junk from a html file, auto-generates the TOC, as well as the NCX file needed for the Kindle navigation menu, and sets the start of the book to be chapter 1. It uses KindleGen to build a .mobi file.
Oh, and what do I call it? "MakeNovel" ;-)
I use Scrivener these days for the main stuff. Although, for non-novels, my daily writing I still use a very old version of Word from about 3 or 4 computers ago.
I did use Libre Office for a while but that went very seriously tits-up a month or two ago, so bad I had to completely uninstall it, and it has put me off it completely.
I did think about Google Docs for a while, but for some unknown reason there is no date/time function, which renders it useless for my needs.
Andrew wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "Nobody here going to act all old school and insist they still use a typewriter? :)"Well in terms of actually composing text, I use a hardback notebook and a fountain pen. Generally ..."
Respect. Hand writing is a dying art. I'm glad to hear somebody is keeping the old methods alive.
Thanks for sharing. I didn't know about Scrivener. Your program sounds good, Sarah. It sounds as if there is a niche in the market if you did decide to revamp it for IT challenged authors like me. I have no fond memories of proofing format before submission. I used to work on Word and paste the final text without format into a new document, then go through it line by line adding format like italics, headers and bookmarks where they were in the original. I've never had any autovetter errors and the ToCs work, but it is a tedious way to finish up.
R.M.F wrote: "Respect. Hand writing is a dying art. I'm glad to hear somebody is keeping the old methods alive..."Cheers - it's a bit of an affectation, I suppose, but the slower pace of writing longhand does help me gather my thoughts. And in first draft mode, I can cross words and sentences out without losing them forever with the delete key... handy when I change my mind later.
R.M.F wrote: "Andrew wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "Nobody here going to act all old school and insist they still use a typewriter? :)"Well in terms of actually composing text, I use a hardback notebook and a fountain ..."
R.M.F wrote: "Nobody here going to act all old school and insist they still use a typewriter? :)"
I am afraid my handwriting is my sole qualification for practicing medicine :-(
I use Word, mainly because I'm stupidly over familiar with it and know all its foibles. I had a play with Scrivener and found it to be excellent, but I missed all of the hotkeys and macros I'd become reliant on in Microsoft's bloated and ubiquitous word processor.It also allows me to pretty much use any PC, Mac or fondleslab to add in ideas and such.
Hopefully, someone will pipe up and say they still use quill and parchment.
Andrew wrote: "R.M.F wrote: "Respect. Hand writing is a dying art. I'm glad to hear somebody is keeping the old methods alive..."Cheers - it's a bit of an affectation, I suppose, but the slower pace of writing ..."
Roald Dahl had a similar approach - he wrote with pencil and paper.
Im tempted to say I scratch letters onto stone tablets...
Oh that old thing....
Gingerlily (The One and Only) wrote: "Oh that old thing...."Yourself, or the manuscript? :)
As long as you're young at heart, that's all that counts :)
Yes, about five and a half!
I write the first draft in longhand/shorthand - it's more direct, tho there are so many asterisks adding bits in, it's a nightmare trying to make sense of it when I type it up. At least I can write in whatever quiet corner of the house/garden I happen to be in. Then it's 'transformed' into a word document. Have to say, Scrivener sounds tempting. Must have a play sometime. I just hate having to learn new programs.
For many years I was a highly satisfied Word 2000 user. Then I replaced my old PC with a Windows 7 and the hell began. That was a while ago, but being worried about how clean the file transformations would be when I converted my books I persevered. Yesterday I lost about two thousand words. It's not the first time, but it's the last.
Therefore yesterday, on recommendation from a friend, I tried LibreOffice and I was immensely impressed. Appearance wise it's very much like Word 2000. There are command short cuts that are the same, and where there aren't there is the capacity to add them. In terms of function there are a whole host of additional features. I can't compare those to the present Word's functionality, I've tried recent Word versions, but have always fairly swiftly gone back to customisable ribbon-less 2000, in comparison to which LibreOffice rocks. I'm still apprehensive about how well LibreOffice created documents convert, but at least the nightmare is momentarily displaced.
I've decided to trial LibreOffice until I upload my next book and then if I'm still satisfied I'll donate the price I would have paid for purchasing a new word processor.