The diary program I use for my journaling is Diarium (yes, I’ve talked about its unfortunate name before). It’s available on pretty much every platform, save Linux (and web). Unlike many people, I don’t write in the diary on my mobile devices, so I’m usually using the Windows or Mac version. Both have slight differences in UI, but generally work the same.
One key difference is fonts. The Windows version lets you use any font you want. I am using the new MS Office font, Aptos, because I like the way it looks. The Mac version only offers a small subset of fonts and I have no idea if this is just the default setup for any Mac program and easier to program or what, because other apps, such as Affinity Designer, will show you all fonts.
My point, though, is that when a program gives me a choice of fonts, I want access to every font available. If I want to write my journal in Papyrus or Comic Sans, let me! The Mac version of Diarium won’t let me and it makes me sad. đ (I would use Aptos there, too.)
Anyway, this is my plea to app-creating wizards and gnomes: Always let the users choose from any fonts they have installed. It’s the nice thing to do. Also, make a Linux version, or at least make the Windows version behave nicely under Linux.
But (a little) more seriously, I’ve been looking at novel-writing software and there are a few trends I’ve noticed:
A lot of software has moved to the browser (kind of yucko).
Most software has a monthly or yearly subscription attached (definitely yucko).
No one really recommends Microsoft Word, but a few recommend Google Docs (??).
Most non-browser software seems to run on Windows or Mac, but rarely both.
Scrivener is the unicorn because it supports Windows, Mac and has a one-time purchase price. It even works on Linux if you are willing to fiddle a bit (no actual fiddle skills required).
There seems to be a split between software that is pretty and modern, and One Dude Who Knows How to Code But Uses UI by Caveman Design.
None of the “best of” lists I looked at offered anything for Linux. Sorry, Tux! This is mildly surprising, because novelWriter is open source software that runs on all three desktop platforms: Windows, macOS and Linux. I’m trying it out now and will have more on it soonâ˘.
In reality, I probably have the best option already, the aforementioned unicorn of Scrivener. But I am still traumatized by how it munged my work, and it does not play nice with network drives or cloud services, and I’m not yet certain if I want to restrict my writing to one platform. Maybe I should.
Also, this is my way of saying I may start writing fiction again. Woo. Or at least woo-ish.
I have 50 million mice (the computer kind, that is). I have about the same number of keyboards. I have more hardware to write and edit with than any one person would reasonably need. I also have a bunch of software that can be used for said writing. In alphabetical order (I’ve bolded the ones I’ve used recently for actual writing):
Apple Notes
Bear
Craft
FocusWriter
iA Writer
Microsoft Word
Notepad
Notepad++
Obsidian
OneNote
Pages
Scrivener
SmartEdit Writer1This used to have the totally metal name Atomic Scribbler before going uttterly generic
TextEdit
Typora
Ulysses
WordPad2Until Microsoft carries out its planned execution
I’ve probably forgotten a few, and I’ve omitted some where I bounced off the UI (more on this in another post coming soonâ˘) like yWriter, as well as the multitude of web-based offerings like Novlr, Hemingway and a billion others. That still leaves me with a long list that includes:
Full-fledged word processors (Word, Pages)
Note-taking apps (Obsidian, Bear, etc.)
Writing apps that are more “to the metal” (Ulysses, iA Writer)
Writing apps that straddle several of these categories, like Scrivener
So why am I looking at writing apps again? I don’t know. I thought maybe if I wrote about it, the answer would come to me. Maybe I just like trying out new software (I do). Maybe I like collecting things (I do). Maybe I just use the search for writing apps to procrastinate (I do, I do, I do).
What I can confirm is that my latest search has not really revealed anything new or revolutionary. No surprise, really. I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to tools for writing. What I really need to do is stop looking and start writing.
Bonus: when I start writing in whatever app I choose, I need to vow to not spend hours choosing just the right font to inspire me. Not that I’ve ever done this3In the last hour, that is.
After referring to the possibly skeevy nature of the Microsoft Store app Inspire Writer, a fairly shameless Ulysses copycat, I noticed it had a 10-day trial, so I thought I’d download it and have a look. What could possibly go wrong?
The developer is Sunisoft, which describes itself thusly: “Established in 1999, Sunisoft is a developers tools software provider located in Zhu Hai, China. We are committed to providing more effective tools for software developers” (link). It apparently has fewer than 25 employees.
In terms of user interface, this is a straight-up copycat. You have the Library bar on the left, the list of sheets next to it, then the editor next to that. You can toggle these on/off the same way you can in Ulysses. You can export to multiple sources, including WordPress, which is how I’ve made this post (I’ll edit this if it turns out to not work, and I have to post the old-fashioned way in WordPress).
EDIT: While Inspire recognized all of my settings for my blog (categories, tags, etc.) it produced a simple error dialog every time I tried to export this post to WordPress:
There is an option to configure a proxy, but I have not successfully gotten that to work (yet), either. I'll update this post again if I do. Also, dumping in the straight markdown from Inspire into WordPress leaves a lot of clean-up to do. The rest of my look at Inspire continues below.
It supports markdown, of course, and you can set it to sync across devices, mimicking Ulysses’ seamless use of iCloud. You can also choose any font you have installed on Windows for the editor, unlike some markdown apps that restrict you to ones that are deemed most appropriate. Want to use Comic Sans? You can!
You know someone will do this.
But there are differences.
Missing features
While there is a Dark Mode you can toggle on, there is no support for themes or styles. You get Light and Dark modes, and that’s all. In this way, it feels closer to iA Writer.
Some shortcut keys are missing. For example, there is no shortcut for bringing up Preferences. Mac-first apps often use the Mac Preferences shortcut for their Windows versions, which would translate to CTRL-.
Clumsier or simpler features
Like Ulysses, Inspire Writer includes a word goal you can modify and invoke by hitting F5. Unlike Ulysses, there is no way to keep the goal open while writing, since its dialog takes control of the UI. You do get a ring icon in the top-right corner of the sheet in the Sheets view, which can be kept open. To its credit, the ring fills dynamically and changes from blue to green when you’ve hit your goal.
The documentation is obviously translated, but it’s never difficult to understand, so I don’t knock it too much for this.
Overall, it seems to do all the core things Ulysses does, just without the same degree of polish, and with some “extras” missing. It seems to work well otherwise, but it still feels like it hews a little too closely to Ulysses’ UI and would benefit from breaking free a bit and charting its own course. Ulysses is a fine program, but it’s not necessarily the definitive word on distraction-free writing apps.
I am unsure on what I will do when the trial ends. I really like the way it matches Ulysses’ use of indents, as it’s so helpful when writing fiction and most markdown editors simply don’t include this support or require you to at minimum add in an extra key for it (like hitting Tab), which eliminates the convenience of having indents in the first place.
Why do I care about indents so much, anyway, you may ask. Let me illustrate. Let’s say there is a scene where two characters are engaged in rapid-fire dialog, like this:
Bob tapped on the desk. “You see this desk here?” Jim nodded. “Yes. It’s very desk-like.” “It’s my desk.” “Says who?” “Says me.” “You and what army?” “The Swedish army!” “I’m pretty sure Sweden doesn’t have an army.” Bob sighed. “You need to see more of the world.” Jim folded his arms. “Yeah? How much more, smart guy?” “Twelve percent, minimum.”
Now, I was able to write that quickly (never mind the quality) because the indents happen automagically. In most text editors, I’d have to hit Enter twice after every line of dialog to get proper separation of paragraphs. I mean, I absolutely could do this, but having automatic indents is just easier. It’s the one concession to being Word-like that I approve of in a text editor.
All of this is to say, why is is that only a clone of Ulysses matches this feature among all the text editors I’ve tried. I was even hoping Obsidian would somehow have a community plugin that would mimic this, but I haven’t found one. It puzzles me, but maybe it’s a niche feature or considered “wrong” somehow.
Anyway, I will continue to tinker with Inspire Writer during the 10-day trial and render a verdict by the time it ends (curiously, it gives no indication of how much time is left, so I have no idea what will happen when the trial ends. Also, the app has only a single one-star rating on the Microsoft Store, and I’m really curious why).
I still canât post from a toaster yet, but I can post from yet another writing app, iA Writer. But only from the Mac version because they secretly hate Windows or something. Or maybe it’s Microsoft’s fault. I donât know.
A few notes on this for future reference:
The title gets put in the title (yay), but also at the top of the post itself (???)
You can’t pick categories or tags
It posts using the “Classic” block, though you can choose to Convert to blocks afterward
Overall, not as robust as Ulysses and not something I would find myself using very often (or maybe ever again), but probably better than posting from a toaster. Probably.
RANDOM BONUS OBSERVATION: I left the “u” out of the word “fault” and the spelling checker did not know what word I meant to type (ie. it did not suggest “fault” as an option). We are still safe from SkyNET for a while yet.
For awhile Scrivener was my favorite writing application. It does pretty much everything you could want in a writing program and has excellent organizational tools that really help in planning and plotting out novels (or other projects).
A major new update to version 3 was released for the Mac in November 2017, with an equivalent Windows update arriving in 2018, then by end of Q2 2019, then for absolute sure by August 30, 2019. All dates were missed, with contrite apologies from Literature and Latte.
After the last missed date, they stopped saying when it would release and version 3 for Windows has existed since then as a perpetual beta and now, a perpetual release candidate. Users talk about how stable it is, how perfectly usable it is, but it’s still not officially released. You can’t buy it.
I am not a developer so I can’t speak to the challenges the duo working on the Windows version of Scrivener is facing, but it does seem to me that as we draw ever-closer to three years since version 3 came out for the Mac, that the Windows version ought to have been ready by now. I mean, if you originally project a release in 2018, re-calibrate and say, okay, second quarter 2019, then re-calibrate yet again and say August 30, 2019, then finally go silent on a release date and then still have not released almost a full year after the last offered date, I would submit that you are bad at estimating software release dates, and also very slow at developing software.
I will buy version 3 when it eventually comes out, and I might try it again (I have version 3 already for Mac but I have switched mostly to using Ulysses for my fiction writing), but I must admit, the pace of the Windows version’s development instills me with little confidence in the product or the company. One of the main points of the version 3 release was to bring feature parity (as much as possible) to the Mac and Windows versions. That cannot happen if the Windows version is constantly lagging well behind. I have every expectation that should version 4 come out for Mac, it would be years before the same version released for Windows. I might be wrong. I hope I am wrong!
Anyway, I do hope the Windows version releases at least before the anniversary of the version 3 release for Mac. Looking over the current issues in the forum thread on beta releases, it feels a bit like they are striving for perfection and holding up release indefinitely as a result. They report a single crash bug:
We are aware of one bug (listed below) that can hang Scrivener, and zero bugs that cause data loss, so if you are aware of any other bugs that can hang Scrivener, or cause data loss, please let us know. The only crash bug we know about is:-
Merging cells in table can crash under certain conditions
I can’t speak for all writers, but I have very few tables in my novels, apart from the actual furniture in various scenes. This doesn’t seem like enough to hold up release. I mean, what if they can’t track down the cause of this bug? Just hold off release for another six months? A year? At some point you have to accept that you’ve done all you can and put your work out there–like any good writer would.
I still really dislike a subscription model for a writing app, but for $36.99 per year, I’m willing to try it again…for at least the next 12 months. And I have missed it, as the app itself I still consider pretty faboo. I lament that the closest equivalent on Windows is a shameless rip-off. Nothing else matches its UI and interface, though some come close.
This, of course, means I’m committing to writing on my MacBook Pro again, though I am still no fan of the keyboard. I think I may be part-masochist.
And for home, I’m thinking of a better solution than the dongle mess I’m currently using, either a Mac mini or a Hackintosh. Time to ponder.
I love Scrivener, or rather, the platonic ideal that Scrivener can represent.
The actual program inspires something less than love in me. I long ago adapted to its complicated, cumbersome interface and learned to ignore the long list of features I would never use. I write simple stories, I don’t need a lot of sophisticated tools for that.
I came to appreciate the Scrivener features I did use–easily dividing chapters into discrete blocks that could be moved around or removed, being able to set goals and see my progress (especially handy for NaNoWriMo), the corkboard for keeping track of scenes, and being able to set up my editing environment and have it complete separate from the compiling of the document. I realized I did not need the WYSIWYG approach of Microsoft Word and it was nice.
I’ve been thinking of doing a proper outline of Road Closed, then going back and properly finishing the first draft. I’d written the novel using WriteMonkey and earlier this year I took the time to convert it over to Scrivener. This is a somewhat time-consuming process as Scrivener would import the novel’s entire text and place it into a single scene, from which I would then copy and paste the different chapters into their own Scrivener folders.
Now, my first mistake was using the Scrivener for Windows 3.0 beta. In November 2017 Scrivener 3.0 for the Mac was released, and at the same time the first beta of Scrivener 3.0 for Windows was made available. A final release date was never offered beyond “2018” and that, too, ended up not coming to pass, though it seems a release in early 2019 is possible.
All the caveats of using a beta apply, of course. And I already had the novel safely backed up and ready to go in WriteMonkey in the case of disaster striking.
Last night I updated to the latest Scrivener 3.0 beta,. with the intention of loading Road Closed so I could export it to the older Scrivener 1.9 format, allowing me to keep writing in a safer, more stable environment.
Except when I loaded Road Closed, all of the text was gone. The chapter and scene structure was preserved in the binder, but the actual story had vanished. I thought about why this might have happened for a minute or two. It’s quite possible–even likely–I had done something wrong. I considered my options.
And then I did nothing. Because I had a current version of the story intact and ready in WriteMonkey. I am not going to spend any time playing my own personal technical support. I’ll just wait until version 3.0 comes out of beta, then consider then if I want to invest in the upgrade.
This is not the first time Scrivener has gone sideways on me, losing or corrupting data, and if I keep using it, I would fully expect it would eventually happen again. And I emphasize once more, this may be my fault entirely. Maybe I just don’t get it.
But in the end, it doesn’t matter. I can’t trust Scrivener, or perhaps I can’t trust myself to use it, so I won’t. For now, anyway.
This irks me in another way, too, because last year I had what was close to the perfect setup, using Ulysses on my MacBook Pro. There were a few problems, though:
I came to strongly dislike the MacBook Pro’s butterfly keyboard. Some people (tech writers especially, weirdly) love the shallow, clicky keys, but I ultimately did not. I ended up going to the other extreme on laptop keyboards by getting a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1. This has one of the deepest keyboards you can get on a laptop. I very much like it. This is an issue for Ulysses because the program is Mac-only and Apple’s entire line-up of MacBooks now use the butterfly mechanism in their keyboards (my 2016 MacBook Pro is helpfully still eligible for free keyboard repairs for another two years, a testament to the issues that have plagued the design, even if you do love the keyboard).
The other issue was the decision by the developer to switch to a subscription model, which I have ranted aboutbefore. As much as I like the app, I don’t think it’s worth paying what amounts to the full purchase price every year in perpetuity.
But there is really nothing else like Ulysses out there. There are dozens of markdown and minimalist writing apps available on every platform and I’ve tried a bunch of them, but they all fall short in some way. The biggest issue for me is failing to support indents, something I consider crucial for writing fiction.
FocusWriter is lean and generally nice to use, but it’s almost a little too basic and its organizational structure is pretty bare.
The WriteMonkey 3.0 beta looks promising, but indents are still only a “might include” feature and the beta is moving so slowly I may be 110 by the time it hits official release. It’s a one-man project, so I’m not knocking the dev, just saying.
iA Writer has a wonderful minimalist interface, but it lacks indents and the Windows version lags behind the Mac version of features (even though the Mac version itself is not exactly feature-rich).
And on it goes, with other programs either getting abandoned, lacking features, not working well with cloud-saving (like Atomic Scribbler–though really, how can you develop and launch a writing app in 2018 and not plan for people wanting to save their work to cloud-based storage?) or just somehow not being the right fit.
It’s also possible I may be too fussy. Very possible.
For now I’m sticking to WriteMonkey 2.7. It’s getting old, but it still works and it’s pretty solid. It only saves text files, so the possibly of data corruption is pretty low (insert GIF of Jeff Goldblum saying, “Nature finds a way” here).
Now I just need to get back to the actual writing. One of my resolutions for the new year. Let’s hope it pans out better than my attempts to get my weight down.
I sat down at the computer tonight to write about…something. I’m not sure what, as it was one of those “see what happens when I start typing and find a funny cat picture if all else fails” sessions.
Instead, I somehow ended up doing another look at distraction-free writing software. Note this is distinct from markdown editors (which number in the millions now), though a program casn be both. Most of the apps I’ve tried before have been updated, though none with revolutionary new features that radically change or improve them. I didn’t see anything new that was compelling.
I continue to be vexed by the simple lack of first line indentation on most of these programs. This is a common feature in word processors–you’d be hard-pressed to find one without it, but official markdown does not support indented paragraphs. You want to separate paragraphs? You’ll hit the Enter key twice and you’ll like it!
But a few programs have included both. WriteMonkey 2.7 for Windows does. Alas, the author, busily working on version 3 (currently in beta) has said he will not be supporting this in the new version:
Right now wm follows markdown rules, i.e. Double return is new paragraph, single return is soft line break. First line indentation is not supported in wm3.
Sad trombone.
Ulysses supports both markdown and first line indents, but switched to a subscription model and is Mac-only.
Another sad trombone.
Scrivener has no problem with this and has a Composition Mode that is meant for distraction-free writing. And I’m okay with it, I just still have fears that the program will gobble up my text with no hope for recovery, having had that happen once several years ago (I’m willing to admit it in part user error and I know more now than I did back then. Still, it makes me nervous).
Having looked again at some others, I can eliminate the following based on my own peculiar needs and preferences:
iA Writer. An otherwise decent minimalist editor, it now has a Windows version–yay–but still doesn’t handle indents. It sort of supports them if you import or paste in a document with them, but that’s a clunky and unreliable hack. It’s a shame, because the program is fast and looks great.
WriteMonkey 3 (beta). As noted above, no support is planned for indents.
Q10 does support indents–but it only runs full screen and was last updated in 2011.
Quoll Writer has an interface that weirds me out. It supports indents, though I couldn’t find out how. Also, when I try to update it, it downloads the update and is supposed to install it when you exit the program, but nothing happens, so I dunno!
Typora. It supports indents, but only if you edit a theme. Kind of awkward and there’s nothing about Typora that makes it seem especially worth having to tinker with it for basic functionality. It’s not too bad, though.
Ulysses. Subscription model–boo. Mac-only. Also boo.
yWriter has an interface that scares me. I appreciate the depth it brings, but I’m not a fan of windows/frames all over the place. This is kind of like maximalist software.
FreeWriter has a paid version, so the name is a bit deceptive, though technically you can use the free version forever if you’re fine with the limitations. The UI is tab-happy and non-standard and sometimes aesthetics matter, even when it may seem less than rational.
Abricotine sounds like a medication or maybe a liqueur. Preferences are in a config file you must edit. Also no indents.
UPDATE: The author of WriteMonkey replied back to a discussion thread, saying there is still hope for a first line indent feature eventually: “It is possible. I received so many requests to allow first line indentation that I’ll do it eventually. It is not trivial to do it since changes to 3rd party libraries are necessary.”
Now onto the remaining contenders:
Scrivener. Pretty much does everything, my main concern as expressed above, is that I might lose work due to a saving snafu, especially now that most of the saves are in the ephemeral cloud.
GhostWriter. A markdown editor that sort of supports first line indentation. It allows you to set a tab as x number of spaces, and once invoked, it will continue to pseudo-indent every paragraph otherwise. Still, there’s not much support here for long form documents, so I’m not sure.
WriteMonkey 2.7. This is the current version and I’ve used it a lot without issue. My main concern now is it’s EOL and so won’t receive support if there are issues. It’s also a tad fiddly, though quite powerful.
Microsoft Word. There’s always good old Word, but I really don’t like not being able to see the plumbing behind the words, because it’s a mess back there. If the formatting goes awry it can be a daunting challenge to fix things. It can be run in a sort of distraction-free mode and headers can be used to act like chapters for navigation. Still, meh.
[unknown contender here]
In all likelihood, I’ll keep using Scrivener for now and see how it goes. The Windows version is still in beta but should be caught up to the stable Mac release sometime in the next few months (my hunch is the beta that will launch at the end of this month will be the final one before release. But I’ve been wrong a grabillion times before).
