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title: "Writing Tools"
content-type: article
timestamp: 1148561820
tags: "writing|tools"
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<p>Since in these days (and even more in near future) I'm really writing a lot I thought it would be good to share
    my thoughts on some writing programs and tools I started using for writing these blog posts, articles, and more.</p>
<p>I'm going to examine a few applications which I find useful for different tasks, since I recently came to the
    conclusion that I cannot use the same editor for everything I write: some magazines require a .doc document, others
    want just plain text, my site uses the truly excellent <a href="http://http://www.textism.com/">textile</a> markup,
    zZine Magazine used BBcode, other site use their own &#8220;proprietary&#8221; styles and so on. One could just give
    up and use Notepad &#8211; or better, <a href="http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm">Notepad++</a>
    &#8211; for everything, while someone else like me might opt for various applications according to the task.</p>
<p>One of the few essential requirements for a <em>writer</em> is some spell checking functionality. Sad but true, this
    is enough to leave the most popular multi-purpose programming editor out: programmers don't need a spell
    checker, a highlighter for their favourite language is more than enough. <br />
    I will not mention all the applications I tried to find the Perfect Editor, and I'll just focus on the
    programs I ended up using in the end. Some may be well known, others may not, anyway, here we go.</p>
<p style="float:left;"><img src="/images/pictures/wp/bill.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx">Word 2007 Beta 2</a> &#8211; Yes, I know that
    OpenOffice is free and OO Writer works great, but perhaps at work you'll be asked to use MS Word. Some editors
    may require that as well, and their templates may not be correctly rendered by OpenOffice, so in the end
    you'll still have to use Redmond's most popular Word Processor &#8211; <em>if you have it</em>. If you
    got it with your laptop (I didn't) or your auntie gave you 300$ to buy it you're all set, but if you
    don't? <br />
    Oh well, yes, OpenOffice is the right choice perhaps, but at least until February 2007 uncle Bill lets you try the
    bleeding (quite literally) edge of all the commercial word processors: Word 2007 beta 2. You can download the whole
    Office Suite (and more) for free, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/overview.mspx">run</a>. I
    did it yesterday and well, it's nice to try this brand-new piece of eye candy. the interface is completely
    new, you won't find the usual drop down menu but with some imagination you'll manage to save/create/open
    a new document by clicking on the big roundy Office logo on the top left corner. More user friendly? Perhaps, once
    you get used to it. It <span class="caps">STILL</span> doesn't have a tabbed interface, so you <span
        class="caps">STILL</span> have to clutter your taskbar if you want to keep more than one document open. <br />
    At any rate, it does the job, exactly in the same way as it did in the previous versions. <br />
    I use it if people ask me to, and for writing stuff which doesn't need to be formatted with a particular
    markup or style but rather look nice and have pictures embedded.</p>
<p style="float:right;"><img src="/images/pictures/wp/writely.gif" alt="" /></p>
<p>Writely &#8211; Now this is much more fun. A <em>online</em>, <span class="caps">AJAX</span>-powered word processor
    recently acquired by Google. IT's currently in closed
    beta, but I was lucky enough to get an account before they closed registrations and I can invite people to use
    it.<br />
    It's nice. It's nice if you have to work with MS Word documents or create <span class="caps">PDF</span>
    files, and it supports the most essential features offered by desktop word processors, plus some more, really
    convenient functionalities. <br />
    It can import MS Word documents pretty well and also any kind of text file, so that you can edit it online anytime
    and anywhere. You can star, tag, archive, edit and delete your documents in a really easy way and &#8211; which is
    one of its killer features &#8211; you can grant access to certain documents to collaborators for editing or
    viewing. Other word processors out there offer similar features, but Writely is by far the nicest to use and perhaps
    even the more advanced. I recently wrote a couple of articles about CakePHP (coming soon-ish to some online
    magazines near you) and then gave access to gwoo and PhpNut for editing, so that they could check the code snippets,
    in particular: it was a success. Magazine editors were happy and impressed as well.<br />
    Another really wonderful feature is <em>version support</em>. I discovered this recently: when you edit a document
    and save it, Writely automatically creates a new version of it, storing the old ones as well, so that you can even
    compare them to highlight differences if you wish: a great feature to keep track of the editing process and know
    exactly who edited which. When I noticed it that was it, Writely has become my online <em>repository</em> for my
    articles and writings.</p>
<p style="float:left;"><img src="/images/pictures/wp/cream.png" alt="" /></p>
<p>Cream &#8211; I discovered this a while ago, and it's perhaps the
    most multi-purpose editor out there. It's built on top of Vim (respect+) but it has a friendlier interface by
    default, and that's exactly what I'm using right now for typing this post. The reasons are simple: it
    supports <span class="caps">ANY</span> kind of file format and any character encoding. There's an highlighter
    for everything, including BBcode and textile, and of course you can make your own. It also includes spell checking
    on-the-fly which is missing in many simple editors. <br />
    Whenever I have to write something which requires some particular formatting or markup I use Cream, it does the job
    pretty well, and whenever I feel brave I can always switch to &#8220;expert&#8221; view and challenge my vi skills
    ;)</p>
<p>That's pretty much what I use for writing articles, posts, and other documents&#8230; I tried other
    alternatives like RoughDraft or similar programs but I'm now really happy with these three applications.
    Commercial &#8220;writer's programs&#8221;? There are some out there, but who wants to spend 40$ or more for
    something which offer less than MS Word when you can use OpenOffice and Writely for free?</p>