Tool tips for Linux and Cloud Writers
Let’s hear it for confusing and potentially misleading if not outright lying titles!
First up, I just found and read an article on Moving to Linux: Tools for Writers. I don’t know anything about how good the information on the rest of the site is, but I personally found this to be very useful. I had heard mention of “txt2tags” before, but I didn’t realize what it was or just how easy and powerful it is.
Next, I had heard about something called Dark Room for blocking the clutter and helping remove distractions while writing. When I looked it up (Google to the rescue) I found that it was a Windows program designed to provide the same type of functionality of WriteRoom. WriteRoom is for OS X but the website for it has a nice link section for related projects. So far (today) I haven’t been able to find an analog of WriteRoom for use under any of the Linux distros, but there are two web-based solutions for people who are ready to embrace the cloud. Unfortunately, Dark Copy doesn’t seem to work under Firefox, but it looks nice when using Chrome.
On the other hand, Writer from BigHugeLabs is very interesting. It automatically saves your work as you go, allows you to save and open new documents with simple keyboard commands (CTRL-S, CTRL-N), and has a few nifty options like a word count function and the ability to share the file you are working on. I’m not quite ready for the Cloud, since I tend to do about a quarter of my writing from on the road or at work, but when I am, Writer seems like a very useful alternative to the overly bloated Google Docs. (Yes, I am aware that there are a number of other bloated options out there for Cloud computing document work.)
And finally, two quick Writers Block-breakers. One is from the same BigHugeLabs as Writer and for some reason they have included it as part of their Big Huge Thesaurus tool (which is useful in its own right.) The other tool is Writer’s Unblock by Little Girl and seems a little more programatic than Big Huge’s. Either one should be good for jogging a stuck brain a tooth or so forward and back into running position.
Writing in the dark
I didn’t quite find what I was looking for, but I did get a lot of new and useful tools to use in the meantime. That’s good enough for one day.
PS. I successfuly used the word “its” for the first time today, knowing exactly what I was doing. I’m proud of myself (yeah stupid pleasures) and I have to thank Grammar Girl for finally explaining it in a way that my old brain could understand.
Dollhouse season one episode two is a clear improvement despite being a retread of an oft used theme.
As I was scooping the mounds of old grease off one of the machines, I was struck by a word. The background babble that constantly runs through my mind, usually below the level of comprehension, rose up just loud enough for me to understand. It said to me, “Mentat. Mentant,” and returned to the depths.