So I have a question, which is mostly in the title. I do write quite a bit, but mostly it's in a coil notebook and digitally I mostly use Google Drive. I am wondering if there are better options out there? I have no issues paying for decent software if I know I am going to use it. So what software do you prefer to write with? For that matter, what do you prefer to use for page layout?

Those are very, very different questions. I write with MS Office or LibreOffice.

We have Adobe Acrobat Pro for my wife's work, so I use that for fillable character sheets.

For page layout... I think most people I see use Adobe InDesign. But nobody likes it. :confused:

Quote from: Tod13;913477For page layout... I think most people I see use Adobe InDesign. But nobody likes it. :confused:

Back in the late 80s I used a TSR-80 Model 100 to write, and then transferred the files to a Macintosh Plus running Aldus Pagemaker. I can't imagine InDesign being less user friendly. Yeah the two questions are different but for anyone wanting to write an RPG those are questions needing answers. I heard nice things about Scrivener for writing. I mostly use Google Drive for the simple fact it is multi platform. I can call up a document on any of my laptops, tablets or my phone. Aside from that, it's not exactly comfortable for just sitting and writing, though making tables is easy enough.

Generating text and laying out book pages are two very, very different tasks requiring very, very different skill sets and tools.

For writing, just use whatever is fast, easy, and gets out of the way of you noting your ideas.  I find something text-based with light wiki markup is best because sometimes structure matters (stat blocks, lists, etc.)

For layout, Adobe InDesign, full stop.  You can do some simple two column stuff with embedded artwork in any modern word processor if you're willing to accept something ugly.

LibreOffice Writer

Quote from: Tod13;913477Those are very, very different questions. I write with MS Office or LibreOffice.

We have Adobe Acrobat Pro for my wife's work, so I use that for fillable character sheets.

For page layout... I think most people I see use Adobe InDesign. But nobody likes it. :confused:

I actually really love InDesign, so I use that both for layout and like a word processor.


Anyhow, I also use Google Docs a lot too, they are very handy, especially if you are collaborating with other writers online, or just want to have something people can read over and leave comments on.

Quote from: Aracaris;914536I actually really love InDesign, so I use that both for layout and like a word processor.

Cool! Most people dislike InDesign, but use it because everything else is worse, from what I hear. I guess I'll play with it at some point, since I have a game I'm writing, and most people like print versions.

I may just have to get used to Google Docs for writing. For layout it does seem like InDesign is the way to go so I'll probably have to rent that when I actually have a document produced.

MS Word for writing. Indesign for layout. This is pretty typical. If you are going to get into publishing, I recommend going with these. If you are freelancing for publishers, then just get MS Word. There are other programs, but it makes things easier if you have the standard software (so that track changes and stuff are easy to manage and there are no formatting problems when you send manuscripts back and forth------I once had a document delete spaces between words due to that).

I started two personal projects using Scrivener. The real value I have gotten out of it is primarily to organize my writing.  The Mac OS X version is much more feature rich than the Windows version (I am using the Windows version). The publishing and final formatting features are half baked as far as I can tell.

Quote from: Tod13;914585Cool! Most people dislike InDesign, but use it because everything else is worse, from what I hear. I guess I'll play with it at some point, since I have a game I'm writing, and most people like print versions.

My guess is most people dislike it because, like just about everything that Adobe makes, it has a steep learning curve, and is a bit more complicated in some ways than perhaps it needs to be. It being pretty pricey doesn't help.  They could probably do some things to improve their UI that would help with the usability issue though.  However, since I've been using Adobe stuff for a while now that issue doesn't even bother me anymore, I've gotten used to it I guess.

Quote from: Aracaris;914857My guess is most people dislike it because, like just about everything that Adobe makes, it has a steep learning curve, and is a bit more complicated in some ways than perhaps it needs to be. It being pretty pricey doesn't help.  They could probably do some things to improve their UI that would help with the usability issue though.  However, since I've been using Adobe stuff for a while now that issue doesn't even bother me anymore, I've gotten used to it I guess.

I would go with, for Acrobat at least, Adobe's stuff is just badly written. Or maybe at best, written for the wrong audience.

Alan Cooper in About Face talks about this. Having a super powerful/flexible tool that is designed for someone where that is their primary tool for their job, so they are an expert in its usage, and you sacrifice the casual user for the expert is one thing. Having a less powerful/flexible tool, that does fewer things, but makes them easy to do, sacrificing the expert for the casual user, is another thing.

I can't see from using Acrobat to make form-fillable PDFs how it could ever be useful for the expert or the casual user. Unless, maybe, the expert comes from manual, non-computer work and is used to laying out and setting everything manually and actively hates having a computer align things, group things, and order things when asked.

Google Drive for writing, and InDesign for some writing and layout.  (For one page dungeon-type stuff, I do the writing in InDesign also.)

I used to use Scribus, which does work, but InDesign is in a different league entirely.

Always use OpenOffice until its time to go into InDesign.

Oh, and hi to all (again); joined the forum eons ago but had account issues, looking forward to being part of the community here and its more unbridled action then elsewhere on the web.

Quote from: Tod13;914957I would go with, for Acrobat at least, Adobe's stuff is just badly written. Or maybe at best, written for the wrong audience.

Alan Cooper in About Face talks about this. Having a super powerful/flexible tool that is designed for someone where that is their primary tool for their job, so they are an expert in its usage, and you sacrifice the casual user for the expert is one thing. Having a less powerful/flexible tool, that does fewer things, but makes them easy to do, sacrificing the expert for the casual user, is another thing.

I can't see from using Acrobat to make form-fillable PDFs how it could ever be useful for the expert or the casual user. Unless, maybe, the expert comes from manual, non-computer work and is used to laying out and setting everything manually and actively hates having a computer align things, group things, and order things when asked.

Oh, Acrobat is a different beast from the rest of Adobe's stuff, and, best to avoid using it for anything aside from just looking at/reading PDFs whenever possible.  When it comes to editing it sucks big time for anything beyond tiny text changes.  For any actual layout... no, just don't.