Tools Of The Trade?

In October, just before NaNo began, I did a little Q&A. One question was about what I use to write: my answer was that I use OpenOffice Writer because I find a lot of programs have a lot of bloat.

I have tried a lot of stuff since I started writing novels (such as yWriter) but it just had too much. For every thing I felt I could use, there were ten things I did not need. I just wanted something where I could bullet point my characters and the like.

So you can imagine my delight when I discovered Kabikaboo, which basically just makes a collection of linked text files. It puts them in order, with children and grandchildren and stuff like that. It might not let me add styling and hyperlinks (which I would love) but that’s okay for now, as that stuff is supposed to come out in future versions. It’s simple, and it’s exactly what I wanted.

I love it when you find something after much searching and get it. It’s like when I found Write Or Die. :)

So, writers out there, what are some of the other tools you use? I’d love to see what else people are using, and maybe find something else to use too.



3 Responses

  1. Mary says:

    I use TiddlyWiki. It’s basically a one-file wiki that uses Javascript to put all entries in one HTML file. I haven’t done much with it, though some writers live by it.

    Kabikaboo sounds intriguing; I’ll try it sometime.

  2. Catherine says:

    @Mary: Kabikaboo can export files (or sections of files) into an HTML document, which I find very useful too.

  3. Robbie says:

    Write or Die is great.

    I use AbiWord, as it’s less bloated than OOo Writer. It’s a basic text editor, somewhere between Notepad and OOo. Kabikaboo sounds awesome though, gonna check that out.