What software do people use and \ or recommend?

The_Thing

Hi all,

First time for me posting in this section of the forums.

I'm just wondering what software do you use? Obviously MS Word is going to be widely available so I suspect that most people would be using some version of it as they probably got it bundled with their PC in one form or another. Is the Word format the most widely accepted by publishers?

I know that there is dedicated software available, but it seemed to engage in too much hand-holding for my liking. Does anyone use such software? Is there a specific reason for you doing so?

Or are you using a little known application that could be of use to others - let us know if you are.

Thanks.

EileenG

Word is generally accepted, but always ask. It's usually a well known and easily available format.

After that, it's whatever you find easiest to use for writing.

iguana

It depends on what you are writing. If it's a play/screenplay, for example, you should be using Final Draft as it's the industry standard and if you are starting out it's a good idea to make sure you are writing in a way that will be accepted.

Dorcha

Well, I always generally save my work in RTF, because this format can usually be opened by any word processor. However recently an editor told me he couldn’t open one of my files, so I had to send it in Word format.


An option is to save your work as a text file, which can be opened in any word processor. The drawback is you will loose any text formatting you may have made.

pickarooney

If you're not expecting the document to be altered, maybe use PDF?