writing software

[chrismythoi]

i exclusively use microsoft word for all of my typing up of things, but find that it is fairly clunky, especially for documents over about 20,000 words. does anyone else use and could recommend other programmes for writing?

[tailor STATELY]

I use 'Writer' included in the open source office suite OpenOffice at http://www.openoffice.org/, but then the word count of my most prodigious (read only, and amateurish) piece is light at 13.7K so I don't know what the 'clunk' factor might be. But it is free.

If you're on dial up like I am it's a hefty download (broadband 1-7 minutes).

Why not separate your doc into multiple docs until the final ? (just curious)

Sincerely,
tailor STATELY

[minstrelbard]

I use Word on many docs over 20,000 word, and I don't find it any more clunky on long docs than on shorter ones.

But I might just have a high tolerance for clunkiness.

[Maximilianus]

It very much depends on our computer's memory and general speed. If we are low on memory or speed, any big document will seem clunky on any edition software, and even more if we have the habit to keep several applications running at once. Nowadays, most writing applications need a good amount of resources to run comfortably.

Maybe it would be better to split the document, as tailor suggested.

[LMK]

I use MS Word and use sub-folders for each work and each document is a chapter or a part of a writing. I find this easier to edit and quicker to manipulate.

When I send something to be read/edited/etc. I can merge documents.