So what apps do you-all use to write?

I've tried other text editors but can't believe I didn't discover Notepad++ until recently. I really like NoteTab Standard for organizing things that need chapters, but Notepad++ is great for typing one-off stuff like reviews I don't need/want to take too many notes on--it even tracks the # of bytes a file is, and so forth, which is nice when I don't want to bloat a piece of writing too much.

I'd actually heard of Notepad++ before but assumed it was too much like Notepad for some reason. But it's not. After trying a pile of other text editors geared towards HTML coding and such (which I bet some people here might find useful) it took me about fifteen minutes to realize that I'd found something I wanted and probably should've done so years ago.

So what finally made me take the plunge? I got sick of Windows 7's Wordpad asking if I wanted to save a text file as text, because it might lose all the formatting I never put in anyway. I could kill this in XP or even Vista by closing and reopening.

Can't give any non-windows recommendations, but it's great to find a freeware that -works-.

Comments 3

honestgamer Staff Jan 28, 2012

I use Microsoft Word and sometimes Open Office. I also write a surprising amount of stuff in regular Notepad if I'm in a rush.

jerec Jan 28, 2012

MS Word mostly. I use Notepad for small stuff.

aschultz Blogger Jan 31, 2012

Notepad and Wordpad and Microsoft Word are a good combo--I guess they seemed to suffice for so long that I got used to them.

But I'd be curious to see if you guys thought Notepad++ was a step up. Even being able to mess with basic features and having easily accessible tabs (e.g. for different reviews or maybe even a review/FAQ of a game) is a huge plus for me. I've also found stuff like coloring different parts of a script (or my starter HTML file at work) to be huge. It's nice to be able to bracket stuff I want to put in a review and not forget I did so. Though on the other hand, cutting down on features I don't want helps me focus, too.

And you know, with 400GB, I finally need to stop worrying about disk space and start downloading OO. I use so little text formatting, though. It's worth a try, though, to see what it's about.