# Novel Organization Software **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093 "2013-04-30T13:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093/21 "2013-05-01T12:39:51Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > At least I still have my typewriter, though the ribbons are becoming hard to come by. I still have my Olympia portable as a backup, right next to my slide rules. I regret getting rid of the family heirloom Royal (ca. 1946 black upright; the family probably wrote 5M words on it over the years) but it was one of those things that just had to go in one move. I use InDesign for a few things like formal correspondence, but it’s not well-suited to writing. At all. (To start with, the lack of simple things like one-key text formatting makes it clumsy, and page flow is awkward.) Understand that I used both Ventura and FrameMaker as my basic writing instruments for decades. ID is very nearly a dream tool for page design, but they never have put in very good flowing or long-document characteristics. So I keep a hot-rodded copy of Word for writing and simple-format documents, and ID to take it from there. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093/22 "2013-05-02T02:51:52Z")
Screenplay-format software seems a lot less trouble than forcing Word (or whatever) through the hoops to do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093/23 "2013-05-02T08:57:17Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I still have my Olympia portable as a backup, right next to my slide rules. I regret getting rid of the family heirloom Royal (ca. 1946 black upright; the family probably wrote 5M words on it over the years) but it was one of those things that just had to go in one move. > > I use InDesign for a few things like formal correspondence, but it’s not well-suited to writing. At all. (To start with, the lack of simple things like one-key text formatting makes it clumsy, and page flow is awkward.) > > Understand that I used both Ventura and FrameMaker as my basic writing instruments for decades. ID is very nearly a dream tool for page design, but they never have put in very good flowing or long-document characteristics. So I keep a hot-rodded copy of Word for writing and simple-format documents, and ID to take it from there. I use InDesign for many paginated graphics projects, so I feel comfortable using it for anything with words. Plus, I don’t have Microsoft aps on my new Mac. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093/24 "2013-05-02T10:26:56Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > Screenplay-format software seems a lot less trouble than forcing Word (or whatever) through the hoops to do the same thing. Indeed, but screenplay formatting is strictly adhered to, otherwise it gets rejected outright by the Industry. I use _Celtx_ when I write a script, and they did add a new novel writing feature, except it’s barely usable and arguably worse-featured than the simplest text editor. Having a simple app that allows you to write in a standardised format, even one you can edit yourself, with features such as double-spacing, indented paragraphs, smart quotes, chapter headings, scene break indicators, importing images and illustrations, boilerplate copyright text, footnotes, and exporting to PDF, RTF, Word, HTML, and txt, would be very convenient. Instead, apart from word processors, which try to be all things to all people, they seem to be organisational and storifying apps designed to make the formulation of your plot easier, which is a different thing altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093/25 "2013-05-02T12:52:10Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I use InDesign for many paginated graphics projects, so I feel comfortable using it for anything with words. You don’t find it irritating to have to apply a character style to bold or italicize? Or having to manually add pages in most documents, like having to stop and roll another sheet of paper into an old manual? Or screw around with its glitchy, free-floating tab bar? ID is a fantastic tool, probably the best I’ve ever used across 25 years and maybe ten major programs. But I find it a pointlessly tough slog to write material longer than maybe a letter in it. (This, after using Frame as a daily wordwrangling tool.) As good as its feature set is, it lacks the three or four basic characteristics of a “word processor” in the fundamental sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novel-organization-software/657093.md?page=1)