www.inkthinkerblog.com — Jacob Rideout is creating a text editor just for writers, and he’s seeking input from writers on what will make it most efficient and useful for the serious writer. You can check out what he’s got so far at this link, but please note that a download won’t be available until 2007.
Here’s what he wrote to me the other day:
I’d like to start conversation with both you and your readers on what is lacking in their current tools. If you could have the ultimate tool for writing, what would it be?
Well, folks, here’s your chance. Design your ultimate writing tool! Leave your suggestions and complaints in the comments section.
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Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest
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Kristen,
The good news is that your comment widget is working now (knows I’m already logged in, etc.).
The bad news is I couldn’t find where on Jacob Rideout’s page I’m supposed to submit suggestions. So I’ll let you pass this one on to him.
Even though this is a text editor–maybe especially because it is a text editor–I’d like to see automatic markup incorporated.
The biggest drawback of MS Word, to me as an editor, is that a writer can open it up and start using manual overrides on “Normal” paragraphs. That’s bad design.
The ideal strategy is to have a tool that won’t let the writer create an untagged paragraph. Is it body text? Is it a chapter title? Is it a figure legend? Whatever. If the tool can enforce that simple requirement, editors and publishers will LOVE the tool.
Dick
Excellent comment, Dick. I know Jacob is planning to swing through periodically to get input from ::inkthinker:: readers, so posting your suggestions here is perfect!
kk
I am a beginner technical writer using MS Word (unfortunately). I think it would be extremely useful if a text editor functioned more like a webpage editor. One panel would simply contain the text and the markup (in XML maybe?). A second panel would contain the definitions for the markup (like a cascading style sheet does for HTML). A third panel would show the final product of implementing the definitions on the text and markup.
Having a document partitioned like this would let me focus on just the text or just the layout and design.
I now have a public wiki for comments and suggestions.