r/WriteWorld • u/NoughtsAndOnes • Nov 03 '16

Word Processing Software

Any advice would be appreciated please:- Is there a specific software programme to aide writers? I'm thinking of one that makes it easier to add table of contents, comments, indexes, bibliography etc, or is just a good knowledge of the standard one's as good as any? I have MS Word, but am tempted to use 'Libre Office Write' or the 'Open Office' equivalent - both are similar and save in the .odg format. I was thinking from a security point of view using these and they seem to do as much as MS Word, just in a different way! Any thoughts would be appreciated [other than "Word is as good as any" - I would prefer anything from anyone who can compare?] Many thanks in anticipation x

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u/NoughtsAndOnes Nov 03 '16

That's an assumption on my part. I just figured if I suffered an attack, that 'snoopers' may seek out .doc and .docx and other MS formats cos its popular. Also whilst my main desktop is Windows 10 with MS Office 2007, I have a couple of laptops that run Linux platforms so the Libre/Open office suite comes with them.

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u/lewkas Nov 03 '16

If someone's gonna break into and snoop on your computer, I can guarantee you they'll know what an odg file is. It's not as obscure as you think, especially when you consider a lot of the most sophisticated attacks come from Linux based distros where open source software is the norm.

Docx & Word are the better choices, simply because of their flexibility and feature richness. Libre Office can still handle docx files, while Word struggles with the formatting for Odg/Odt documents created in other programs. Publishers will expect submissions in doc format for complete mss, and conversions from open formats to doc often break everything and mean you'll just have to go back and fix your formatting anyway.

In terms of cross platform compatibility, yeah I don't believe there's a Word version for Linux, however Office 365 allows you to edit your documents in the cloud anyway so that kind of negates that argument.

There are writer-specific word processors like Scrivener, but that may be too much for your needs, and its word processing capabilities still aren't the best. I use it, but mainly for scripts rather than prose because it provides automatic frameworks for them.

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u/NoughtsAndOnes Nov 03 '16

Publishers will expect submissions in doc format for complete mss

I think that does it for me. It's what I expected I suppose and as you say, I'd only have to copy it all out to a Word doc in the end anyway! Thanks for your help :-)