Free Stuff

Free Word Processors

The following Word Processors are all free for download. Don’t be stuck paying for Word or Works.

Open Office-Full Featured office suite comparable to MS Office. Too many features to note. I do not list a pdf creator below, because one is built in here. I use either Open Office Professional, or Portable Apps Suite on a USB drive.

Lotus Symphony-Based on Open Office, but re-engineered by IBM as a commercial project. Free Download, pay for support.

yWriter-Software developed for authors. yWriter uses a note card approach-Authors develop an outline of their book or screenplay and enter text into separate files that are later merged. Chapter files can contain scene summaries and character notes as well as the actual text of the chapter.A pretty useful approach that works well.

AbiWord- A popular free office suite. Has been eclipsed in recent years by Open Office, but is smaller and a little easier to use.

Jarte- Champion of the “Less is More”, ADHD Approach. Worth a try if you are overwhelmed by other Processor’s features, or get sidetracked easily by shiny bells and whistles.

Lyx- Unix based “What you See is what you Mean” Document Processor. Uses LaTex Docbook formatting to allow you to type directly into a finished, formatted document. Has been ported to Windows.

Online Word Processors

Zoho- My Current Favorite. Business oriented Office Suite

Google Docs- With the power of Google, the most popular

Buzzword- Now part of the Acrobat online suite, unique looking WP that throws away the “Office” Look

Ulteo Open Office- Online Beta

Internet Applications

The internet is the birthplace of the “information should be free” ethos. So it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s tons (scads? a plethora?) of free internet applications available for writers. This list is by no means comprehensive, but contains software I use and enjoy.

Browsers

Mozilla Firefox- My current favorite. Quick and agile, with an extended feature set. I still use this as my Primary Browser, Primarily Because of the extensions I have loaded. But then there’s….

Opera- Making a strong comeback. Quick and responsive. The new Speed dial future is the future of tabbed browsing.

iGoogle- Not a browser but an integrated homepage within Google. Allows you to read email, run Widgets, and read RSS feeds all within a tabbed homepage.

Zotero – Bibliography software that integrates with Firefox.

Email

Thunderbird-Stand alone application from Mozilla

Gmail -Email Service integrates Google talk Instant Messaging with other Google applications. Like other Google Applications, it packs a lot of info into one page and can be hard to navigate, but it basically does everything you would ever need it to do somewhere on that page.

Blogging

I’m not a big fan of the free blog hosts Blogger or Blogspot. Servers are cheap and easy enough that I can’t see being limited to the same templates as 30,000 other sites.

WordPress- Free software has evolved from simple Blogging tool to complete design and content management system. Cannot say enough good things, as this site is run by WordPress on a 1and1 host. Try the free hosting at Wordpress.com to get a hang of it’s features.

Juice- Podcast aggregator. Like an RSS reader, Juice puts all your podcasts in one place.

Plotting, Structure and Outlining

Free Mind- Mind mapping software. Great for brainstorming.

Bubbl.us – Online Mind Mapping service. Allows Collaboration.

KeyNote- “Dead” Software package that’s still extremely useful. Multi-tabbed outliner.

Mindomo – Another online mind mapper. Free basic service. premium is $6.00 a month.

MIND42- Gets credit for “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” reference. Also ability to tag your mind map with links, images and more.

The following Programs are demos of commercial programs, Unfortunately .

Writers Cafe- Popular program that does it all, including track manuscripts. Demo is pretty limited. full version costs $45.

Writer’s Blocks – Another popular note card system.

Visual Mind- Thirty day demo of full featured brainstorming system

WriteItNow -Another full featured program.

Other

SONAR- From the creator of yWriter comes a full featured Manuscript and career tracker. Free of course

Luminary- The writer’s database. Online Manuscript tracker with a social networking component.

Remember the Milk – Online ToDo list. Integrates with GMail, Google calendar, Mobile PCs, iPhone and more.

pbWiki- Online Wiki Tool

Celtx- Scriptwriting and Pre-Production package. Free, but for Linux. Offers many Script Templates and storyboarding, breakdowns, and collaboration.

Ning- A social networking site that let’s you page become its own social network. Not much different from myspace or FaceBook when you get right down to it, but it’s new and just tweaked enough to be worth a shot.