So, I asked a while back about Macs.
I bought a Mac Mini.
I used that Mac Mini as a home theater component. It worked pretty well like that.
Then, yesterday, my PC pooped the bed and fell down the stairs and ate a gun.
I think it’s the video card — but could be anything. I used to know my way around the guts of a computer but it’s been a handful of years now since I really paid attention to that sort of thing.
Anywho — that’s not the point. Point is, at present, I am now a brand new bonafide Mac user! And it’s been fairly nice so far. This little keyboard lets me fly on it. I love the magic trackpad thing — the gestures are really sweet in terms of letting me zip through screens and open the dashboard and whatever.
Just the same, I’m all a bit lost.
So, I once more turn to you:
What do I need? What do I need to know? What are essential apps?
Further, I’m going to need to do some word processing on this bad-boy real soon, so I’ll need to know about that, too. What’re my best options? I want — nay, need — a word processor that will let me read and utilize Word’s TRACK CHANGES option, so does that mean I’m stuck with the Mac version of Word? Talk to me about Scrivener, too, and how well it talks to Word and… y’know, all that crizzap.
Help a brother out, Mac people.
And if anybody comes in here making a ding at PCs or Macs, I will punt your perineum through your brain pan. This is not the time or the place to take bullshit sides in a made-up tribal tech war. Stuff it.
Thanks!
Mytholder says:
I know NeoOffice works with track changes in Word docs. It’s free and works ok as a word replacement. I used it for two years without any huge complaints.
Scrivener is a thing of beauty, but seems (in my experience) to be pretty self-contained. It can output word docs, and read them too, but I’ve not tried switching a document between them. That said, I’ve only scratched the surface of what it can do.
March 9, 2012 — 8:12 AM
Joshua D says:
haha, I love the end note. Cause I could see someone doing that. Gotta use the tools you have available.
I love Scrivener now. Just started using it, though only on Windows. Anything I have moved from a word document to Scrivener I have simply copied and pasted…. It’s been fantastic.
Sorry, don’t have much else to add. I’m sure you’ll get some better advice. Good luck man.
March 9, 2012 — 8:15 AM
Jamie Drew says:
I use Scrivener pretty extensively, as it exports to RTF and FDX formats for further editing, but it doesn’t play with Word all that well, in my experience: the formatting goes all weird when you import it. It’s a first-couple-of-drafts kind of program.
I’ve found Evernote to be pretty indispensable, too, but the app can be kind of clunky.
March 9, 2012 — 8:17 AM
Vanessa says:
Scrivener is plain and simply, the very best writing tool I’ve ever encountered. It plays nicely with word, with notebooks (ipad app) with everything. It has a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth every bit of it. It stores your research (photos, web pages, notes, etc) and your manuscript, and your synopsis, everything is right there in the same notebook. If you store the notebook in a dropbox folder, you can access it from another computer with word or scrivener or whatever. The individual chapter/scene files are in .rtf format, so you don’t *need* scrivener everywhere, but I do have it on both my mac and my pc (and it’s better on the mac).
Enjoy!
March 9, 2012 — 8:17 AM
Stew Wilson says:
Scrivener’s a writing tool and the first thing I install on any mac I use. It takes you from a rough outline to a finished manuscript, which it can then spit out in RTF or whatever for Word to mangle. It doesn’t do styles or formatting beyond bold/italic/underline but it’s got a goodly range of export filters and the like. It really shines when writing organized text like RPG books because you can nest sections and reorder/reframe them as needed.
For change tracking, the latest version of Pages will apparently handle it (haven’t had the chance to try) and that’s cheaper than Word but significantly less intuitive if you’re used to Word. Office is available and expensive and it’s, well, office. It does what you’d expect office to do, though in a way that’s almost entirely different from how most everything else expects things to work. I believe LibreOffice (what used to be OpenOffice before politics happened) can handle change tracking, but I get Office under my day job’s licensing scheme so I’ve not had reason to check.
March 9, 2012 — 8:19 AM
Vanessa says:
BTW, that wasn’t a dig at PC–Scrivener functions better on the Mac, more seamlessly. The name generator is better on the PC though. I don’t know why.
March 9, 2012 — 8:19 AM
Marko Kloos says:
My $DEITY, absolutely give Scrivener a whirl. It’s to novel-writing what Photoshop is to image-editing. Its greatest strength is that you can write in a non-linear fashion and then splice and stitch without trouble as desired. Seriously, you know how the zealots tell people that XYZ will CHANGE YOUR LIFE? Scrivener actually merits the zealotry. Plus, it exports the manuscript not only in any current file format (.docx, .rtf, PDF, etc.), but it also generates e-book format, with a ton of tweaking options for the output.
Seriously. Try it now and believe me later. It’s all that and a bag of pure, uncut, first-rate writing powder.
March 9, 2012 — 8:19 AM
Cameron Chapman says:
I’ve had some success using OpenOffice.org for Word files with track changes. It seems to work fine if it’s a .doc file but not so well with .docx. Bean is also a fantastic bare bones word processor. And if you want distraction-free writing, check out Omm Writer. Scrivener on the Mac is awesome, too. Definitely worth purchasing.
March 9, 2012 — 8:21 AM
Sean C/John R says:
Change-tracking wise, the best option is Pages, hands-down. LibreOffice has gotten better at it (and it’s free, natch), but Pages does it better than anything I’ve ever used, Word included.
Scrivener exports to rather than imports from most formats (though it can copy/paste/include as research just about anything, it still just turns it all into RTF first). It doesn’t actually export to .doc very well – a warning comes up when you try saying that .doc isn’t all that friendly a format – but you can export to .rtf and then open the .rtf in your wordprocessormotron of choice. It’s production software, not editing software. Lovely, though.
Otherwise, essentials-wise, I’m a fan of full-screen distraction free text editors; OmmWriter’s free version is pretty neat, but iA Writer (not free) is my go-to of choice, in no small part because it reads (and displays, to an extent) Markdown syntax and you can then spit out as formatted RTF. iA also has an apparently rocking iPad version too, which can talk to the big brother via iCloud if you’re that way inclined. Sparrow’s well worth a look for email (there’s a Lite free version of that). Other than that, Dropbox, your browser of choice, and you’re pretty much good to go.
There’s a lot more you *could* use, certainly (DashExpander, TextWrangler or Tincta (if for no other reason than its icon is an octopus), VLC, Totalfinder, numerous desktop appearance tweakers, etc.), but nothing you *should* that I can think of.
March 9, 2012 — 8:21 AM
Ian Vince says:
It has its detractors, but Apple’s Pages App is all I use to do Word-level WP and I’ve typed a few MSS on it so far. It handles Word’s track changes effortlessly – importing and exporting back out to .doc – but I must confess, I was never much of a Word “power-user” anyway, so I couldn’t attest to its full compatibility with the odd arcane feature or two. I type, spellcheck, do footnotes, word-count, move text around and that’s about it for my WP needs, YMMV. It’s also useful for knocking out the odd bit of template driven DTP, without the need to fire
I have Scrivener as well and am looking forward to using for a suitable project – from what I’ve seen, I would guess that it’s best suited for fiction and script development and for that project where massive structural tinkering is occasionally required, or where you need to keep track of backstories or character traits or mountains of research.
Hope that helps
March 9, 2012 — 8:21 AM
Cat York says:
“made-up tribal tech war” – perfect wording as usual.
As for apps …. how old is your Mac? What OS are you using? Do you have flash player? Some of this stuff matters. I have three macs. One tower and two lap tops. I keep them because my fav programs don’t work on the tower if I update the OS – unless I toggle between classic and that’s a pain. Or I have to spend mucho $$ on new adobe stuff.
Love my mac air for writing. Pages is awesome, but I still use final draft sometimes. For some reason Final Draft has always worked on every new OS.
I’ve never used scrivener. I hear people love it.
Like anything – if you save in the most basic text format you can probably copy and paste -like Joshua D said.
March 9, 2012 — 8:25 AM
Ian Vince says:
Errrr 1st para should end
“… without the need to fire up a dedicated layout program (it’s fine for quick communications like flyers, newsletters, if that’s your bag).”
March 9, 2012 — 8:27 AM
Seth Clarke says:
You can get Microsoft office for Mac and all old docs should transfer without problem. You also might want to install OSX leopard. The spaces option is awesome.
March 9, 2012 — 8:31 AM
R.J.Keith says:
Yes, yes, that’s right, come to the dark side of computing. BWAHAHAHAHAH! *ahem*
Scrivener is an absolute MUST for word processing. PAGES (the program with iworks) doesn’t come close to what Scrivener can do insofar as writing books, short stories, or research papers go. If you NEED any of the Windows programs, I recommend downloading them from the mac app store rather than buying the box set. Doing that will allow you to pick and choose which programs you want, rather than buying the bundle and getting screwed out of a healthy chunk of change. I recommend downloading Dropbox as well (if you don’t all ready have it) Scrivener syncs directly with Dropbox and is a lifesaver if you accidentally hit the “delete” button.
March 9, 2012 — 8:34 AM
Thomas Pluck says:
Hi Chuck, I went Mac this year.
I use Pages for writing. Scrivener is worthwhile if you shuffle chapters a lot.
Word for Mac- BEWARE. Make sure you a) update it religiously, and check it after updates to make sure it actually updated. There is a horrible bug that turns your whole document to Asterisks, and the Recover document is no help.
Save every few sentences with Word. Forget at your peril.
Pages is $20 but does everything I need.
I am using the Scrivener trial. It seems like it will be helpful, as my chapters are a bit of a mess and I’m dealing with 3 timelines. It works for 30 days then you shell out $50.
Crashplan is your friend- for $25/year they will save encrypted backups online. Choose your Documents folder and you’re golden. Time machine is the free Mac backup software and works great, but you back up to an external hard drive. One house fire = writing all gone. I use both cRashplan and Time Machine.
Tweetdeck for Mac works nicely for handling vomitous twitter streams. It is free.
Ditch Safari immediately for Firefox.
Install the Adblock, Beef Taco (targeted advert cookie opt out) and HTTPS everywhere addons (at addons.mozilla.org and eff.org, respectively) and you’ll be golden.
Best of luck. There is a learning curve with Mac, but as a 22 year PC geek, Unix administrator and dinosaur… their OS does it right. (helps that it is BSD unix at the core).
My Mac has never crashed, the only bug was the MS Word one. And Pages will save as Word, and read Word docs… so I only use Word when I need its superior Find/Replace and page numbering functions.
March 9, 2012 — 8:38 AM
Angelique says:
Chuck — The feature I like best about Macs is their incredible tech support. If you want to use Apple software and you’re going “what the?????” it’s totally worth the hundred bucks to get Apple care and be able to call them every single day — I’ve called them three times a day! — and get software help from nice Canadians.
I think Pages is a much better word processing program than Word, and you can track changes with it. I haven’t used Word for several years, but I suspect that Pages still has better and easier-to-use tracking options.
I love Scrivener! I’m sorry that I can’t tell you how well it interfaces with Word. I just know that I use it in many ways, including keeping notes that have nothing to do with any writing project. It was originally written for Mac, and I think the Mac version still has more features.
Here are some Mac programs I love:
1. Text Wrangler. This is plain text editing program, like Microsoft Notes, only much better. It’s from http://barebones.com
2. Fetch. This is an FTP client for Mac. I’ve used a lot of different FTP clients, and I really like this one. It’s at http://fetchsoftworks.com
3. Keynote. This is Apple’s version of PowerPoint.
March 9, 2012 — 8:45 AM
Will Humphreys says:
It’s hard to over-praise Scrivener – almost worth getting a Mac just for it, though I know it is available on PC now. You have a wide range of templates and export options so you can easily output into text or Word-readable format (as well as for script-writing software and other programs) and it isn’t easy to summarise – it is a highly flexible program which is maybe why it so great. The Scrivener site has a lot of support and resources and there are a couple of pretty informative eBooks on using it for writing. I love Pages – I find it very intuitive and you can get beautiful looking documents with it – it has a handy outlining feature now too. I like OmniOutliner and OmniFocus as note-making and getting things done apps, respectively. I started using MindNode for mind-mapping; it looks nice, but it doesn’t have an embedded notes feature yet. Garageband and iMovie are both well-designed and fun to use for music and movie creation… I’ll stop now, before I get started on Logic. Hope you enjoy using the Mac. Been re-reading your 500 book. Love it! It’s helped me to get some actual writing done. Goes well with Scrivener.
March 9, 2012 — 8:52 AM
Shawn McGee says:
I go between a Mac and a Windows box all the time and one item that causes me the least amount of pain is using programs that are on both platforms.
Microsoft office for Mac is very good.
Conceptdraw for Mac and Windows is indespensble (minimal, project plan, and a Visio like app)
City of Heroes is indespensible 😉
Scrivener is good.
Everything else you need comes with OSX.
Don’t waste time with Windows like utilities, they are unnecessary for Macs and just suck your time.
March 9, 2012 — 8:54 AM
Liz Czukas says:
Adding my vote to the pro-Scrivener side. Love it! I use it for my first draft and any major overhauls, but once it’s temto get edits from readers, agent, etc., I go back to Word. I did shell out for MS Office for Mac because I didn’t want another learning curve on top of making the PC-Mac switch. It is absolutely the only program which can bog down my sweet little MacBook.
I’m a pen monkey like you, freelancing and fictioning, often with documents in both camps open simultaneously. You can do that for a couple of days before things start to get a little glitchy, then you’ll need to save and close everything. I usually shut down every 3rd day or so to restore the Force in my computer’s heart and mind.
Essentially apps have been pretty well covered. I love Dropbox, Evernote, and Time Machine. If you want ultimate bliss, I’d recommend getting an Airport Extreme to be your router. You can hook an external harddrive up to it and let it back up as often as you like. Not to mention it’s the most reliable WiFi I’ve encountered.
Good luck, and welcome to the dark side. Punch and pie in the back.
– Liz
March 9, 2012 — 8:55 AM
Cat York says:
Time machine is good for backing up everything, too. If you have a new mac, you have it.
March 9, 2012 — 8:58 AM
Ian Vince says:
I almost forgot: if your Mac has Snow Leopard (OS-X 10.6.*) installed, do ~not~ upgrade to Lion (10.7.*) as you will suddenly enter a world of un-Mac-like pain. There’s a bug in the upgrade that royally shits all over your file permissions. It seems to affect files created under earlier OS-es and Time Machine back-ups and takes quite a bit of effort to wash out, though I managed to find a solution after a couple of weeks.
Lion on a new Mac is fine, however, and rather woo-woo in its smoothness.
March 9, 2012 — 9:00 AM
terribleminds says:
I have Lion on this Mac (it’s a new Mac Mini).
I don’t see anywhere that I can just buy components of MS Office for Mac; thought it might be there in the “app store,” but no luck.
— c.
March 9, 2012 — 9:05 AM
CjEggett says:
Thank you (everyone) for this, turns out it’ll be a great getting started FAQ for my brother who has just picked up his first mac.
Just a quick note on Scrivener/Word – while Scrivener is great for organizing story nuggets I pretty much ditched it as soon as I got Word 2010. Once you turn the navigation pane on it does most of what I liked about Scrivener in the first place (nugget organization). Best pinned to the quick-link bar at the top of Word though, it’s hidden under several menus otherwise…
As mentioned elsewhere the portability of Scriv is pretty good due to saving each nugget as a RTF.
March 9, 2012 — 9:01 AM
Lisa Hendrix says:
I’m using Scrivener for an entire book for the first time. I’ve written all my other books in Word (or its predecessors). I had tried using Scriv before but it didn’t gel for me, but in this iteration, you can set it up to look like an actual page, and that seems to have made all the difference. There are a lot of other features I like about it, like the corkboard that’s attached directly to outline/documents (!) so when you re-order cards, the scenes reorder, too, and the ability to gather *all* the info for a project in one spot. Since you self publish (I’m getting there, I’m getting there) and write scripts, you may possibly fall in love with it so hard you decide to adopt it as BDub’s brother.
Or not.
Pages is a lovely word processor and will do track changes without a hitch and import from/export to Word. However, I write for a Big 5 publisher and have found that once they format the ms with all the typesettery stuff, I need to use Word to keep from buggering it, because some of the formatting code is lost going back and forth between ,pages and .doc formats.
Pages also works automatically with iCloud for backups and to synch with your iThings, which is nice for peace of mind. Word doesn’t, but you can make manual backups. I also backup Scrivener to iCloud, but I do it by exporting the file to a .doc first then throwing it up there manually. (There’s info on how to synch Scriv to your iThing via Dropbox on the Scrivener site.)
Other programs I use and love: 1Password. Freedom. Aeon Timeline. Osfoora (Twitter client). If you’re a data collector, Kapow or Stone Hill Time Card will keep track of the time you put in on a project.
DVD Player Pro. Flip4Mac (Windows Media Player), Pixelmator (like Photoshop), Quicksilver and/or Alfred, Typinator (autocorrect on steroids).
And of course, Angry Birds. I’ll bug you on Twitter if I think of anything else you can’t live without.
March 9, 2012 — 9:02 AM
Fade Manley says:
I would say something about Scrivener, but it seems to have all been said already. So, you know. “Scrivener! Scrivener! Scrivener!”
(My favorite part is actually the full-screen mode that dims the rest of the screen and keeps the line my cursor is on locked to the middle of the screen. When I’m not organizing and researching and shuffling bits, and just want to WRITE, it’s damn useful for focus.)
March 9, 2012 — 9:09 AM
Lisa Hendrix says:
Re OSX Lion — I had none of the problems upgrading from Snow Leopard described by @IanVince. All is copacetic. Do, however and as usual, always back up before any such upgrades. Time Machine makes that all automatic and is just about the slickest thing I’ve ever seen. Sometimes I open it just to look at the magic.
March 9, 2012 — 9:10 AM
Darlene Underdahl says:
No Mac stuff in this house. Don’t hurt me.
March 9, 2012 — 9:14 AM
Jonathan D. Beer says:
I use Scrivener for planning but, as a life-long PC user, I tend to use MS Word for the actual writing part of writing. Scrivener is an exceptional tool for planning things, but I prefer the MS interface for writing; I am just a stick-in-the-mud really. When the iPad version of Scrivener comes out I will probably force myself to switch to it for everything.
Make sure you save your Scrivener folder to DropBox if you use multiple computers or anything – as long as you close the project file after each use, you will be able to open it up on another computer at the most recent version without having do anything.
Other programs… I use Tweetdeck to take care of Twitter – give the mighty amount of screen real estate you have with a Mac Tweetdeck filters things down nicely. Other than that, I would definitely use Firefox over Safari, and then just install stuff for flavour.
March 9, 2012 — 9:15 AM
Rob Donoghue says:
Ok, so first: Just get Word. For a few reasons.
1) It’s actually pretty good on the Mac – better than on Windows in my mind (though it’s close these days – it used to be MUCH better than on Windows). The office for Mac team do good work.
2) Pages does better track changes internally (and Scrivener’s pretty robust in that regard too), but I’m assuming your situation is similar to mine – tracking changes is not for you, it’s for other people, either coming and going – so interoperability is a big deal, and Pages stumbles there.
3) NeoOffice, LibreOffice and the other free office versions are all fine, but simply not as good as the real thing. They’re good choices if you dont’ want to pay, don’t wan tot support Microsoft, or only very rarely need office features, but otherwise? Word.
You still want to use Scrivener. It’s for writing. But Word is a valuable translation app.
Other apps worth picking up:
QUALITY OF LIFE UTILITIES
* Get a launcher app – I’d suggest either Alfred or Quicksilver. It’s one of those things that you will not know how you lived without.
* Moom (in the app store) is an inexpensive little window manager that has proven surprisingly useful (and cheap)
* Growl – It’s a notification system that pretty much plugs into everything and is a huige quality of life improvement.
* Dropbox because, well, duh. It’s Dropbox.
PROGRAMS THAT DO THINGS
* I use word and scrivener a lot, but the third leg of my writing triangle is Byword, which I use for writing that’s not part of a project (Scrivener does that) and I don’t need to format (Word for that) and I just need to make words, Byword fills the gap. Notably, Textedit could probably serve this purpose too, but Byword’s a little nicer.
* 1Password is the best password management program I’ve found, and if you are reaching a point of worrying about how many things you have out in the wild behind middling passwords, it’s a lifesaver.
SPECIALIZED BUT WORTH A LOOK
* If you need to do any serious work with PDFs, PDFPen pro. It’s just that good.
* There’s an app called Textexpander which turns snippets of text into large blocks. For example, if I type ,,sig it will immediately replace it with my email signature. Just a fun toy for some, but if you work with a lot of boilerplate or repetitive text tasks, it can be a lifesaver.
* If you read RSS feeds, Reeder is beautiful
* The iWork suite are all wonderful for producing lovely things, but only useful if you really need to make those kinds of things.
March 9, 2012 — 9:19 AM
ERP says:
Love scrivener for Mac. Also, I agree ditch Safari and download Firefox for Mac <3 Win. I have word for Mac and bounce back and forth for editing b/w scriv and word. I'm a new mac user, but I love it. I have Lion.
March 9, 2012 — 9:21 AM
Rob Donoghue says:
Right, actually getting word: Microsoft and Adobe products are explicitly not in the app store. You can go buy the physical media, but given the complications that entails, I suggest a third route (the same one I did). You can buy and download the software via Amazon. The whole process is not as slick as the app store, but it works out decently.
I’m reminded of one or two other things:
* If you need image processing (photoshop light-ish stuff) Pixelmator and Acorn are both fantastic choices.
* If you ever decide you want to get the super fancy pants on the outlining stuff, OmniOutliner (regular or Pro) is liek sweet, shiny crack. It’s excel for words.
* Evernote is evernote. If you use it, it’s worth it. If you don’t, and you just want to keep a bunch of STUFF in textfiles, check out Notational Velocity
* The twitter app is badass.
March 9, 2012 — 9:27 AM
Robert Brown says:
If you have to track changes on Word documents, you need MS Word. No alternatives will do that satisfactorily. I have heard many, many variations on this story: “I used Scrivener/Pages/Etc. for a while, but when I got the document back from my publisher it was in Word format and I had to track changes, so I just work in Word now. Don’t like it, but what can you do?”
I keep notes on all the Mac word processors I’ve tried. Here are my notes on Word 2008. (I’ve heard that Word 2010 is better, but haven’t tried it. I swore never to write another novel in Word.)
‘Big fat ugly pig. Weird screen artifacts when scrolling rapidly through a document (shows some lines repeatedly on the screen, doesn’t refresh properly). “Fucking MS Fucking Word just fucking crashed on me fucking twice trying to edit a fucking header.”‘
I’ve tried to use Scrivener, but found it cluttered, opaque, and quite unsuited to the way I work. A lot of people love it, which convinced me to try it twice, but it’s no-go. If it fits the way you work, it’s great. If it doesn’t, it’s worse than useless.
I’ve written 44,000 words in the last 9 weeks in Bean. Free, fast, has all the features you need to knock out a draft.
In other software, Textexpander, Hazel, and/or Keyboard Maestro are very useful for automating tasks. I can second the vote for Crashplan; works great. Dropbox if you need to sync files with another computer.
I recommend keeping Safari for a primary browser (with Adblock, of course), and using Chrome as a secondary. The biggest advantage to Safari is if you have an iPhone or iPad the bookmarks will sync between devices. Used to use Firefox as my primary, but the bugs and memory leaks got too much. (That was about a year ago–eight or so Firefox versions–so they may have improved it.)
Skim through the OS X keyboard shortcuts page. I was amazed when I switched from PC to Mac how keyboard driven the Mac is. There are too many to memorize them all, but pick a few that look useful.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Apple’s online tutorials are pretty good:
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
And the help on the Mac is actually helpful. (Ask it how to do something and it tells you and drops down the menu and puts up a big floating arrow to show you the specific menu item.)
Have fun.
March 9, 2012 — 9:28 AM
Robert Brown says:
Oh, right, Notational Velocity! How could I have forgotten that? (It’s barely dawn here, that’s how…that’s my excuse anyway.) I probably use that more than any app but Mail and Safari. Great, great app for taking notes, and finding them again.
Text Expander is useful not just for filling in boilerplate or commonly used text, but also expanding hard to type character names and fixing your common typos.
I like Launchbar as a launcher-app, largely for the clipboard history, but the built-in Spotlight will do in a pinch. (Command-Space). Second the vote for 1Password.
March 9, 2012 — 9:35 AM
l.s. johnson says:
I use both Scrivener and Word. Scrivener for the novel (if I had to write it in Word I would go mad, it’s way too long) and Word for shorts. Scrivener really is the best experience I’ve had for managing what has turned out to be a long, complex, and research-heavy novel. I’d tear my hair out if I was doing this in Word.
Incidentally, I’ve found that Comments made in Scrivener, if you copy and paste into Word, appear in the Word file. Not sure about tracking changes though as I never use that–I tend to do full drafts each round and save them as versions 1, 2, etc.
I also like that Scrivener has an option that blacks out the rest of your screen save for the section you’re working on. I’m easily distractable.
You can buy Word for Mac alone. It’s worth it, and then once you’ve splashed out you’re on the upgrade bandwagon for some time.
I use the Mail program to manage multiple email accounts–I have a web-based email and a private one, and I can get both through the Mail app. Saves a lot of hassle.
A friend of mine who writes a lot of shorts and poems also has Bento, which is a Filemaker-lite thing–she’s customized a template to track what she’s submitted, acceptances and rejections, sales and royalties, rights expiring, all that kind of stuff. She’s organized like that. It looks useful, though I’m a long way from having that kind of backlist. 😉
Also, my last rec: I also splashed out for a full version of Acrobat for work stuff (I work in publishing from home) and found it handy when I was accepted into an e-anthology last year; I got my proofs as PDFs and commented directly on them. In my day job, more and more of our small imprint clients are sending page proofs to authors as PDFs and expecting them to take care of getting corrections back either electronically or printed out. Acrobat has several nice options for marking up pages. Makes the process easy.
March 9, 2012 — 9:46 AM
Barbara Webb says:
If you are someone who wants to just sit down, open a document, and draft a book beginning to end with the minimum of interaction with your word processor, Scrivener is not for you.
Scrivener is what my computer-science professor husband likes to call object oriented writing. If you’re using Scriv to it’s full extent, you’re working with the book on a scene-by-scene level, where each scene is also it’s own story-board notecard and notes. (My screenwriting friend loves it and says it works perfectly with screenwriter brains.) Lately, it does also have ancillary stuff for making notes about characters and locations and such, but I’ve never used those functions.
As someone who doesn’t do a lot of outlining in advance, Scrivener keeps my brain going. I can look at my book at the note-card level and have it all in my head. Something I could never do in Word. I simply can’t conceptualize 100k words all running together in one document. So Scrivener is really central to my writing process.
It also has a nice export to Kindle format function.
Scrivener does not interact well with Pages. Scriv wants to export in RTF, and Pages has weak RTF handling. Honestly, as a professional writer, you can’t get away just with Pages. You’ll need actual Word on the machine. Which is less buggy in its most recent iteration on the most recent OS.
I find Quicksilver the most indispensable app on my Mac. But it’s one of those that’s hard to describe why. It’s a program that indexes everything and gives you one button to launch any program, open any document, jump to any website, just by typing a couple letters of its name. It speeds up how I work on the computer.
March 9, 2012 — 9:49 AM
Patrick Regan says:
Alright, everyone’s told you about Scrivener, and I’m going to assume you already installed the basics like dropbox (if not, the violence will commence at 1:00PM unless you install it)
I recommend:
– Quicksilver. It lets you qiucklaunch anything, including quicklaunching e-mails, or getting those programs to actually DO stuff.
– Smartr. Mindmapping software for Macs
– Flux. It’ll change your backlight as the day goes on to protect your precious eyeballs.
– Growl. It will notify you of important things.
– The Unarchiver. It will… unarchive.
– The twitter app. I know you love your twitters.
– Geek Tool. ULTRA CUSTOMIZE YOUR DESKTOP.
March 9, 2012 — 9:50 AM
Keryn says:
I use both Scrivener and Microsoft Office, but I needed all of Office to function with my job. Everybody’s already covered pros and cons above.
Others: Caffeine will keep your computer from falling to sleep if you need it to do so (but don’t want to change your main preferences all the time – just click on and off). Cinch will align your programs to your whole screen and/or half your screen on the left or right if you move the program to the corner (much like Windows 7 does). I use FileZilla for FTP – straightforward, no frills, and Adobe CS4 for all my graphics needs.
I’m also a big fan of Google Chrome and its extensions and apps – currently I use Adblock, Bitly link shortener, Mailto: for Google (makes all mailto: links open in Gmail in Chrome rather than popping open the native Mail application) and an RSS subscription Extension.
March 9, 2012 — 9:54 AM
Harry Connolly says:
Charlie Stross thinks LibreOffice handles track changes very well, and that ought to be good enough *for all of us*
As for Scrivener, I use it myself but it has a little bit of a learning curve. Don’t get it if you’re under deadline. It’s also a hard drive hog. On the other hand, it’s a fantastic way to compile ebooks. I haven’t tried it for track changes.
I myself don’t care for Pages all that much.
March 9, 2012 — 9:57 AM
Robert Heaney says:
Hi Chuck… I switched like you did a few years back, from necessity. After a few days, I couldn’t believe what I had been missing. You’ll see. After a few months on the Mac, if you should have occasion to use a PC, you’ll feel like you need a shower after. And, no… not a cold shower. Pig.
Scrivener. GET. IT. NOW. Seriously. And, i understand you’re probably forced into using Word for collaboration reasons, but avoid Microsoft products if you can. I have to have a few on my machine for work, and they’re the ONLY apps that actually crash. Painful.
March 9, 2012 — 9:57 AM
Penrefe says:
This is a general warning to everyone, actually, but Chuck since you’re the one asking I’ll direct it at you:
BE VERY CAREFUL USING SCRIVENER DIRECTLY WITH DROPBOX.
Because Scrivener files are an amalgamation of hundreds of other files all stuffed into one package, using Dropbox to store it can cause full-blown corruption if it is in the process of synchronising these files when you try to reopen a project (I know this first-hand, after I had to pick through a 40,000-word long document, scene by scene, into a text file after the Dropbox sync basically looked at my file and said “That’s a nice file collection you got there. Know what would be better, though? HALF THE FILES OVER HERE, HALF OVER THERE, AND JUST A FEW SCATTERED TO THE WINDS, NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN! Mwa ha ha.”
So I don’t want to scare anybody or anything, but if you do this currently, at least read this super-long thread discussed over at the Scrivener forums: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11725&hilit=dropbox
Personally, I use the backup routine instead and just save the ZIP files to Dropbox for safekeeping, not the Scrivener projects themselves, because the other way now scares the living shit out of me.
March 9, 2012 — 10:26 AM
Steve Hall says:
You already have a lot of responses to sift through, so I’ll try to keep this as brief and pointed as possible:
o Scrivener for Mac. Period. (The Windows flavor is at least one version # behind Mac)
o OS X Lion, if your mini supports it. Otherwise, Snow Leopard. Last choice: Leopard.
Apple upgrades the OS for a reason (just like Microsoft does).
o The alternatives are attractive, but there is still no office suite, on any platform, as robust and well-integrated as Microsoft Office for Mac. I use both Windows and Mac versions, and they are seamless together.
o Evernote
o LastPass,, KeyPass, or 1Pass. Be secure.
o ESET Cybersecurity for Mac This is an antivirus/antimalware program, and there is none better. Some may be as good. And anyone who says you don’t need antivirus and malware protection isn’t using the Internet (wisely).
o OPTIONAL BetterTouchTool – expand your Magic Trackpad’s capabilities. (Free); Stuf – Clipboard stacker (there are others, and some no doubt better; Stuf just happens to be what I use)
o FTP Client I use FileZilla (open source); there are plenty to choose from.
March 9, 2012 — 10:35 AM
Robert Brown says:
The best deal on MS Office is the ‘Home & Student’ version for about a hundred bucks. I lucked out and got my copy for $25, but that was a special Black Friday/version upgrade thing. (A $100 rebate on Office 2004, with a free upgrade to 2008.)
Still overpriced, but when nothing but MS Office will do (but you don’t need Outlook), that’s the one to get.
March 9, 2012 — 10:42 AM
Scott Squires says:
For Word track changes you need Word. Having worked on projects where people tried to use everything else possible, the other options never worked 100% for tracking changes. Pages and office knockoffs claim to be compatible and while most do a reasonable job of displaying Word documents, only Word can do tracking changes reliably.
As others have mentioned, Word is a pig but you can get the home edition somewhat cheap.
March 9, 2012 — 11:13 AM
Chris says:
Gotta go with Pages. Great price, does everything I ever wanted to do in Word, but with so much less pain and suffering.
March 9, 2012 — 12:12 PM
Lisa Hendrix says:
Oh, and One More Thing….
Re Word: Yesterday afternoon, I had to talk a friend thru Word for Mac 2011 eating all her edits, blanking out her file, and crashing—FOUR times in a row. I’m on Word for Mac 2007 (fully updated) and don’t have that problem, but I’ve read about 2011 substituting asterisks for entire files, too. Maybe wait until you absolutely *have* to have it before you buy. Or if you use it, hit CMD+S (save) every couple of minutes and keep both Backups and Autorecovery on.
March 9, 2012 — 12:20 PM
Mike says:
Scrivener for writing on the MAC.
It syncs to the iPad too – if you want. Uses Simplenote for text syncing, and also syncs to the iPad app Index Card if your’re at the corkboard stage of the novel.
They also are working on a simplified app version of Scrivener to run directly on the iPad – later this year.
I have Scrivener on my PC – less features, no nice syncs to iPad like the MAC version, but still love it. Altho – when my PC had a really bad virus – I was tempted to join the MAC world.
March 9, 2012 — 12:20 PM
Damon J Courtney says:
Dropbox right out of the gate. Not in the App Store, so grab it from their site.
Scrivener is awesome for writing, not so great when you need to go back to your editor. Most I know do an export to Word when it’s time and then continue on from there without going back to Scrivener. Me? I do some tricky shit to go back and forth with ease, but that’s not for lighthearted, candy-ass, non-programmer types.
One of the coolest features I use is the sync to external folder. Someone already mentioned not putting your Scrivener projects directly into Dropbox, but I sync to an external folder that IS in Dropbox. When the project syncs, I can also read and edit those plain text files on my iPad later. Have your backups zip and store to a Dropbox folder. Every time you save or close a project, a zip file is made and dropped into Dropbox and whisked off to Neverland to live forever.
Buy Pages from the app store. The track changes in there is really nice and compatible with Word docs. If you don’t end up liking it, you’re out $20. Big balla’ like you’s gotta have that lying around in a couch somewhere. You won’t find Office in the App Store. Microsoft hasn’t built it for that. You’ll have to buy it off Amazon or somewhere else and install it by-hand like a fucking monkey groping an obelisk. I would recommend getting off the Word heroin train if you possibly can. Pages might be your methadone. Scrivener is the new meth.
Until some day in the distant future, I’m a writer by hobby and a programmer / Mac fanboi by trade. Feel free to drop me a line if you have Mac-related questions. In the meantime, shave your head to a ponytail, grab a copy of Holy Steve’s bio and start printing pamphlets (your printer will actually work now, try it). Welcome to the Mac. 0-]
March 9, 2012 — 12:45 PM
Tom says:
If time runs short and you hit a wall with any of the learning curves, there’s always the bootcamp fallback. My girlfriend has a shiny iMac and a very nice color printer… but the printer absolutely will not speak mac. Since I had an old XP install disc, I ran virtualbox and installed XP as a virtual machine that knows how to talk to the printer. Bootcamp is more of a boot into windows proposition, but significantly less glitchy and it’s essentially turning the mac into a reasonably nice PC for the duration.
I’ve tried the trial version of Scrivener… meh. It’s definitely geared to a specific writing style. Since I constantly accumulate massive amounts of research as I go, I thought it would be pretty keen but I ended up just dicking around with things too much. For an organized mind, it would be great.
The latest version of Pages is supposed to handle track changes like a champ. I haven’t tried it, and the older versions sucked terribly at that. Libreoffice seems to work, but I’ve never seen the other end of anything I’ve done so I don’t know if works consistently. Also, Libreoffice has been a crashy hog for me in the last few iterations that I’ve used. For peace of mind, I’d recommend Word for now just so you know it absolutely works for the thing you need.
March 9, 2012 — 12:55 PM
Liz says:
You have a Word alternative in OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org). It’s freeware. It works about like Word 2003 would. That said, it’s 2012 and nothing works like Word 2012 like, well, Word 2012.
About Scrivener. I. LOVE. SCRIVENER. I’m a very hardcore paper notes gotta touch it kind of girl. This means my office is full of post-its and notes scrawled on whiteboards and stacks upon stacks of random information and ideas I jotted down while I was asleep. So when I have to work away from home (and I’m a student, so that is pretty much every day)…it’s a problem. With Scrivener, I just take pictures of the new stuff with my cell phone, add it to my “Notes” corkboard, and there it is if I ever need to refer back to it. I also have all my typed up notes, character profiles, inspiration images, older drafts, etc. right at my fingertips in one file. There are a lot of other features Scrivener has, too, that just make it sound complicated. Like color-coordinating scenes and stuff. But it’s the ease of use and the having-everything-in-one-spot that sealed the deal for me.
Other apps you might be interested in:
Freedom – blocks your computer’s access to the internet for a specified amount of time. This is great if you’re ever hit with the urge to, ahem, research things on the Internet while you should be writing.
Things – a To Do list on Adderall.
Finch – works silently in the background keeping tabs on what you do and how long you do it. If it weren’t for Finch, I would never have known that without Freedom, I’d spend 7 hours a day “dicking around on the internet.”
Dropbox – installs a Dropbox folder onto your mac and syncs it with your Dropbox account. In other words, it backs up your shit, yo.
Apimac timer – I’m an egg timer writer, but I can’t always use my egg timer because it makes noise and other people don’t always like noise. So I use this. It gives my screen an orgasm whenever my writing time is up.
And…not writing related but Switch for Mac will take all your old WMA music files and turn them into MP3s. I used this a lot when i first switched over from PC to Mac.
March 9, 2012 — 1:06 PM
Liz says:
All this Mac talk, I almost forgot. If you’re partial to the Windows set-up, you can run Windows on your Mac using Boot Camp. Here’s more info: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1461
March 9, 2012 — 1:16 PM
terribleminds says:
I already got the Dropbox. I don’t go anywhere without my Dropbox.
This is all immensely helpful.
It looks like I’ll need Word for the Mac, but — here’s the rub, the Mac Mini does not have a physical disc drive. So, I need a downloadable version of Office. Hurm.
Also — hey, since I’m a sillyhead, if anybody has any good games recommendations, shoot ’em at me.
— c.
March 9, 2012 — 1:19 PM
Robert Brown says:
Downloadable Office installs, coming up.
McOffice family pack (up to 3 Macs):
http://www.amazon.com/Office-Mac-Home-Student-2011/dp/B004E9SKBO/ref=sr_1_2_title_1?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1331318657&sr=1-2
Single Mac license:
http://www.amazon.com/Office-Mac-Home-Student-2011/dp/B0064PFB9U/ref=sr_1_3?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1331318745&sr=1-3
(The 3-pack is only like $9 more.)
March 9, 2012 — 1:47 PM