News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

September 24, 2006

software

Promising writing prospect: Jer’s Novel Writer

Posted Sep. 24, ’06, 8:49 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Software

Jer's Novel WriterLongtime MacUser readers (those who have been reading for, oh, six months or so) will know that my personal Grail quest revolves around finding a Mac word processing program that I like and that can replace my aging AppleWorks. While I secretly doubt whether or not this is a quest that can ever truly be achieved, I’m bound to continue trying.

I stumbled across this most recent of entries in the field just this morning while doing my morning link reading. Jer’s Novel Writer is a fairly self-explanatory program targeted directly at those who work with long-form fiction. Besides offering word processor standard features like fonts, paragraph settings, and the like, it offers fairly powerful page numbering, outlining, full-screen mode, margin notes (excellent), and a built-in database to help you keep track of characters, settings, and plot points.

At the moment, I file it under the “promising prospect” category, because it’s a beta at version 0.6.0.7, and it hasn’t been updated since this summer. It lacks a few things that I’d like: an open XML-based file format (it does support exporting to Word and RTF), hyperlinking integration with the database (a la VoodooPad) and, well, a new name (I’m thinking “Novelty” or “Novel Idea”).

Still, as an application by a creative writer for creative writers, it looks quite good. I’ll be keeping an eye on the beta progress with interest.


1 Comments

Greg said:

It does look interesting. I downloaded it but haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

September 25, 2006 8:24 AM

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