Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
This is a link to an interesting argument from Slate against using Word. I have to agree that I don’t like Track Changes much (especially when making a small change like comma placement. You have to bump up the screen magnification huge to figure out what’s going on when there’s a lot of editing on the page.) However, Word is still the most common program so people are used to it and that preference won’t change soon. Open Office is a nice option, but I’ve become a big fan of Scrivener.
I haven’t formatted an ebook with Scrivener yet but I’ll let you know when I do. I’m in the home stretch with my crime novel and on deadline so I’ll find out soon.
Click the link to find out more. The comment thread is a kind of funny/sad display of tribalism in that some people get very proprietary about what systems they use, as if Word is their home team and the visitors are evil baby eaters.) ~ Chazz
Filed under: publishing
C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m 
I have not only used just about every word processing program ever conceived, but also taught others how to use them. MS Word is not the worst, but close to it. Personally, I have used Open Office, not because it’s that much better, but at least it’s free. I pine for the loss of much better software that was driven from the marketplace partially by Microsoft’s predatory practices, but mostly from the ignorance of the users who purchased an inferior product when better ones were available.
I’m so used to MS Office–and the integrated suite–I can’t imagine switching. (Also, I really like the ribbon.) I don’t see why other options shouldn’t be considered, though, especially if they’re better. Maybe not simpler–I’m using LibreOffice and I keep looking for features and trying to use shortcuts I don’t have–but cleaner would be nice.