Review: Page four (Writing software)

(You must read this before reading the post below)

As Promised, I shall provide reviews on a subjective cum objective methodology.

• Name: Page four (Screenshot at bottom)
• GF Index Score: 6.5/10
  
• Feature Score (More the Features, higher the score): 10/20
  
  1. Type text: yes
  2. Format text: yes
  3. Spell check: yes+
  4. Style check: No
  5. Language prompt: No
  6. outline formation: No
  7. character building: No
  8. location/division into chapters: Yes
  9. scene creator: No/yes[smart workarounds required]
  10. chronological order and time line: no
  11. Various views (thread based view, timeline, storyline, etc): no
  12. quick re-ordering of scenes into chapters or sections: yes
  13. index card maker: no
  14. Age tracker: no
  15. Export into General formats: yes, rtf format
  16. image insertion/ graph insertion/ etc: no
  17. Advanced statistical features like (Average sentences per paragraph, Average words per sentence, Average characters per word, Average words per page, Flesch-Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Automated Readability Index etc.): no
  18. More advanced features like oft repeated words, oft repeated phrases, etc: yes
  19. Security: yes+, each page can be secured with passwords
  20. Backup: yes, snapshot feature
• Remarks
  • What is PageFour?
    PageFour is an outliner and word processor designed for creative writers. It differs from other word processors in that it was not written with the business market in mind. Too many software products attempt to be all things to all people and end up satisfying no one. PageFour fills the gap left by larger word processors which focus too much on the corporate market and ignore other users.
  • Cost: The unlicensed version comes with a limit of 3 Notebooks, and a total of 20 Pages per Notebook.[which is decent and if you are smart and work on one novel at a time, you can survive] There is no trial period. PageFour will not stop working after 30 days.
    
  • Key features include:
    Tabbed pages, allowing multiple pages to be open at the same time.
    Smart-Edit feature. Scan your work for over used words and phrases.
    ‘Snapshots’ made easy. Take a snapshot of the current page before making changes.
    Password protect any page you wish with a single click
    Only one password to remember for the whole Notebook
    Extensive Search capabilities that allow searching for text across folders and Notebooks.
    Automatic archiving, and a simple interface to roll back or extract pages from the archive.
    Document Importer - import all those Word documents or text files from anywhere on your PC
    Lock and Unlock feature - no need to close PageFour when you leave your desk.
    Automatically saves your work.
    Create as many notebooks, folders, and pages as you wish
    Usual word processing features, spell checker, thesaurus, etc.
  • USP: The page four is a sweet software. Its GUI is very lucrative and has Mac like simplicity and effectiveness. Its actually like a beautiful girl whom you like but somehow don’t know why…

  
  

  • Click to enlarge

  
  

Software for writing? Are you nuts?

Most of the software-making world believes that the only way to lure users to give up conventional way of doing things and switch to digital is to give them not only what they do today, but also a little more. This ‘more’ usually acts as the triggering factor for taking out the credit card.

Unfortunately, when it comes to writing world, this trick is not such a good idea (hark! hark! programmers…) What does one need to write? A blank paper and something which can make marks on it. If your software can provide this, it is good enuff for 90% writers. The software which do more are the ones that irritate the hell out of most writers (”It dictates what should be my storyline…”)

Now when i say writer, don’t conjure up the image of Rushdie and Dan Brown alone. These are the blokes who would perhaps want plain vanilla word processors and may be, just may be, ask their assistant to type while they dictate… People who write mundane stuff like your weekly magazine’s articles, tech. journals, tech writers, content publishers, journalists, screenplay writers, script-writers, ghost-writers… well they are writers, too. And some of them are definitely going to be happy if there are software available to help them write up that article quickly and more coherently. It is mainly this genre which is likely to buy a writer’s software. This is also because these people need to churn out a higher turnover of written, publishable material over unit time… (Rushdie can get away with 40K words every 2 years, but these buggers need to churn out 10k words a week to put bread on their table, you see…) So they need tools for productivity… not necessarily “writing tools”; if you know what i mean.

In this article, I am going to do two things. One, I’ll try to list out what are the features that are usually available in these writing software. Two i am going to review some well established and easily available writing tools and make you aware which all features they support.

It is important to understand that no single software can be labelled as best because all writers have different needs from the software. There are Writers who write outlines, characters, timing before hand. Others plan as the novel goes by. Article writers need to keep certain points in mind that they need to necessarily cover while others have word limits and so on. You will gain most from this article if you know your own writing style. Then just find the software which suits you.

Let’s begin with seeing what all features are commonly available in writing software:
Features to watch out

1. Type text
2. Format text
3. Spell check
4. Style check
5. Language prompt
6. outline formation
7. character building
8. location/division into chapters
9. scene creator
10. chronological order and time line
11. Various views (thread based view, timeline, storyline, etc)
12. quick re-ordering of scenes into chapters or sections
13. index card maker
14. Age tracker
15. image insertion/ graph insertion/ etc
16. Advanced statistical features like (Average sentences per paragraph, Average words per sentence, Average characters per word, Average words per page, Flesch-Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Automated Readability Index etc.)
17. More advanced features like oft repeated words, oft repeated phrases, etc

Now let us consider some of the established software. I will give MY opinion about them. Don’t go by my opinion simply because it need not be your opinion too. This is because you may be a different kind of writer. So just read the features and make up your own mind. (An alternative good blog post can be read here )

I am gonna write one blog post for each of these software. Naturally this will be a work in progress for some time. The one’s which have clickable links are the ones that i have reviewed ( You can click on the software and read its review) while the ones without the links are yet to be reviewed. NOTE: Since I am already in possession of all these software already, you may ask me to review a particular one out-of-turn in case you are dying to know more about it. Moreover, if there is a tool that is not covered here, you are welcome to either send me its review or send me its name and I’ll review it.

1. Page Four
2. yWriter 5.0
3. Liquid Story Binder XE by Black Obelisk Software
4. Celtx
5. StorYbook.intertec.ch
6. Writeway
7. New novelist
8. Final draft
9. Rough draft
10. Hollywood Screenplay
11. MS word/OOO/word perfect
12. Wordpad/notepad/notepad++
13. Frontpage
14. OneNote
15. Business Plan maker pro
16. Storyline writer’s cafe
17. Stylewriter
18. Latex
19. Evernote
20. Writer’s Blocks www.writersblocks.com
21. Google docs
22. Hollywood screenplay
23. Dramatica pro
24. Freemind
25. LM 2000
26. Http://www.autocrit.com/index.cfm

Lastly, how do i plan to rate/review the software?

What you will find for each software is:

• Name
• GF Index Score (Gut-feeling Index score… given 1 thru 10 higher being good)
• Feature Score (More the Features, higher the score) (You may like to select lower scored software if u want plain software)
• Remarks

This is as subjective or as objective as i can get.

Tags: Automated Readability Index, Average characters per word, Average sentences per paragraph, Average words per page, Average words per sentence, Business Plan maker pro, Celtx, Dramatica pro, Evernote, features in writing software, Final draft, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch-Reading Ease, Freemind, Frontpage, Google docs, Hollywood Screenplay, Latex, Liquid Story Binder XE by Black Obelisk Software, LM 2000, MS word/OOO/word perfect, New novelist, OneNote, Pagefour, Rough draft, software, software for writers, StorYbook.intertec.ch, Storyline writer's cafe, Stylewriter, Wordpad/notepad/notepad++, Writer's Blocks www.writersblocks.com, Writeway, writing software, yWriter (simon haynes)