Sometimes the world shifts imperceptibly underneath you, and though you notice something has changed, the difficult part is figuring out what to do about it.
For years, almost every commercial project I wrote was typed into in a heavy-duty word processor. But today finds me writing more blogs, landing pages, emails, and other “live” Web content.
And all the formatting applied in those word processors – and the sizable overhead needed for all the features I don’t need – get in the way of a good workflow.
And yes, after my switch from Vista to the more streamlined Linux OS (Ubuntu), I took a hard look at my workflow.
In the past, I typically wrote a few large projects simultaneously. Today, I’m more likely to juggle a lot of small projects.
Then there’s my list of blog article ideas for the multiple blogs I write. How do I keep track of those?
Simple. Steal From Programmers.
The simple text editor is a thing of wonder; little comes between you and your words, and the software pops up almost eagerly.
Still, after playing with several editors, I realized I needed more than a text editor – and turned a programmer’s editor into my online copy word processor.
My Trout Underground blog project – the tabs at the bottom represent four of the 14+ files in the project.
“A programmer’s tool,” you say? It’s perfect (almost).
Programmer’s editors are fast and streamlined. They’re simple text editors on steroids – my two candidates also offer word count, spell checkers, very advanced search, and HTML cheat sheets – though many of the programmer’s features simply don’t apply to your average copywriter.
The key feature? It’s the – the “project” or “session” function.
Save Time With Projects
Different editors call it different things, but a “project” function allows you to save multiple files in a single project, so opening that project opens all those files.
For the blog/article/engagement marketing part of my business, that’s a godsend.
I created separate projects in my editor for each of my blog/engagement marketing projects (one for the Trout Underground, one for the Copywriter Underground, one for… you get the picture).
I start each day by opening each project in its own tabbed window (each file is a tab). When a new article idea rears its head, I simply open a new tab, type the headline, add any thoughts or links, and then “save” the project.
Next time I open the project, all my article ideas for that project pop up.
Throughout the day, all my projects windows are open, so I can steal a few minutes and work on an article – with little time lost to overhead.
Of course, that’s a blessing and a curse; I’m also confronted by my half-finished articles, unstarted articles, and the articles-with-promise-but-require-too-much-research. The universe, it seems, is yin and yang.
I Name Names
In the Linux world, I’ve settled on the Bluefish editor (actually a Web development editor). Gedit is the Gnome editor that does largely the same thing once you add a couple plugins (it’s a little slower adding HTML code, but a little better actually writing).
In truth, a lot of programming editors will do the job.
On Windows, I believe Notepad++ is free, fast, and does everything needed. I’m less familiar with Mac editors, but BBedit and TextMate are likely characters.
I can’t say I’ve fully entered Valhalla – Bluefish would be better if it offered inline spell checking and a running word/character count instead of modal versions of the same thing – but fewer ideas are being lost to a busy workday, and I’m managing a lot of small projects far better.
What’s Next for Writers?
The trend towards online copy is obviously not going away, but few tools have developed in response to that change.
Blog editors help make blogging easier, and a programmer’s editor makes simply online writing easier, but we have yet to see a single “online writer’s editor” that offers everything today’s largely online copywriter needs.
That includes things like speed, toggled HTML markup, file and project management, running word/character counts, the ability to post to blogs (including all the category/keyword/SEO stuff) — and all with enough formatting to send prettified documents to clients (including sample landing/Web pages with graphics represented).
Some word processors do act as virtual databases for the files, notes and links related to a single project, though they seem better suited to longer works (like novels or white papers) than short online articles.
Of course, no writer thinks their word processor/editor/pen is ever exactly right, which is part of the fun of this whole odd career.
The “online word worker” is a relatively new category, and I expect we’ll see the tools we like tailored to the job.
Keep writing (in whatever software suits you), Tom Chandler.
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Comments 16
Who would have thunk? Great advice, Tom. And as someone who likes to experiment with simplicity, streamlining my docs with my project tracker is perfect. Thanks for taking the risk for me.
Demian: I really do believe today’s copywriter probably needs a different set of tools, but we’re not sure what they look like yet.
It’s possible this kind of editor will be the starting point for the new generation of tools instead of the big, full-featured word processors.
For example, I think Notepad++ for Windows offers some kind of configuration pack for screenwriters.
It’s my first time here and this one’s a really great piece of advice, Tom. I only use Notepad ++ for my simple coding needs (designing and tweaking the site a bit) and use the regular bulky word processor for my usually writing work.
I do use the normal Notepad but it lacks the basic tools like the spell checker and the word count.
I’ll never look at N++ the same way again. :D
Thanks again!
Wow. I have been programming for 10 years and never thought of using my development tools for managing my writing projects. I use TextPad on Windows and I like it a lot more than NotePad++, but I started using Textpad 6 years ago, so I know I am heavily biased because I know almost everything about it.
I use Geany (works both on Linux and Windows) for my coding, but I didn’t find it particularly useful for writing. I’ve defected to acrobat.com’s buzzword now for that.
One really good tool that works for all collaborative stuff is Gobby (http://gobby.0×539.de/trac/, cross-platform) – I’m using it in a project to write the documentation. It has a built-in chat, so you can communicate with others right there, and it is very precise in the sense that you see the letters appear as other people type them, right away – unlike Google Docs where it saves only so often and then you need to resolve conflicts. With Gobby, that simply can’t happen.
Vadim: I’ve tried the online word processors, and found them wanting.
The collaborative aspect is nice, but the lag times (updating) is annoying to someone who hates to wait even a millisecond. If the cursor lags even a bit, I get cranky.
Some of it might be my rural location (I live in the mountains of far northern California), but I honestly don’t know who folks write online.
I only use acrobat.com’s buzzword for my own things, and it doesn’t lag.
But in regards to collaboration, I’d -really- recommend Gobby. It’s very, very quick, even on a poor connection.
A great post, thanks Tom. I wanted to comment, since you mentioned trends for copy writing jobs. I literally JUST came across some trends for freelance writing jobs (inclusive of copy writers) and I wanted to hear your thoughts. If the chart on here is correct: http://www.odesk.com/trends/Tech%20Writer, then jobs in freelance writing are on the rise. Impressive in this economy, don’t you think?
Vadim: I’ll check Buzzword out. Google Docs and Zoho both show noticeable lag, but then, I get upset with regular word processors, suggesting I’m intolerant of these things.
RD: How old is the odesk.com site? If the writing aspect of it is relatively new, then growth on the site would probably occur regardless of the economy.
Still, growth in freelance jobs during a downturn isn’t exactly a shock; having been through a couple downturns (including several industry-specific crashes), I’ve seen competing effects.
First, marketing budgets are often slashed (which is bad), though more technical writing projects and marketing projects close to the revenue stream (upgrade DM projects, etc) do better.
Second, organizations sometimes layoff their own staff, or look beyond their expensive ad/marketing agencies for help.
Hopefully, quality writing projects will continue to be available. I think everyone’s holding their breath to see how bad the economy might get.
Oh, how I long for the combination of
a) fullscreen editors (such as Q10, which you have mentioned earlier)
b) combined with good project and file organization (like the programmers tools)
c) and great online publishing solutions.
How I’d swim in an ocean of delight, if such solutions were presented to me – for free!
Rolf: I’d take “free” in a second, but I’ve bought (and discarded) plenty of really bad word processors in my day (anyone remember Fullwrite Professional on the Mac?), so I’d throw down in a second to get what I want.
You are correct they are perfect (nearly), I use dreamweaver (code view) for my writing as im one of those who is interested in statistics and i like seeing easily what line i am on :P It also has an inbuilt ftp system so publishing is easy.
In the old days I always used ms word. Other programmers programs I’ve heard people use is visual vb and xml suite.
Heather: I’m using editors with less overhead than the WYWSIWYG Dreamweaver stuff (on Windows, something like Notepad++), but heck, whatever works. Choice is sometimes overrated in our culture, but clearly not when it pertains to getting words down.
Rolf: if on Mac, try Smultron.
regarding the publishing functionality: if your text is in plain text files, there are tons ofs scripts that convert those into PDFs et al.. Also try to understand La TeX.
I do all my writing – for humans and for computers – in Vim. It has some specific benefits for writing in natural languages: it’s super-fast, runs on every platform, has a built-in spell checker, and the modal interface allows for more efficient editing without having to use the mouse. If you spend all day rejigging paragraphs, deleting words and reinserting them elsewhere, Vim is very, very handy.
It has a downside: a very difficult learning curve. I’m not sure that it would be worth it for non-programmers. Once you have learned how to use it, you reach a state of Vim nirvana where the key bindings are wired into your fingers and you can type and edit using it completely naturally. Editing becomes a reflex action. Also, MacVim has a nice full-screen mode.
I wanted to like the GNU Emacs editors (which I tried several times over the years) but I always abandoned them because they lacked the kind of prettified formatting features that were needed when clients would print everything you sent them.
I do have the GUI-friendly VIM running on my LInux machines, and have found the learning curve a little steep, especially given that Bluefish does such a nice job and most of what I need are simple html tags.
Still, I may give it another try; I’m a slow learner…
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