http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html
A screenshot from my file:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/ViridianMoon/keynote.jpg
(Actually wrote that for another thread and am now trying to make it work as the next summary I write for myself to figure out where my biggest holes are, and I took a shot of that particular note because it's the only one that's really presentable at the moment. Most of them are random bullet points that may or may not be very cohesive, with notes to myself and stuff that's obsolete highlighted in different colors.)
Since the notes are arranged in tree format, I can jot down as much random crap as I want and still have it be very manageable and fairly organized. Seriously, this thing is making my novel planning happen; it's so much better than when I was working in Word. I highly recommend it if your ideas come as disorganized as mine.
----------
2005: The Ships of Arcadia (won)
2006: Perdition City (won)
2007: Blood Gods (won)
50,669 / 50,000
Oct 15, 2007 - 20 25
Oh, right, it does have a few issues. No spellcheck, no find and replace, and bulleted lists are awkward if you want them indented like Word's (although you can do it if you paste from Word; it's just finicky). It's still definitely worth it, though.
----------2005: The Ships of Arcadia (won)
2006: Perdition City (won)
2007: Blood Gods (won)
320 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 01 45
Hm, looks pretty good! I'll have to check it out when I get home.
0 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 04 57
Wow, it really looks good, I'll probably use it :)
113,039 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 05 00
Just downloaded it, need help installing the 2.0 help features,
do I unzip them and place them in the Program Files folder with the Keynote files?
50,669 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 14 07
Is there a version 2.0? As far as I know, it never came out and development has stopped, but the program is still extremely useful as it is.
Edit: Oh, help features. Still no idea what you're talking about, though. Got a link to wherever you got it, and I'll see if I can help?
----------2005: The Ships of Arcadia (won)
2006: Perdition City (won)
2007: Blood Gods (won)
0 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 14 40
Looks useful. But it's just not my cup of tea. All my outlining is done in my and never leaves my head. The only writing I do is the actual story part. Aaah, I'm such a convoluted thinker...
60,957 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 15 09
Oh Viridian...you tempt me with lovely programs that I cannot have!
The program looks pretty handy [I have a bunch of seperate text edit files and Word can be a little bit annoying].
But it is not Mac OS X friendly. Boo!
So I looked for a Mac friendly equivalent...and found this:
myNotes
It's a shareware program that has similar tab functions and rich text editing. It also looks like it has some form of spell check.
No need to liscense it, but if you choose to do so it's only $20.
I'll be using this for sure!
----------2006: The Fallen (failed)
2007: The Blood Stone (winner, but still not finished)
Wrimo GIrl
75,022 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 09 11
As for spell check, what I'll be doing (thank you for informing me about this! It's great!) is writing it in Microsoft Word and copy/pasting it. It's only an extra two clicks, so I'm really not concerned with that at all.
Edit: Oh! There is a find/replace! In the search section!... Hoorah! There's even a thesaurus, even though I have my own computer thesaurus.
I really like the layout of this. Thanks so much!
----------Art | Blog
1,050 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 00 07
Good little program. DLd it and threw all my world building and character synopsis noted into. Had originally created my own HTML wikki site on my comp, but this is a HELL of a lot easier.
Good find.
/targetViridian
/give5GoldStars
50,669 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 15 03
Oh, awesome! I really missed find and replace because I'm always changing names and using placeholders and things, but wow, that totally escaped me.
Anyway, glad everyone likes the program! I just had to share the wealth.
----------2005: The Ships of Arcadia (won)
2006: Perdition City (won)
2007: Blood Gods (won)
58,961 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 18 30
This looks good at first glance...had to bump this up so others could see it and use it.
----------Crossing Over...
The boundaries between Heaven, Hell, and Earth are fading...and nothing will ever be the same.
NaNoWriMo 2007
50,388 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 21 00
While it takes a little work to figure out the program's quirks, this thing is great for organizing character profiles, different iterations of the plot, and world details. Viridian Moon, thank you so much for posting this thing. I've played with it for maybe an hour and I'd already recommend it for any Nano's.
----------"Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
2,478 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 22 06
If you work within the linux environment, there is a great tool that is similar, although it does not have as many 'neat' features.
It allows you to fairly quicly create a string of hyperlinked notes. I really enjoy using it cause it's pretty small and the keyboard shortcuts are easy to use and remember.
The program is only for the Gnome envronment (as far as I can tell), but I think it can be made to work on KDE with some tweaks.
Here is the link: http://www.gnome.org/projects/tomboy/
Enjoy.
--Dralothien
50,069 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 07 15
By far the most useful writing tool I've found over the last few years is Scrivener.
(It was so good, I changed to a Mac instead of a PC).
It's a full word-processing application designed (by a writer) for people who write. It's got the note-taking facilities of the apps people have posted about here, but is also a full writing app. Too many features to usefully list - take a look at it and try it out. It's very cheap if you decide to buy it.
16,478 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 08 11
The website that the original poster put up was being all wonky for me, but it looked like such a good program that I went looking for another site that would have something similar and came back with this.
http://pcwin.com/Business___Finance/Writers_Project_Organizer/index.html
It's shareware, so you can either pay or just download it.
----------__________________________________________
When childhood dies, we call it's corpse an adult and it enters into society, one of the politer names for hell.
75,088 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 08 30
I took a look at this, and boy did I wish I'd known about it when I was writing my thesis. I like using notecards for research and then putting them in order when writing, but I kept wishing there was some way to do it on the computer, rather than attempting to handwrite all those hundreds of index cards.
Of course, it also looks very useful for more exciting forms of writing, so I may just have to go for it anyway :-)
8,092 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 09 00
Having checked out Scrivener on a friend's MacBook, I have to agree.
And, yes, I was impressed enough that this old, long-time PC user is actually sitting here waiting for the FedEx truck to bring me my new MacBook so I can load up Scrivener.
----------Once A Runner...
The World of Naswor
50,669 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 13 34
http://www.download.com/KeyNote/3000-2074_4-10322928.html?tag=lst-0-1
Here's another link in case the above doesn't work for any reason. Also, glad everyone likes the program as much as I do!
----------2005: The Ships of Arcadia (won)
2006: Perdition City (won)
2007: Blood Gods (won)
53,058 / 50,000
Dic 9, 2007 - 17 12
It looks really nice, too bad I'm kind of low on download megs for the month, in a few days they should be back (dang satellite internet).
If I may possibly mention a similar web application? It's called luminotes. There isn't a file tree, but it's very handy. You can link to notes and other places if you like there as well. Here's the link:
https://luminotes.com/
I might download the application as well though.♪
----------"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they pass by"
-Douglas Adams
Please read my blog? http://weirdnamewriting.blogspot.com/
50,032 / 50,000
Dic 9, 2007 - 19 03
This looks like it'll be immensely helpful. I'm just getting my new story organized and this will probably be the only program I'll use to hold all my research.
Thanks!
----------Plaything
Dirty Mind At Work
MySpace
51,071 / 50,000
Dic 9, 2007 - 22 25
I use YWriter3 and Q10, but I admit to be slightly disappointed with the planners. This looks fantastic for making notes. I can easily see myself using three programs, lol - Keynote to plan, Q10 to write without distraction, and YWriter3 to edit. xD Thanks!
----------NaNo 2006 = Cloudburst = 14k
NaNo 2007 = Redeeming Pandora's Curse - WINNER
NaNo 2008 = The Elemental Chronicles: Earth
My Writing Blog: Illuminated Words
50,093 / 50,000
Dic 9, 2007 - 23 21
I'm going to check out the Scrivener since I, too, fly on the Mac...I've not tried an outlining program before, but I want to work on my NaNo novel from last year, so it might be a good way to get it all laid out in an intelligible manner...heh.
----------Ramble
wordcount widgets
50,243 / 50,000
Dic 10, 2007 - 17 15
I'm like some other people in this thread; I keep all the information I need on the inside of my (thick) skull. -_-.
50,273 / 50,000
Dic 10, 2007 - 18 32
Hmm, I like the sound of this. It may come in handy. Thanks for the info. ^_^
----------------------------------------
My pen is mightier than yours!
Script Frenzy '08: Ribbon of Scarlet
50,472 / 50,000
Dic 11, 2007 - 06 55
Depending on your needs, there's also PlotCraft for storing all your ideas, whether they be character, world, cultures, inventions, story, and so on - it's completely customizable.
Then there's DNote, which is currently in beta. It's a database program similar to KeyNote or TreeDBNotes (but without the slimy bait & switch payment tactics TreeDBNotes uses) that stores your information in a tree / node structure. Can also be used for flash cards & word prompts.
Both are free. (My husband, also a writer, wrote them for us because we couldn't find anything we liked better at a price we liked.)
----------________________________________
Laurie, ML for Sri Lanka, Asia: Elsewhere
Why, yes, I am crazy. Why do you ask?
50,198 / 50,000
Dic 11, 2007 - 17 37
www.wetpaint.com is also a great organizational tool. You can set a page to private if you would rather keep your story info off of the web, and you can still use the search feature and link pages to one another. It basically lets you create your own version of Wikipedia, geared towards the information in your story.
----------Voted Most Caffeinated, Class of 2008
0 / 50,000
Dic 11, 2007 - 21 07
fabi60, Thanks for the Luminotes link. :) You're correct that there isn't a file tree, but you can easily get a list of all of your notes by name (just click "all notes"). I've used Luminotes extensively for world building, and my biggest world currently has almost 250 separate notes. Each note is a different person, place, etc.
51,105 / 50,000
Abr 20, 2008 - 22 30
Scrivener (freeware for the Gold version)
http://www.literatureandlatte.com
Celtx frieeware
http://www.celtx.com
"an application for planning and creating media — film, video, theater, animation, poetry, novels, etc. Use it to manage your story line, characters, props, media, schedule, and budget. You can also “publish your creation to Project Central, where others can view your Media Project in its full context, providing a compelling experience for the viewer.”
Jers Novel Writer (no longer freeware, but you can get an earlier version free)
----------www.jerssoftwarehut.com
Worms, Roxanne, worms!
50,896 / 50,000
Abr 21, 2008 - 04 23
i use microsoft onenote, which of course isn't free, but i mention it in case any of you have a copy lying around and just haven't used it (that was me for awhile). it looks like a more advanced version of the program mentioned here. it's particularly great for research because you just copy paste info from the internet and it automatically links it to the page it came from right below the info you pasted. it also automatically saves, has spell check and a million other things
51,848 / 50,000
Abr 21, 2008 - 08 47
I use TiddlyWiki (www.tiddlywiki.com).
All your notes are in a single html file.
You don't have to have the Internet to use it.
It's free.
There's a firefow add-on allowing you to copy stuff from the Internet.
You can use a tree structure, but also others (it's a wiki).
You can add a wordcount.
There's a bit of a learning curve, and the default setting is to use a variant of wiki language, but there's a plugin to get a Rich Text interface.
----------Nous sommes tous fous, il n'y a que les fous qui le savent.
2006 : Les ailes brisées du phoenix
2007 : Apocalypse