Useful Stuff

Comparing Free Writing Solutions

Posted on the July 8th, 2011 under Technology by admin

I’m hoping to write a book.  Having said that, I wanted to have the right tools first before I began the project.  ”Right Tools” in this case means a way to write, store notes and ideas, capture information from anywhere and any time, and be able to work from any computer or even my iPhone!  I wanted to be able to write, shoot pictures, brainstorm, archive, document the entire project (you know, for when I’m famous!), and keep everything easily available.

Two approaches made the cut and I’m going to describe each and tell you which one I chose and why.  The first solution included using my regular Microsoft Word for writing.  Since I want to develop a “virtual world” for my book, I may see people or things that I want to remember so I take a picture with my phone and email it to myself.  I sometimes use a large pad of newsprint for brainstorming or “mindmapping” and I need to save those notes.

Again, the first solution included doing the actual writing in MS Word and saving the document to my Dropbox account.  Dropbox is a free service that stores documents in the “Cloud” and makes them accessible from any computer or Smartphone.  But what if I wanted to capture a thought or some dialog on my phone?  An iPhone app called “Nebulous Notes” is a note-taking app that automatically saves the note to Dropbox.  I could also use “Send to DropBox” which allows me to send photos to Dropbox with a quick email from my phone.

So I write in MS Word, keep the document in Dropbox, store notes and photos using email and Nebulous Notes.  What’s not to like?  But I went a different way.

I’m fairly highly invested in using Google tools for a lot of my life.  I have Gmail and Google Docs.  They are both easy to access from multiple computers and my iPhone.  Google Docs has implemented a feature called Collections which is sort of like folders to keep things organized.  And Google Docs allows you to easily upload other kinds of files such as photos or notes.

Additionally, the default Notepad app on the iPhone will automatically make a backup copy to my Gmail account and store it under “notes”.

So I’m going to use the Word Processor in Google Docs to write the book.  Any ideas I have while on the road I’ll document using the iPhone Notes app which will then make a copy to my Gmail.  I’ll send photos as attachments via Gmail and then store them in Google Docs and use the Collections feature to categorize them.

So we’ll see how it goes.  Both solutions are free and easy to use.  But my investment in Google tools and their ease of use with my iPhone gives the Google solution the advantage