iPad word processor choice - my odd needs

Newdaddy06 · Oct 28, 2014

Dissappointed yesterday to hear that Scrivener for iPad is again delayed - essentially I am feeling disillusioned of the thought that it will arrive in any time for my use.

I'm about halfway through a first draft of my novel. I have it in maybe thirty chunks now, on Textilus, in separate files. It's getting onerous to sift through these to find the next one I want to edit, as they are ordered by most recent edit.

I need to retain the typefaces and text colors (yes I know, agents and editors will uniformly hate this, if ever they see it) that exist in the documents now.

I wish for a tool that will allow me to keep these as separate documents, order them with an outline, and from that compile a single draft when I want to show it to somebody. That seems simple, right? And a quick way to find and open a file with a specific filename, without scrolling through dozens of icons each time.

Does anybody have any suggestions for specific apps? I'm trying Storyist, and UX Write, and Pages, and trying to beg new features from Textilus support. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I am relegated to an iPad as it falls through the corporate IT security policy where I work. If I were to say buy a Mac Air, that would not be allowed to be carried into the buildings - I get a fair bit of writing done now on my lunch hours and odd minutes at work.

Hapax Legomenon · Oct 28, 2014

I was going to suggest Pages as it's free fro iOS 8. The only other thing I could recommend is maybe OliveOffice, but they haven't updated in over a year.

You can sort everything in an order by changing the file names to start with 00, 01, 02, etc. The big problem you're going to have is compiling a draft. Do you not have access to a computer at all, ever?

cmhbob · Oct 28, 2014

Word will do everything you need it to, and moving your docs to Dropbox would allow you access from multiple points. Will your workplace allow you to access a network (cellular or wireless) with your iPad?

Hapax has the right idea with adding "01" etc to the filenames. And you'll have to use a 2-digit number, else it won't sort properly.

Hapax Legomenon · Oct 28, 2014

Don't you need a subscription for Word?

These are my thoughts:

1) Use any given document editor to write your story. Make sure to find one that sorts your documents alphabetically rather than by date (or one where you can toggle this setting) and then sort them using 00, 01, 02, etc. Many of these editors also have an option to search through your documents so if you remember the name of it you should be able to find it very fast.

2) Sync your documents with a folder in a cloud service (Dropbox is the most well-known. I use Copy which gives you 15 GB free instead of just 2 GB, but if you're just using it for documents 2 GB would probably be enough).

3) To share with friends/betas/whatever, give them the link to that folder so they can access the files. I think this will preserve your first publication rights as long as they don't share the link, but IANAL. If you're unsure, change your privacy settings. You will still be able to share it somehow.

4) When submitting to publishers and you absolutely neeeeeed to compile, take an afternoon and go to a library and do it. All your documents are in the cloud so to access them anywhere all you need is a computer with an internet connection. Library computers have word processors, I'm pretty sure.

Newdaddy06 · Oct 29, 2014

Thanks to everyone's thoughtful responses. I do have a computer at home but, with two young kids, seldom get much time to use it there. I am reluctant to use Office for iPad as I understand this would necessarily mean getting an MS365 (?) membership. I like the idea of prepending chapter headings (and their filenames) with some prefix that orders them.

I think ultimately though this is going to drive me to actually order the chapters, which is some kind of Rubicon I need to cross if ever I am to get to a finished draft. So grinding away on the choice of apps, mechanisms for 'compiling' a MS etc are distractions from the actual writing. I just need to commit.

Cathy C · Oct 29, 2014

Will the Docs to Go app not work for you? It creates a Word ready document. Admittedly, the fonts are limited, but there's a full text color palette. It links to your computer through sync, so you can sort on your computer later.

Newdaddy06 · Oct 30, 2014

Thank you Cathy, this is a good suggestion and an app I was unaware of. I will surely give this a try.

Thewitt · Nov 6, 2014

Storyist for the iPad is truly brilliant.

It syncs with the Mac version via DropBox today, but will support iCloud Drive very soon.

I just finished a 270,000 word novel and it handled the high word count without a hitch... yes, I know it's long

The support for outlines, notes, character sheets, etc is outstanding and it easily let me keep all my "stuff" in one place.

I highly recommend it.

-t

iPad word processor choice - my odd needs

Newdaddy06

Hapax Legomenon

cmhbob

Did...did I do that?

Hapax Legomenon

Newdaddy06

Cathy C

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

Newdaddy06

Thewitt