Alternatives to wordprocessors

#1

Post by memborg » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 9:05 AM UTC

I'm looking for a general purpose writing tool, for writing letters, documentation, jot down notes and so on in pure text, and not be dependent on a certain piece of software like Word for the writing part but it could be as simple as Notepad or as advanced as Vim.

At some point I might need these writings to be presentable to others in form of a PDF, with formatting: like headers, bold, italic, having a page header, a footer and so on.

Any pointers to where I might look to?

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#2

Post by Frenchgeek » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 9:16 AM UTC

http://www.latex-project.org/ ?

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#3

Post by gizmoboy7 » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 9:16 AM UTC

https://www.zoho.com/docs/writer.html - Check this out?

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#4

Post by DanBC » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 9:48 AM UTC

Abiword is a lightweight word processor. You'd probably want to use Abiword's template feature to set defaults to what you want. EG I prefer light text on dark backgrounds. I like monospaced fonts. I have all the toolbars turned off.

This allows me to do basic "text editor like" typing, but with the option to apply styling and export to PDF.

http://www.abisource.com/wiki/FaqDefaultFont

http://www.abisource.com/wiki/FAQ/Always_save_as_Word

Otherwise, any text editor you like for most of the stuff and the tools you need for the other stuff. gedit for all the texty stuff, and then import it into a WP to apply styles and export to PDF.

I guess I misunderstand your question: why don't you just use a word-processor for everything, and save as text? Why don't you just use a text editor and then import into a WP when needed?

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#5

Post by informatimago » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 9:54 AM UTC

emacs

http://www.danfowler.net/resources/emacs_talk/#/

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#6

Post by memborg » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 1:58 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #4

Abiword is a lightweight word processor. You'd probably want to use Abiword's template feature to set defaults to what you want. EG I prefer light text on dark backgrounds. I like monospaced fonts. I have all the toolbars turned off. This allows me to do basic "text editor like" typing, but with the option to apply styling and export to PDF. http://www.abisource.com/wiki/FaqDefaultFont http://www.abisource.com/wiki/F…

I don't want to use a word-processor at all. But thanks for the input on abiword

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#7

Post by memborg » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

Frenchgeek wrote: post #2

http://www.latex-project.org/ ?

Isn't big and clunky like docbook?

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#8

Post by memborg » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 2:00 PM UTC

gizmoboy7 wrote: post #3

https://www.zoho.com/docs/writer.html - Check this out?

Still an word-processor, one could have mentioned google docs too.

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#9

Post by memborg » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 2:01 PM UTC

And I would like it to be open source too and not a web application

Re: Alternatives to wordprocessors

#10

Post by mark_l_watson » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

I use several things:

leanpub: for writing books. uses Dropbox, web services to produce books from markdown. I can edit markdon files on my phone, ipad, Chromebook, and kaptops.

Google docs: quick notes that I might need in the future; having search helps find stuff later

Microsoft OneNote - for notebooks for travel planning, research, etc.

Emacs: org mode, but it takes effort to get started