Fiction vs. Nonfiction writing/software

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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Sep 4, 2008 at 11:50 AM

Matty wrote:
>One of the
>draws for Devonthink is that it seems to deal with pdf files more powerfully than PC
>programs, but this might just be a case of the grass seeming greener on the other
>operating system.

In my experience you are right—Devonthink does handle PDFs better than PC programs. In fact, most all of the information managers for Mac do. In most cases you can “print” any page of material as a PDF to DT or any other information manager. This is inherent in the Mac OS, I think. And it is really handy.

Steve

Posted by Matty
Sep 4, 2008 at 06:09 PM

>In my experience you are right—
>Devonthink does handle PDFs better than PC programs. In fact, most all of the
>information managers for Mac do. In most cases you can “print” any page of material as a
>PDF to DT or any other information manager. This is inherent in the Mac OS, I think. And
>it is really handy.
> >Steve

With academic publishing largely adopting the pdf format as standard, for me, this goes beyond handy. The ability to read, comment on, and copy sections of pdf files and save them as notes seems utterly crucial for modern research. I am really excited to use Skim (when someone hires me and I can justify buying a new computer.)

Posted by Randall Shinn
Sep 10, 2008 at 12:38 PM

Another Mac program that some people use for fiction writing is Journler http://journler.com/. It has many devoted users and a responsive developer. I think it was originally designed with keeping a journal and writing in mind, but has developed into one of the top-rated information management programs for the Mac. (See for example: http://danieljomphe.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/8-web-information-collectors-reviewed/ )

I have relied more on Scrivener, but purchased Journler because I can already see its usefulness for gathering information and making notes. It has smart folders and smart folder families, and is really set up well for tagging.

Randall

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