Password Managers

As promised in this post, tools you can use to manage your passwords.

Important: Always keep a current backup of your password database file somewhere safe.

(Just in case your hard drive fails, your computer is lost or stolen, or the file gets corrupted.)

For Everybody (cross-platform)

1. PC Tools Secure Password Generator – This website will let you generate random passwords from your browser. Select the length of the password and requirements (numbers, special characters, and so on). (free)
2. Nic’s Password Generator – this site lets you generate passwords by entering a master password and an easy-to-remember identifier. You can use the web form or download it to run from your computer. (free)
3. pwgen plug-in for Firefox – This plug-in adds a password generating utility to your Firefox toolbar. (free)
4. SplashID – cross-platform password manager and generator. Desktop software for both Mac and Windows, plus a variety of mobile platforms include iPhone and BlackBerry. Can synchronize between devices. (30 day trial, full version: $19.95)

For Windows

1. PC Tools Password Utilities – Windows users can download a version of the generator linked earlier, along with a utility for checking how strong passwords are. (free)
2. Password Safe – generates and securely stores passwords. (free)
3. KeePass – another program to generate and store passwords. It can also be run on Linux and OS X using Mono. (free)

For Mac

1. Keychain – This is Apple’s password management system. You can use it to generate and store passwords. To learn more about using Keychain, check out these articles: The Mac OS X Keychain Service, The Keychain’s Hidden Powers, and Manage Mac OS X Keychain. (included in OS X)
2. Pastor – software to generate and securely store passwords. (donationware)

For Linux

1. MyPasswordSafe – generates and securely stores passwords. For Ubuntu users, the package is already in the repositories, just $ sudo apt-get install mypasswordsafe. (free)
2. pwgen and gpg – for the somewhat nerdier, use pwgen to generate passwords, and save them in a text file encrypted with gpg.

Creative Writing Software

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m back, and I promise more regular updates.

I’m always looking for a better word processor, something with less distractions, or alternatively, more features. In a twisted way, it’s just another tool in my procrastination arsenal. What I want is software that will just pluck the story from my brain and actually write it for me. I haven’t found it yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll be sure to post about it here.

In the meantime, this is a list of various software packages for writers. Some are minimalist and promise to reduce distractions. Others are loaded with features that promise to help organize plotlines and timelines and chapters and so forth. I’ve only used Celtx and JDarkRoom; inclusion in this list is based on reviews and recommendations I’ve read.

The descriptions come from the product site and I’ve limited the list to products that offer a free trial. Nobody wants to spend a hundred bucks (or even twenty) on software someone else really liked just to find out they hate it. I’ve included links to donation or wish list information because I think it’s nice of people to make their software available for free and they deserve a little acknowledgement if someone uses it and enjoys it.

I’ve left out general purpose word processors, though I may write up a comparison of those later. If there’s another creative writing program you use, or you’ve written one, go ahead and leave a comment with a link.

For the Mac

Scrivener “Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won’t try to tell you how to write – it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.”	30-day Trial	Cost:$39.95
CopyWrite “CopyWrite is a project manager for writers of all kinds. Rather than focus on formatting and layout, CopyWrite stands apart in its project-oriented approach. Word processors and page layout tools are good at what they do – formatting and layout – but they offer no help at all to a writer during the creative process. In fact, the ‘gee-whiz’ features crammed into these tools do more to hinder writers, getting in the way of their work flow. Put simply, these tools constipate writers; CopyWrite is like a tasty bran muffin … with extra bran.”	Limited Trial	Cost: $24.99
StoryMill “StoryMill enables you to manage the creative process like never before. You can track, tag and filter characters, scenes, locations, research and more with the unique dynamic outline. For fiction writers, StoryMill provides features like word frequency counting, a cliche meter, and a progress meter to help you meet your daily writing goal.”	30-day Trial	Cost:$44.95
Jer’s Novel Writer “Jer’s Novel Writer is a relatively simple word processor with extra features to support large creative writing projects.This program is all about momentum, and reducing the number of things that break the flow when I am writing. Jer’s Novel Writer is designed to help me keep writing when the creative juices are flowing, and then find all the things I need to go over again when I am more in a nitty-gritty mood.”	Free Trial	Cost: $30.00
Ulysses “Ulysses was developed mainly for writers who work creatively with text and want or need to realize large amounts of text. Ulysses also wants to enable the writer to fully concentrate on the story he wishes to tell, without hobbling his creativity by means of unnecessary burden and distraction.”	30-day Trial	Cost: $122.00
WriteRoom “WriteRoom is not Microsoft Word. It won’t generate a table of contents, it won’t place borders around your documents, and it doesn’t have an animated paper-clip looking over your shoulder. Instead WriteRoom just provides the essential features required to get words on the page. Stay focused with WriteRoom’s distraction free environment. Stay on track with word count. Stay safe with autosave. You just type, and WriteRoom will do its best to stay out of your way.”	Free Or you can buy a license, but it’s not required	Cost: $0 License: $24.95

For Windows

This is just a small selection of what’s available for Windows. If you don’t see anything you like, just Google for more.

yWriter “A scene is a pleasant chunk to work on – small and well-defined, you can slot them into your novel, dragging and dropping them from one chapter to another as you interleave strands from different viewpoint characters and work out the overall flow of your book. You can also drop a scene completely if you’ve written yourself into a dead end, without feeling you’ve ground to a complete halt. Of course, you can’t just write a bunch of unrelated scenes. You need an overall design goal … your plot. yWriter will generate a number of different reports from your scene and chapter summaries, from a brief scene list to a comprehensive synopsis. If you update the ‘readiness’ setting for each scene it will even generate a work schedule showing what you have to do to meet your deadline for the outline, first draft, first edit and second edit.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate
RoughDraft “RoughDraft is a freeware word processor for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for creative writing: novels, short stories, articles, plays and screenplays. It’s designed to be as practical as possible, offering all the features you need, but without being complicated or awkward to use.”	Free	Cost: $0
PageFour “PageFour is a simple and easy to use piece of software. It was designed creatively for creative writers. PageFour is a tabbed word processor and outliner for writers. It has a simple structure based around Notebooks. Each Notebook contains as many Folders and Pages as you wish, and is structured in whichever manner best suits YOU. Every writer works differently, and PageFour recognizes this.”	Limited Trial	Cost: $34.95
Liquid Story Binder XE “Liquid Story Binder XE is a uniquely designed word processor for professional and aspiring authors, poets, and novelists. Writing software for those who require the editing ability of a commercial text editor as well as a document tracking system. It is for those who want the freedom to create, outline and revise but are tired of losing track of their work.”	30-day Trial	Cost: $49.95
DarkRoom “Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate via paypal button
Q10 “Q10 is a simple but powerful text editor designed and built with writers in mind. Q10 will clean your kitchen, walk your dog and make excellent coffee. Well, not really. But it’s really good as a full-screen text editor.”	Free	Cost: $0 Wish List
WriteMonkey “Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate via paypal button

Cross-Platform

(For Linux, Mac, and Windows)

Writer’s Café “Writer’s Café is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer’s Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay.”	Limited Trial	Cost: $45.00 CD: $50.00 Mac: $0
Celtx (I use this one.) Celtx is geared toward screenwriting, but it includes a plain text editor and many of the features are equally useful for writing fiction.”Celtx is the world’s first fully integrated solution for media pre-production and collaboration. It replaces old fashioned ‘paper, pen & binder’ media creation with a digital approach to writing and organizing that’s more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.”	Free	Cost: $0
JDarkRoom (I use this one, too.) “JDarkRoom is a popular, simple full-screen text file editor with none of the usual bells and whistles that might distract you from the job in hand. If you are writing a novel, essay, thesis or just need to be able to concentrate on your writing, then JDarkRoom may help you.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate
Writer Writer is a web-based full-screen text editor.  It allows you to save your files in text format.	Free	Cost: $0 Donate

WYSIWYG Website Editors

WYSIWYG is an acronym for “What You See Is What You Get.”  It’s used to describe website creation tools that give you a word-processor like interface to lay out page elements and enter text, rather than writing HTML in a text editor.

This is a list of free WYSIWYG editors.  Most of them are just as good (and in some cases, better) than the commercial packages.  In general they lack a library of graphics and templates included with the software which may be part of non-free software packages.  Later I’ll post a list of places to get free graphics and images on the web. If someone would be so kind as to remind me to come back and link it here?

The software packages listed here are full versions, not trials.  You can legally download this software for free.

KompoZer

KompoZer is an easy-to-use editor which will do pretty much everything you need.  You can read a little more about its capabilities on the Features page.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux on the Download page.  It’s an updated version of the older NVU editor.  (I created the original version of this page using KompoZer.)

There is not much documentation available on the KompoZer website, but the manual included under the Help menu is quite good.  There are also resources on the old NVU editor home page that still apply to KompoZer.  There is a tutorial on thesitewizard.com for getting started with KompoZer:  How to Design and Publish Your Website with KompoZer.

SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey is a Mozilla-based web browser that includes a Composer tool for making web pages.  (If you remember the old Netscape Composer, this is very similar.)  The option is located under Windows on the menu bar.  SeaMonkey is available for Windows, Mac and Linux on the Download page.

There is a tutorial on using the SeaMonkey Composer on thesitewizard.com: How to Design and Publish Your Website with Mozilla Composer.  You can also find more SeaMonkey resources on the SeaMonkey Community page.

Amaya

Amaya is an editor and browser developed by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).  It has a lot of features and is very standards-focused, but I find it a little more complicated and less intuitive to use than the others.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux on the Distributions page.  Make sure to download a release, not a snapshot.

There is less community documentation and fewer tutorials for Amaya than the
other software packages, but the user manual is available online.

“Must Have” Security Applications

Everyone connected to the internet should have, or at least know where to get, anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. Everything on this list is available for free via download. (Legally, even!) If you like and use the software, I encourage you to buy a copy or contribute to the project some way. (Open source projects often need writers.)

If you already have virus and spyware protection, by all means stick with what you know and like. That you like and can use the software is more important than anyone else’s opinion. If you can’t figure out how to apply updates or the software annoys you and you shut it off, it’s worse than useless because just having it lulls you into a false sense of security.

As a general disclaimer, I use Ubuntu Linux so I’m not intimately familiar with how to install or configure software on Windows or OS X. I haven’t included Linux applications because that’s a very small percentage of users, and (my bias is showing) they should know what they are doing anyway.

	Windows	Mac
Anti-Virus	ClamWin	ClamXav
Anti-Spyware	Ad-Aware	MacSan*

*Free trial, unfortunately I couldn’t find anything completely free.  Spyware is currently not much of a problem for Macs, but it’s increasing.