Tuesday 28 April 2009

Coming Soon... FlashWRITER!!!















...FlashWRITER


FlashWRITER is almost ready for beta release and I'm looking for volunteers to test it.

FlashWRITER is a word processor purpose built for writing. 

The current feature list is as follows:
  • All the usual WP functions;
  • Spell Checking;
  • Real time word counts and tracking vs your target word count;
  • Cumulative time spent writing and cumulative word count;
  • Elapsed time and progress against your target writing time;
  • A robust autosave feature which you can customise;
  • Custom Templates for each market which remembers that publishers submission guidelines (eg min/max word counts, file formats, preferred font, line spacing, etc.). You will be able to generate your own templates and share them if you are feeling generous.
  • An email facility so that you can submit your story (as an attachment or in the body). I've tried to capture the entire story writing work flow in one program.
Happy to consider any other feature requests that people might have.

6 comments:

  1. Jesus - this could be a biggy. Count me in on the test group.

    Can we look at going a few steps further and include critiquing tools like comment, and tracking changes? Or is that asking a bit much?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, this sounds really good. I'd like to be part of the beta testing too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very good idea! I'll be watching this one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tweeted this to get you some more interest and got this reply:

    Scrivener kinds does this very well, but is Mac only. If FlashWriter could be Scrivener for Windows, you'll have a winner.

    Maybe you can use Scrivener to get some more ideas if you haven't seen it already. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the interest Gents. I will keep you posted on progress. Most of the base WP code is in and is very solid. I'm just finishing off the manuscript template code, autosave and help files. I will let you know the secret Beta download site in about 4 weeks.

    BT,

    I will have a look at track changes and comments for v2. That is a non-trivial addition!

    Alan,

    Thanks for the tweet. I haven't seen Scrivener but I will have a look at what it contains - I don't have a Mac so I can't try it. I took some of the ideas from yEdit and Sonar (You can check them out at http://www.spacejock.com/yEdit2.html). YWriter is also good for bigger works. None of these did exactly what I was after so I thought I would whip up one of my own.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just checked out Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html). Looks quite sexy - I think my ambitions are a bit more modest at this stage. Looks like Scrivener is aimed at novel length writing. Have a look at yWriter if this is your bag. It is free and does a lot of what Scrivener does already (it is available on Windows and works in Linux). Most of my writing is short fiction so I am targeting that niche. Having said that I'm happy to pinch anyone's good idea and mash it in, so if there is a particular feature you want let me know. I quite like the index card sorter and may have a go at that in the next version.

    ReplyDelete