reviews

KeyNote may be the most useful program I’ve ever downloaded from the web. I use it not only for writing, but for everything from to-do lists to bookmarks to email and blog post drafts. It’s portable, too — when I worked at a place with computer access, I would carry KeyNote, my current novel file, and a file called “notesatwork” on a thumbdrive and use it for writing and general note-taking whenever I got an idea during the day. I’m writing this post in KeyNote, where I have a long list of posts-in-progress in the sidebar, organized by topic and color-coded by completion. If a program can make my chaotic notes something close to organized, it can do the same for anyone.

This may be the ideal program for those who make their notes on the backs of gas-station receipts, along with pages of timeline sketches, alternate outlines, and checklists for each scene. As the name suggests, it works as a virtual binder for your novel. It’s great for storing random snippets of text, images, and even sound files, along with your novel itself — several alternate drafts of your novel, if you like.

This is the first post of what will probably be a long series of reviews of various writing software you can download. I thought I’d start off with one of my favorites: Rough Draft.
Cost: Free!
Ease of Use: Easy. If you can use Notepad, you can use this.
Use For: It’s primarily a simple word processor, but [...]