I'm a big fan of Outliner, Graffle, Dictionary and now Plan. I gave out Dazzle last Christmas to my internet friends.
I'm a Mac fanatic so some readers may have to forgive the mention of a Mac-centric product. My early years found me writing with FullWrite Professional from Ashton-Tate. Later it was absorbed by Borland and left on the shelf for a couple of years. Eventually Borland spun it out and let the Akimbo people take it back into the market. They upgraded it and gave FullWrite a new lease on life.
FullWrite was promoted as a document processor instead of a word processor because it offered terrific outlining, notation, citation, indexing, bibliography, sidebar, and layout features. It used a chapter method or organization which automatically generated TOCs, allowed for elements to move around and keep their page references, and it allowed a writer to work from the outline through to the final document. I always loved the feature where I could drag outline points around and the attached paragraphs would move with them. It also allowed a collapsed version of the document to print only the paragraphs and leave out the outline references. I could go on and on but I think those who have ever written any truly long and involved technical documents would appreciate the power FullWrite offered a writer.
Eventually (and it took nearly ten years) MS Word adopted many of the same features and it eventually gave people a reasonable alternative to FullWrite. About this same time Apple moved into their OS X phase and Akimbo Systems went under leaving FullWrite a free and open product.
There are a significant number of writers who were loyal to FullWrite Professional and generated a lot of documents using it. Many of those who have shared their experiences with me have said it was still the best writing environment they have ever used. I echo that sentiment. Even Apple's new Pages program teases me with the potential to replace FullWrite's legendary status in Mac folklore. I find Pages comes up short (and I've been through all the rest of those word processors).
Since I've been so pleased with all of Omni's products I wondered if they would even consider taking up the challenge of developing their own incarnation of FullWrite (perhaps OmniWrite) in which the integration with Outliner, Graffle, and Plan would allow a person to develop the schema with Graffle, generate outlines in Outliner, and begin a layout in OmniWrite to finish the project. I realize the enormous barrier to entry into the writing software market and I can only echo some of the sentiment I've read elsewhere in this forum regarding the kinds of features screenwriters need. As well there are law offices with particular needs and other niche industries which might find a new document processor from Omni a welcome development.
I suppose I could ask readers to both vote and comment on what I'm proposing and let the Omni people know a little more about features you need in OmniWrite and capabilities you think would help distinguish it from the rest of the market. I'm quite encouraged by the OmniPlan product development so I feel somewhat more comfortable stating this need.
Maybe it IS time for a new writing program to emerge in the Mac environment and challenge the hegemony of that company in Redmond.
If something like FullWrite Professional was to re-appear I know quite a few previous happy customers who would jump at the chance to use it. It is always easy to ask other people to make something for you. The mysteries of software development prevent me from making a technical case for the product but I can only hope other forum readers will endorse my proposal. Otherwise I expect to be shot down in flames. :o
Cheers.
I'm a Mac fanatic so some readers may have to forgive the mention of a Mac-centric product. My early years found me writing with FullWrite Professional from Ashton-Tate. Later it was absorbed by Borland and left on the shelf for a couple of years. Eventually Borland spun it out and let the Akimbo people take it back into the market. They upgraded it and gave FullWrite a new lease on life.
FullWrite was promoted as a document processor instead of a word processor because it offered terrific outlining, notation, citation, indexing, bibliography, sidebar, and layout features. It used a chapter method or organization which automatically generated TOCs, allowed for elements to move around and keep their page references, and it allowed a writer to work from the outline through to the final document. I always loved the feature where I could drag outline points around and the attached paragraphs would move with them. It also allowed a collapsed version of the document to print only the paragraphs and leave out the outline references. I could go on and on but I think those who have ever written any truly long and involved technical documents would appreciate the power FullWrite offered a writer.
Eventually (and it took nearly ten years) MS Word adopted many of the same features and it eventually gave people a reasonable alternative to FullWrite. About this same time Apple moved into their OS X phase and Akimbo Systems went under leaving FullWrite a free and open product.
There are a significant number of writers who were loyal to FullWrite Professional and generated a lot of documents using it. Many of those who have shared their experiences with me have said it was still the best writing environment they have ever used. I echo that sentiment. Even Apple's new Pages program teases me with the potential to replace FullWrite's legendary status in Mac folklore. I find Pages comes up short (and I've been through all the rest of those word processors).
Since I've been so pleased with all of Omni's products I wondered if they would even consider taking up the challenge of developing their own incarnation of FullWrite (perhaps OmniWrite) in which the integration with Outliner, Graffle, and Plan would allow a person to develop the schema with Graffle, generate outlines in Outliner, and begin a layout in OmniWrite to finish the project. I realize the enormous barrier to entry into the writing software market and I can only echo some of the sentiment I've read elsewhere in this forum regarding the kinds of features screenwriters need. As well there are law offices with particular needs and other niche industries which might find a new document processor from Omni a welcome development.
I suppose I could ask readers to both vote and comment on what I'm proposing and let the Omni people know a little more about features you need in OmniWrite and capabilities you think would help distinguish it from the rest of the market. I'm quite encouraged by the OmniPlan product development so I feel somewhat more comfortable stating this need.
Maybe it IS time for a new writing program to emerge in the Mac environment and challenge the hegemony of that company in Redmond.
If something like FullWrite Professional was to re-appear I know quite a few previous happy customers who would jump at the chance to use it. It is always easy to ask other people to make something for you. The mysteries of software development prevent me from making a technical case for the product but I can only hope other forum readers will endorse my proposal. Otherwise I expect to be shot down in flames. :o
Cheers.