Writer Sanctum
Other & Off-Topics => Bar & Grill [Public] => Topic started by: Demon_Lord on November 11, 2018, 02:38:50 AM
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We all have favorite software that we had used for years. Some of these applications have a fully functional free version. Please share yours. I had a few favorites, but I'm sharing the one that after using it for ten years, I can't write without comfortably.
WordWeb Dictionary And Thesaurus
https://wordweb.info/
Like its name says it is a dictionary and thesaurus, which can be run on multiple devices and operating systems, and it works mostly offline. It's safe to install, and use. And it has many cool features to make our writing easier.
The free version is very similar to the Pro version, and their requirements for continuing using it free are easy to meet for most of us. Here is a link to qualify for their free license https://wordweb.info/free/licence5.html
If anybody posts spam software that it's not free and safe, their posts and links will probably be deleted by the admin/moderator, so please try to keep it clean and useful.
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My absolute favourite has to be yWriter writing software from SpaceJock (aka Simon Haynes, a member here).
It’s totally free, totally awesome, and I’ve written most of my 16 books with it.
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Sigil! For editing epubs. Means I can make the ebook version of my books look professional and exactly the way I want them.
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I use Word Web. It's fantastic for Windows and useless for Mac.
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If I feel the need for speed - Tomighty.
Much like myself, it's simple, does the job, and works offline.
https://tomighty.en.softonic.com/download
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OpenOffice and Calibre. Love 'em.
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My absolute favourite has to be yWriter writing software from SpaceJock (aka Simon Haynes, a member here).
It’s totally free, totally awesome, and I’ve written most of my 16 books with it.
Thanks ;-)
I wrote it for my own use, but I'm always pleased when someone else finds it useful too. Unfortunately there are way too many undocumented features, such as export to epub, mobi and PDF, and I really need to update the sample project to show what it can do these days.
yWriter 7 is almost ready now. I've used it for my last three novels to iron out the bugs, and it's proving nice and reliable.
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My absolute favourite has to be yWriter writing software from SpaceJock (aka Simon Haynes, a member here).
It’s totally free, totally awesome, and I’ve written most of my 16 books with it.
Thanks ;-)
I wrote it for my own use, but I’m always pleased when someone else finds it useful too. Unfortunately there are way too many undocumented features, such as export to epub, mobi and PDF, and I really need to update the sample project to show what it can do these days.
yWriter 7 is almost ready now. I’ve used it for my last three novels to iron out the bugs, and it’s proving nice and reliable.
The only improvements I’d ask for would be the choice of typographer’s (curly) quotes and a better story board. At the moment the “cards” are far too big and impossible to rearrange.
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My absolute favourite has to be yWriter writing software from SpaceJock (aka Simon Haynes, a member here).
It’s totally free, totally awesome, and I’ve written most of my 16 books with it.
Thanks ;-)
I wrote it for my own use, but I’m always pleased when someone else finds it useful too. Unfortunately there are way too many undocumented features, such as export to epub, mobi and PDF, and I really need to update the sample project to show what it can do these days.
yWriter 7 is almost ready now. I’ve used it for my last three novels to iron out the bugs, and it’s proving nice and reliable.
The only improvements I’d ask for would be the choice of typographer’s (curly) quotes and a better story board. At the moment the “cards” are far too big and impossible to rearrange.
The problem with automatic curly quotes is that it'll mess up if one's missing, and if you're using single quotes for dialogue it's going to get confused when it comes to apostrophes.
I'm sure I can get around it with tricky programming, but there always seems to be some case where it fails.
PS the new yW7 now finally supports 'match whole word' in the global search/replace.
Didn't realise the cards were showing too big. What's your screen resolution?
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Hi, Simon.
Windows 7 - 1366 x 768.
I usually have 36 scenes (12 chapters x 3 scenes) and even when I select “small” I’m unable to see more than 10 scenes at a time without scrolling. It would work far better for me to have them stacked down the screen rather than always across. I generally only have one viewpoint character.
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My absolute favourite has to be yWriter writing software from SpaceJock (aka Simon Haynes, a member here).
It’s totally free, totally awesome, and I’ve written most of my 16 books with it.
Thanks for sharing it, I've never heard of it. I'm going to give it a try.
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If I feel the need for speed - Tomighty.
Much like myself, it's simple, does the job, and works offline.
https://tomighty.en.softonic.com/download
I found an article about it here: https://lifehacker.com/5818856/tomighty-is-a-simple-elegant-pomodoro-timer-for-boosting-productivity
It looks interesting, thank you.
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OpenOffice and Calibre. Love 'em.
I use those too.
Thanks.
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My absolute favourite has to be yWriter writing software from SpaceJock (aka Simon Haynes, a member here).
It’s totally free, totally awesome, and I’ve written most of my 16 books with it.
Thanks ;-)
I wrote it for my own use, but I'm always pleased when someone else finds it useful too. Unfortunately there are way too many undocumented features, such as export to epub, mobi and PDF, and I really need to update the sample project to show what it can do these days.
yWriter 7 is almost ready now. I've used it for my last three novels to iron out the bugs, and it's proving nice and reliable.
I'm going to give it a try, it looks really useful.
Maybe you should put it on your signature here, so people can learn about it.
Thanks for creating it and sharing it free of charge.
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I use the free version of Book Brush https://bookbrush.com/register/ for creating ads. I'm still in the learning curve :icon_rolleyes: Too many choices.
(https://beta-static.photobucket.com/images/i343/Just4kixbooks/s0/90f0c407-86d6-46b5-aee2-9f3208959998-original.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://beta.photobucket.com/u/Just4kixbooks/p/90f0c407-86d6-46b5-aee2-9f3208959998)
(https://beta-static.photobucket.com/images/i343/Just4kixbooks/CoversSellBooksImage%20Twitter_zpspcvmc7tw.jpg) (https://beta.photobucket.com/u/Just4kixbooks/p/193f5a58-7fa3-4514-8c06-350af75e02e1)
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For writing, Focus Writer (gottcode.org/focuswriter/), which gives me a blank screen in which to write. It's customizable, so you can write on a screen of any color that suits you; or you can have an inspiring photo behind your writing area. I can have as many files open as I need, and the program totals my word count and lets me set a timer if I like. Saves in various file formats.
I've also been using Notepad++ for writing: I outline in the program and then fill in the scenes. Saves as plain text or in rich text format (which is usable by every word processing program I've used). Extremely basic, but since I use it a lot (for creating web pages and ebooks and for and transcribing old documents), it works well for me.
I really recommend Focus Writer; I don't need the formatting icons cluttering the screen, and it's nice to have just a blank screen to put words on.
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I use the free version of Book Brush https://bookbrush.com/register/ for creating ads. I'm still in the learning curve :icon_rolleyes: Too many choices.
(https://beta-static.photobucket.com/images/i343/Just4kixbooks/s0/90f0c407-86d6-46b5-aee2-9f3208959998-original.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://beta.photobucket.com/u/Just4kixbooks/p/90f0c407-86d6-46b5-aee2-9f3208959998)
(https://beta-static.photobucket.com/images/i343/Just4kixbooks/CoversSellBooksImage%20Twitter_zpspcvmc7tw.jpg) (https://beta.photobucket.com/u/Just4kixbooks/p/193f5a58-7fa3-4514-8c06-350af75e02e1)
I was looking for something similar, it's good to know that you tried it and it works. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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For writing, Focus Writer (gottcode.org/focuswriter/), which gives me a blank screen in which to write. It's customizable, so you can write on a screen of any color that suits you; or you can have an inspiring photo behind your writing area. I can have as many files open as I need, and the program totals my word count and lets me set a timer if I like. Saves in various file formats.
I've also been using Notepad++ for writing: I outline in the program and then fill in the scenes. Saves as plain text or in rich text format (which is usable by every word processing program I've used). Extremely basic, but since I use it a lot (for creating web pages and ebooks and for and transcribing old documents), it works well for me.
I really recommend Focus Writer; I don't need the formatting icons cluttering the screen, and it's nice to have just a blank screen to put words on.
Focus Writer sounds like a program that can helps us to organize our work, while staying focused. I had used Notepad++ in the past, it's a better option than Windows Notepad.
Thanks for sharing.
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LibreOffice with Write. It does everything I need it to do and I can't see ever paying for a word processor again.
Also, I use a free program called TimeLine, which is exactly what it says. You can create timelines of events and have notes attached to those events. I find it a lot easier and cleaner than trying to use those computerized index card programs. I like its visual look, getting you from the beginning of the story to the end.
https://www.libreoffice.org/ (https://www.libreoffice.org/)
http://thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net/ (http://thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net/)
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LibreOffice with Write. It does everything I need it to do and I can't see ever paying for a word processor again.
Also, I use a free program called TimeLine, which is exactly what it says. You can create timelines of events and have notes attached to those events. I find it a lot easier and cleaner than trying to use those computerized index card programs. I like its visual look, getting you from the beginning of the story to the end.
https://www.libreoffice.org/ (https://www.libreoffice.org/)
http://thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net/ (http://thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net/)
Yes, LibreOffice is excellent, I use it mostly when I'm using Linux.
I took note about TimeLine to give it a try. Thanks.
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I'm going to give it a try, it looks really useful.
Maybe you should put it on your signature here, so people can learn about it.
Thanks for creating it and sharing it free of charge.
I'm pretty sure I saw a forum rule somewhere stating that sigs could only show books, not other stuff. I also have a report analyser app (KDP, smashwords, etc) which I used to link to on The Other Place, but I've left it off my sig here.
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Cold Turkey Writer https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/
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Cold Turkey Writer https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/
I've been using Cold Turkey for a couple of years now. I didn't know they had a Writer. I'll have to take a look at it.
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I'm going to give it a try, it looks really useful.
Maybe you should put it on your signature here, so people can learn about it.
Thanks for creating it and sharing it free of charge.
I'm pretty sure I saw a forum rule somewhere stating that sigs could only show books, not other stuff. I also have a report analyser app (KDP, smashwords, etc) which I used to link to on The Other Place, but I've left it off my sig here.
Well, maybe you should ask Timothy about it. Because you are not making money out of it. And even if you develop a 'pro' version, and charge for that, as long as you keep a 'free' full functional version, it's good stuff.
And software is a creativity product, and it's a program for creating books, and the analyzer is connected to sales of books.
I think that in your case there should be an exception.
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Cold Turkey Writer https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/
Thank you!
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Cold Turkey Writer https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/
Thank you!
I have to second that. I've been using Cold Turkey for a couple of years now, but didn't know about Writer. I went and downloaded the free version to give it a test drive and I liked it so much, I bought the paid version. I've been using it now for a few days and love it.
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GIMP is a free image editor that is a choice if you don't want to pay for Photoshop. Like Shrek and Photoshop, it has LAYERS. That's a feature that you will appreciate with use.
https://www.gimp.org/
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Another free photoshop-like image editor is pixlr https://pixlr.com/editor/ It's a free online editor that has a very photoshop-like interface. It's pretty useful.
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GIMP is a free image editor that is a choice if you don't want to pay for Photoshop. Like Shrek and Photoshop, it has LAYERS. That's a feature that you will appreciate with use.
https://www.gimp.org/
Yes, GIMP is fantastic for cleaning background in images too.
Thanks!
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Another free photoshop-like image editor is pixlr https://pixlr.com/editor/ It's a free online editor that has a very photoshop-like interface. It's pretty useful.
Thank you, I've never heard of it, and it's good to know there are multiple options.
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Not the most mainstream list I guess, but this is what I use:
- writing: emacs (https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/)
- change tracking: git (https://git-scm.com)
- covers and image manipulation: gimp (https://www.gimp.org/) and krita (https://krita.org/en/)
- ebook creation: calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com/) tools (mainly ebook-convert), some perl (https://www.perl.org/) scripts and a custom built lisp (https://www.quicklisp.org/) converter suite
And, of course, all of this running on linux (https://www.ubuntu.com/), which is my most favorite free software of them all... grint
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Thanks you. This reminded me that I need to make a thread about our favorite Linux Distributions.
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I'm pretty sure I saw a forum rule somewhere stating that sigs could only show books, not other stuff.Not here.
Not here. Check out Timothy's signature. And many others.
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I used this free tool to check on my keywords and discovered that readers search for 'kids' books far more often than 'children's' books.
It uses Amazon real-time data.
https://www.publishingwithlove.com/kindle-ebook-keywords-tools-data
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I used this free tool to check on my keywords and discovered that readers search for 'kids' books far more often than 'children's' books.
It uses Amazon real-time data.
https://www.publishingwithlove.com/kindle-ebook-keywords-tools-data
This is a very interesting website, thanks for sharing.
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I haven't tested these, but this looks like a good list of alternatives to Adobe:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/26834357 (https://www.patreon.com/posts/26834357)
(https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJ3IjoxNjAwfQ%3D%3D/patreon-media/p/post/26834357/4e6d3b6b3cdb4cfa8ab265576c652407/3.png?token-time=1559088000&token-hash=8DSIZ7USA1hixNBdisx0ESrs0hgGaYl9YCQb80qwqko%3D)
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I have horrors about Indesign 5.5 no longer working, either due to the next Windows release, or just Adobe killing it off somehow. (Not cloud based, but it does phone home to their servers.)
I would dearly love to work in Scribus and Gimp instead of Photoshop Elements 9 and Indesign 5.5, but all my existing work is in the latter. Gimp imports PSD files, but it can't handle certain layers. I'm not sure whether Scribus would import a PDF and break it down into the original elements or not.
Fortunately, most of my covers consist of images (even the title font/author name), so they wouldn't be too hard to redo if I changed over. I can copy/paste the text.
I use Inkscape now for some vector stuff, like icons for my software, and it deserves a mention. Pretty easy to use, stable and very handy.
I guess the first step is to design a future cover in Scribus and see how it goes. The only reason I bought Indesign in the first place was due to Lightning Source and their steep compatibility requirements for PDF cover files.
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Simon - I am in the exact same position with CS 5.5. I didn't update my laptop to Windows 10 because I'm afraid it will kill my CS 5.5 suite - Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro and InDesign in particular. With the upcoming demise of Windows 7 support, I guess I should be looking for a way to keep that laptop isolated from the internet.
Did you see this:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3xk3p/adobe-tells-users-they-can-get-sued-for-using-old-versions-of-photoshop (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3xk3p/adobe-tells-users-they-can-get-sued-for-using-old-versions-of-photoshop)
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5.5 works on Win 10. I had a few crashes originally, then changed it to run as admin, and then a later win10 update seemed to fix it. Absolutely no problem now.
Don't take my word as gospel on this, though. Every windows machine seems to have different issues with different software.
(The only issue I have is that 5.5 immediately crashes when you right-click while you have something from OpenOffice on the clipboard. You have no idea the lengths I went to to uncover THAT weird combination.)
I still have a Windows 7 PC in my office. I will keep that one disconnected from the internet, so if I really need to I can use ID on that.
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I haven't tested these, but this looks like a good list of alternatives to Adobe:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/26834357 (https://www.patreon.com/posts/26834357)
(https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJ3IjoxNjAwfQ%3D%3D/patreon-media/p/post/26834357/4e6d3b6b3cdb4cfa8ab265576c652407/3.png?token-time=1559088000&token-hash=8DSIZ7USA1hixNBdisx0ESrs0hgGaYl9YCQb80qwqko%3D)
Thanks for sharing this. The good news is that we don't have to invest anything but time to give these alternative software a try.
I also work with an older version of Photoshop, but it never gets access to the internet.
Seriously, if you guys have a Windows 7 computer that runs well, and has lots of software that you like, try to clone the hard drive using https://clonezilla.org/
It's a free Linux software and a distro that can be run on LiveCD too. It might take some time learning to do so, but it's worthy. I recommend cloning the drive when it's in good shape, to keep a copy of the installation in case something happens to it. In the Clonezilla website they have a session where they explain how to deal with Windows disc cloning.
That been said, I've been using Linux exclusivity for more than seven months now. I didn't plan to do so, it just happened that when I turn the computer on, I don't log into the Windows side anymore. Wow, I just realized that.
BTW The best word processor in Linux is the less flamboyant one, AbiWord https://www.abisource.com/tour/
If all one needs is to type words and saving them, this is the thing.
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I just tried Scribus, and unfortunately it WILL import PSD files, but masking doesn't work. Therefore, my title came in as a yellow square. (I know I can export the original to PNG and just use that instead, but it's so much easier to link the photoshop file.)
I tried the scribus SVN release (nightly), but it's the same.
As for writing novels on Linux, my own yWriter runs under the mono libraries.
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I just tried Scribus, and unfortunately it WILL import PSD files, but masking doesn't work. Therefore, my title came in as a yellow square. (I know I can export the original to PNG and just use that instead, but it's so much easier to link the photoshop file.)
I tried the scribus SVN release (nightly), but it's the same.
As for writing novels on Linux, my own yWriter runs under the mono libraries.
Did you merge the layers in the PSD file first? When I got the final version of a cover, I leave the original PSD intact in case I need to change something later, and save a copy as New-Cover-merged.psd. This makes working with it easier. However, exporting the cover as a high resolution jpeg is the best option to create ebooks.
And to import a final cover into a new program, it takes more work, because I would save each layer individually and use them to recreate the cover in the new program.
Well, so far nothing better than the early Photoshop versions, but we must get ready for when Windows become unbearable.
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Pixl expressX. It's a new kid on the pixl scene.
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I just tried Scribus, and unfortunately it WILL import PSD files, but masking doesn't work. Therefore, my title came in as a yellow square. (I know I can export the original to PNG and just use that instead, but it's so much easier to link the photoshop file.)
I tried the scribus SVN release (nightly), but it's the same.
As for writing novels on Linux, my own yWriter runs under the mono libraries.
Did you merge the layers in the PSD file first? When I got the final version of a cover, I leave the original PSD intact in case I need to change something later, and save a copy as New-Cover-merged.psd. This makes working with it easier. However, exporting the cover as a high resolution jpeg is the best option to create ebooks.
And to import a final cover into a new program, it takes more work, because I would save each layer individually and use them to recreate the cover in the new program.
Well, so far nothing better than the early Photoshop versions, but we must get ready for when Windows become unbearable.
I like to save what I'm working on with a new filename (increment the number), and then link the PSD file. It's not the end of the world if I have to export as PNG though, that's for sure.
Apparently they shut down the licensing servers for Photoshop/Indesign CS2, then made the program available on the adobe site (with a key) for people who purchased it and still needed to use it.
Maybe they'll do the same with CS5.5/6.0 if they shut the servers down?
I'm more worried about a future version of Windows not working with CS at all. They don't have a great record when it comes to supporting older software. My version of CorelDraw 12 will not run on Windows 10 no matter what I try, and all my old artwork is in CDR format. On the plus side, LibreOffice Draw has a rudimentary CDR importer - but it's not there yet.
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Pixl expressX. It's a new kid on the pixl scene.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing it.
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I like to save what I'm working on with a new filename (increment the number), and then link the PSD file. It's not the end of the world if I have to export as PNG though, that's for sure.
Apparently they shut down the licensing servers for Photoshop/Indesign CS2, then made the program available on the adobe site (with a key) for people who purchased it and still needed to use it.
Maybe they'll do the same with CS5.5/6.0 if they shut the servers down?
I'm more worried about a future version of Windows not working with CS at all. They don't have a great record when it comes to supporting older software. My version of CorelDraw 12 will not run on Windows 10 no matter what I try, and all my old artwork is in CDR format. On the plus side, LibreOffice Draw has a rudimentary CDR importer - but it's not there yet.
I've invested a lot on Corel software, and one of the good things about them, it's that they are one of the few companies that still have fully functioning off-line trials. They allow you to install the software without an online connection too.
So, if you need to open a CDR file, you can download a program from their catalog and use it. Here is a link you might like to take a look at:
Trying to open a .CDR file?
https://www.coreldraw.com/en/pages/open-cdr-file/
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Simon,
If you ever decide to OR need to move on from Adobe products you might want to check out Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher. They're software you own and very low cost. $49 USD or often $39 on sale. (Windows & Mac versions)
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/
For all,
A free scrivener like windows product (with editing functionality included) worth checking out is SmartEdit Writer.
https://www.smart-edit.com/Writer/