Not happy with WordPad

[KittyOfSteele]

You need WYSIWYG word processors; stuff that looks like WordPerfect 5.1 or WordStar. I use two.

I'm on Linux, so I use Ghostwriter. It's a not-the-fun-type of pain in the ass to get it running on Windows, but again, I'm on Linux. To me it works like Leafpad (Notepad for Windows users) on steroids. Markdown compatible, runs HTML formatting too, and it is more comfortable to write upon because paragraphs look like paragraphs instead of a stupid screen. It has nothing that distracts me. The experience to me is the same as WordPerfect 5.1.

On my phone I use Obsidian, and I swear on Obsidian. I still haven't found anything that beats it. It's a dream for plotters, and a wet dream for those chronically ill with Worldbuilder's Disease.

You don't really need too much knowledge to handle either of them, unless you want to bother yourself with the advanced options, which Ghostwriter doesn't really have many, if they exist. You don't even need to know Markdown, and it is most likely you'll end up learning it on the go out of instinct and whim instead of being forced into it. You can just use them to type stuff, and that's it. Obsidian has quite a lot of goodies, but it doesn't constantly bother you to learn those things, and they are neatly tucked away from your sight so you can focus in typing words only.

 

[old_prof]

I may see if I can get Ghostwriter running on my mac

I'm on Linux, so I use Ghostwriter. It's a not-the-fun-type of pain in the ass to get it running on Windows, but again, I'm on Linux. To me it works like Leafpad (Notepad for Windows users) on steroids. Markdown compatible, runs HTML formatting too, and it is more comfortable to write upon because paragraphs look like paragraphs instead of a stupid screen. It has nothing that distracts me. The experience to me is the same as WordPerfect 5.1.

 

[Britva415]

What are others using instead of WordPad for story writing that is easy to use?
For a really old dummy who can't even follow the simplest directions...

What are your particular complaints?

I won't recommend anything without understanding what problem to solve.

 

[Britva415]

Count another Libre Office user among the ranks here. If you know WordPad, you know 95% of what you need to know to use Libre Office Write.

You aren't mixing up WordPad and MS Word, are you?

 

[Dearelliot]

HP people helped me, they put wordpad o0n my new PC

 

[AloneTooLong]

Does no one like the Open Office products?

 

[bi_brain]

I'm just using Notepad. Works well enough for me and my stuff doesn't end up in the cloud somewhere.

 

[Areala-chan]

You aren't mixing up WordPad and MS Word, are you?

I don't think so, although my experience with WordPad ends around 1997-1998, so I'm probably operating on outdated information. OP, feel free to disregard what I've said. *shrug*

 

[Areala-chan]

Does no one like the Open Office products?

Libre Office is forked from Open Office, so the two are "similar, but different" programs now.

 

[Britva415]

Does no one like the Open Office products?

Developers abandoned it more than a decade ago. It hasn't had a real release since 2014. The Apache Foundation itself, which is the organization which now owns it (since Oracle got rid of it) and which can't recruit and keep developers to work on it, warns that it is insecure because of this.

So, really - why would anyone like it? What 12-year-old critical feature does it have which LibreOffice, the project which developers have actually wanted to work on for that long, doesn't have?

 

[MrStill]

Well, if this was a poll... Add me the Libre Office brigade.

 

[onehitwanda]

Crazy Cat Lady checking in.

https://www.lyx.org/

No AI, no nagware, just pure and simple text editing free software goodness.

 

[TheLobster]

It's a not-the-fun-type of pain in the ass to get it running on Windows,

Well, they ship it as a ZIP with the executable inside, so how painful it is is somewhat relative. Extract, move the folder to Program Files or wherever, and create the shortcuts in Start menu or on desktop or wherever you want them; takes maybe two minutes.

I may see if I can get Ghostwriter running on my mac

Please post your results. I’ve been using OneMarkdown editor when I write on my Macbook, but it’s not quite as good as Ghostwriter.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

What are others using instead of WordPad for story writing that is easy to use?
For a really old dummy who can't even follow the simplest directions...

WordPad. It's the simplest to use.

What is it that you don't like about it?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Well, they ship it as a ZIP with the executable inside, so how painful it is is somewhat relative. Extract, move the folder to Program Files or wherever, and create the shortcuts in Start menu or on desktop or wherever you want them; takes maybe two minutes.

I must have misread the instructions and got my gock stuck inside an USB port then. I swear I went into the page and saw that it required to be built through commands.

Must have been not paying attention... My bad!

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I use Textpad which is free to download and is easy to use.

 

[Dearelliot]

WordPad. It's the simplest to use.

What is it that you don't like about it?

I do like it and use it... but some of the others seem to offer more options that sound good... but my ability to concentrate, learn, and remember seems to be going downhill, so I'm kinda stuck with WordPad.

 

[TheLobster]

I must have misread the instructions and got my gock stuck inside an USB port then. I swear I went into the page and saw that it required to be built through commands.

Must have been not paying attention... My bad!

Did you look at the download page? The Windows option goes straight to the GitHub releases page where you can get the zipped binary. I also wouldn't be surprised if someone added it to WinGet or Chocolatey, since the "installation" is so trivial.

 

[RocketGrunt]

Developers abandoned it more than a decade ago. It hasn't had a real release since 2014. The Apache Foundation itself, which is the organization which now owns it (since Oracle got rid of it) and which can't recruit and keep developers to work on it, warns that it is insecure because of this.

So, really - why would anyone like it? What 12-year-old critical feature does it have which LibreOffice, the project which developers have actually wanted to work on for that long, doesn't have?

Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16 was released on November 10th, 2025. So I don't think that's actually true.

 

[SyleusSnow]

I use FocusWriter for everything except the final version. Free, simple, distraction free and runs on Windows and Linux.

Has spell check but no grammar checker (or AI), supports MS Word and Libreoffice formats. If you tell it what you use to divide your scenes (I use "~~~~") it can show them in a sidebar for easier navigation.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16 was released on November 10th, 2025. So I don't think that's actually true.

@Britva415 wrote "real" release. Version 4 was released in 2013. 4.1 was released in 2014.

So ....

 

[IWroteThis]

I use yWriter. It's free, although registration is appreciated, and designed for writing novels. In fact, it was written by an author who uses it to write his own novels. I use more features then I did when I first started, but there are still a lot of features that I don't. You don't have to do anything more than create one chapter with one scene, but you have the options to do so much more.

One thing I like is that it does break everything down into chapters and scenes, with drag and drop for reordering either or moving scenes to a different chapter. One thing I don't like is that it doesn't offer suggestions when it flags a misspelled word.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Google docs. It's easy to use, well supported so nothing ever seems to go wrong. You don't have to download anthing if you don 't want to - I just use the online version. Yuo can save files locally as a backup and the commands are easy to understand.

I used to ise Word but its way to complex now and I want to write, not fiddle with screwy s/w commands

 

[old_prof]

I use yWriter. It's free, although registration is appreciated, and designed for writing novels. In fact, it was written by an author who uses it to write his own novels. I use more features then I did when I first started, but there are still a lot of features that I don't. You don't have to do anything more than create one chapter with one scene, but you have the options to do so much more.

One thing I like is that it does break everything down into chapters and scenes, with drag and drop for reordering either or moving scenes to a different chapter. One thing I don't like is that it doesn't offer suggestions when it flags a misspelled word.

Dess anyone have any experience with yWriter on mac? It's in beta according to the website.

 

[IWroteThis]

Dess anyone have any experience with yWriter on mac? It's in beta according to the website.

I don't but there's a yWriter Google group that I'm sure has posts about it. Also, the programmer is active in the group (and responsive to bug reports), so I'm sure you could get answers there.

groups google com/g/ywriter