2 must-have digital writing tools!

Gone are the days when writers would pen down numerous pages of stories using a feather point ink pen and ink bottle or even a ball point pen for that matter. Very few even use the type writer now. We are a generation dependent upon digital tools now for almost everything. And why not?

Isn’t it much easier to keep the word count that way? Online submissions to a publisher are definitely faster than snail mail physical copy submissions. Also, technology today is advanced enough to auto-correct your typographical or grammatical errors! These features are as important as life and death for those in the writing and publishing world. The sooner you get acquainted yourself to these, the better for your writing career.

Here are two of the basic savior tools we thought would help the aspiring writer in you:

MS Word

This is the first tool we suggest every budding writer should learn to master. With its absolutely user-friendly interface, it’s the elementary tool for all kinds of writing. There are several online sites to help you with the tips and tricks to use this tool and it definitely speeds up your writing.

MS Word has a number of templates you can use to create various documents – book manuscripts being one major template for writers. The tool allows you to set up the language of your work and then highlights to you the grammatical or typographical errors in your document as you go typing; giving you suggestions of the correct word or sentence to replace the errors. You can add images, borders, page numbers, headers, footers, use different fonts for the titles / headings / body, insert links into a document and save documents or even create the document in different formats – the main being a PDF.

What’s more, you can also use the Thesaurus in MS Word to help you select synonyms or antonyms to a word that you’ve used already in your write-up and you wish to avoid repetition. Thanks to the simplicity of the tool, this is our primary suggestion for a distraction-free writing time.

Evernote

An app designed for note taking, organizing, task management, and archiving; developed by the Evernote Corporation; Evernote is another distraction free writing tool that is a must-have on a writer’s desktop / phone. Evernote syncs to all your devices, so you can tackle action items on the go and express yourself clearly with easy-to-use formatting options, and find what you need quickly with filtered searches and results as you type.

With Evernote you can compartmentalize your articles into different notebooks and write on several projects at one time.

Its features as on their site:

CAPTURE IDEAS

Write, collect, and capture ideas as searchable notes, notebooks, checklists, and to-do lists. It’s the only organizer you need.
Keep journals capturing the events and milestones of your daily life.
Clip interesting articles and web pages to read or use later.
Add different types of content to your notes: text, sketches, photos, audio, web clippings, and more.
Use the camera to effortlessly scan, digitize, and organize your paper documents, business cards, whiteboards, handwritten notes, and drawings.
Attach docs, PDFs, photos, and audio.

GET ORGANIZED

Create separate notebooks to organize your receipts, bills, and invoices.
Find anything fast—Evernote’s powerful search can even find text in images and handwritten notes.
Set reminders to keep on top of activities and write to-do lists.

ACCESS ANYWHERE

Sync your notes and notebooks automatically across any computer, phone, or tablet.
Start your work on one device and continue on another without missing a beat.
Share your notes and notebooks with your friends, colleagues, or family.

EVERNOTE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Make personal to-do lists to keep your thoughts organized.
Go paperless by scanning receipts and important documents.
Save all of your travel documents, articles, and notes in one place.
Plan events such as holidays, weddings, and parties.
Use Evernote as a planner to organize your life and stay on task.
Capture ideas and inspiration on the go.

EVERNOTE IN BUSINESS

Keep everyone up to date by capturing meeting notes and sharing notebooks with your team.
Use it as your ultimate planner and organizer at work.
Annotate documents during team meetings, then share with colleagues.

WriteFluence