There is a vast treasure trove of free software and online services that can greatly assist writers with their work. Here are some of the best free tools and services that writers can add to their technological toolkit. Most of the free software is for the Microsoft Windows platform but versions for other platforms like MAC OS and Linux will be noted when available.
Free Software
***NEW UPDATE***
StorYBook is an open-source application for writing books of all types. One of the most impressive packages that I’ve seen. The best feature is the way it helps you organize your chapters and offers differents views such as a chronological view of chapters by date or book view according to chapter numbers.
Here’s a screenshot:
Download (windows or linux)
screenshots
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yWriter is an impressive novel-writing program that was created by a writer so it makes |
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WordWeb is a small but powerful dictionary that hardly misses a word. |
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MobySaurus is an impressive thesaurus! |
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OpenOffice The ultimate Microsoft Office clone that is totally free and open source.
There is Write (Word), Calc (Excel), Impress (PowerPoint), Base (Access) and more! Download (Win, Mac, Linux) Screenshot |
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CutePDF Writer lets you create professional quality PDF files from any printable document.
FREE for personal and commercial use. No watermarks. No popup Web advertisements! Download |
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McGill Dictionary of Rhyme is an amazing deal here because not only does it include an excellent rhyming dictionary but also a program called |
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EverNote allows you to capture and search through notes, mobile phone snapshots, |
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 NoteTabLite The best text editor that I’ve ever used and I’ve been using it for many years! NoteTabLite lets you open many text files at the same time with its unique tabbed interface (much like a browser). It remembers all of the files you had open the last time you used it and reopens them all automatically for you. Download Screenshot |
Free Services
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Definr is a quick and powerful online dictionary that never seems to miss. |
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Freethesaurus is an useful online thesaurus from the makers of MobySaurus the thesaurus software. |
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RhymeZone Very fast and useful online Rhyming search engine |
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WordFrequencyCounter Counts the frequency of words you’ve used. |
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MindMeister is the best online mindmapping service that allows you to embed any map and share them with |
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Google Docs is an excellent online word processor that lets you store your writing which you can access from anywhere, |
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Google Notebook is an online notebook for storing all kinds of text, images, links, etc. Create many subsections, tags, etc. |
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Zoho Writer Another excellent online word processor with storage anZoho offers the same features forsharing as google docs. |
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Zoho Db & Reports Easy and fast online database builder. Create databases to track story ideas, plots, characters,submissions, etc. |
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Zoho Creator |
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Free Social Networks and Services for Writers were covered in Writing 2.0. Here’s a list of the best of these writing networks as well as all of the free software listed on here.
