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| Author | Writing using System 7 (Read 50097 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Europa
64 MB  Posts: 109 she/her 
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on: March 25, 2022, 21:42
Hey there! April is almost upon us and, for some writers, that means Camp NaNoWriMo! I participated in the NaNoWriMo main event last year and succeeded in writing 50k words over the course of November. I used the same setup as I'm using this year, which is a PowerBook 1400cs/133 with 40MB of RAM (it had 16MB back last November, as I hadn't acquired a RAM expansion yet) and using AppleWorks 5 as my word processor. Anyone else write using System 7 these days and, if so, what rig and software do you use? For those interested, a picture of my setup (warning, large file): https://images.macintosh.garden/2022/03/25/IMG_7552.jpg |
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #1 on: March 26, 2022, 06:36
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I don't do writing as in e.g. a novel or a scientific work, but we do use the IIci running System 7.1 for writing the occasional letter. I found that a paper letter is much more worth in feedback than just sending an e-mail. Paper letter are read. Printing is handled via postscript drivers on a Kyocera FS-1370DN printer. Big fan of T/Maker's WriteNow for writing. It's written in 68k assembly language, it's very fast on my Mac IIci. Heck, it's even fast on my Mac SE! It comes with all the stuff an average user might need but never added the features that made a MS Word so bloated. The UI is well thought out, features include an easy-to-use table feature, easy graphics handling, good text formating etc. I used to write all my college reports on WriteNow and never missed anything, so this is my clear favorite. :-) What are you writing for the Camp NaNoWriMo? (never heard of it before) P.S. Yeah, anyone, don't try to open that image on an old Mac, it's huuuge :-)
Last Edit: March 26, 2022, 06:38 by Bolkonskij
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Europa
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64 MB Posts: 109 she/her
Reply #2 on: March 26, 2022, 17:07
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Nice! I'll have to keep WriteNow in mind whenever it is I get 68k Macs up and running. We do have a Classic II that likely needs to be recapped, and I feel like this would run beautifully on there. Camp NaNoWriMo is like the NaNoWriMo main event, but the goal is much more flexible (you set your own goal, you don't have to write 50k words, my goal is to write at least 15k words). As for what I'm writing, it's a collection of short stories to add to the story that I wrote for last year's NaNoWriMo. 
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mac-cellar
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128 MB Posts: 176 Gotta love System 7
Reply #3 on: March 26, 2022, 19:21
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The PowerBook 1400 is a great choice - such a delightful keyboard. Well done! Call me crazy but I’ve always had a soft-spot for WordPerfect. I used it quite a bit back on PCs in the early 90s and the freeware 3.5 version for Mac is familiar, responsive and well- appointed. I still make use of it today for letters, along with AppleWorks. I usually use Print-to-PDF and store documents on my network for printing from a more modern machine.
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Europa
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64 MB Posts: 109 she/her
Reply #4 on: March 27, 2022, 03:19
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I know, right? The 1400's keyboard is amazing. I've never used WordPerfect, but I do the same thing when I do desktop publishing and writing on my older machines and wish to print. Print to PDF is a very useful software printer.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #5 on: March 27, 2022, 06:58
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Word Perfect. Wasn't that some DOS ported suite? I only remember seeing it once running it during the 90's on a Mac I can't recall and it was so slow and "un-Macish" in looks & behavior. It's wrong, but that first impression somehow stuck with me. I do know it has its fans and it probably made life a lot easier for a few DOS converts by using a software they know. @Europa - WriteNow 4 works fine on PPC too! I use it all the way up to Mac OS 9 on my G4. It's not exclusively 68k. Give it a try on your 1400 and see if you like it or not :-) There's also a video on Cornica of Heidi Roizen showing off version 1.0 on the Computer Chronicles.
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mac-cellar
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128 MB Posts: 176 Gotta love System 7
Reply #6 on: March 28, 2022, 00:59
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Bolkonskij, I believe you are right about Word Perfect having its roots in DOS - I believe I used the DOS version at least once actually. Most of my time spent with it was in Windows 3.1. The Mac version retained much of the UI from the PC versions, so to call it un-Macish is certainly accurate. WriteNow 4 is a small wonder. Excellent!
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Europa
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64 MB Posts: 109 she/her
Reply #7 on: March 28, 2022, 05:37
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Oh, epic! I'll have to give it a shot when I get a chance, thanks for the tip. What file format does it save to? Is it proprietary or something fairly standard like txt or rtf?
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #8 on: March 28, 2022, 10:49
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It has its own propietory WriteNow format BUT also allows saving in plain text, plain text with line breaks, MacWrite, MicrosoftWorks AND RTF (Microsoft Word). It also comes with a converter for importing many formats, including doc files. Hmm...I guess I should add that info to the software page on our main page. Thanks!
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Europa
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64 MB Posts: 109 she/her
Reply #9 on: March 28, 2022, 16:57
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You're welcome and awesome! I love wide format compatibility like that.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1179 System 7, today and forever
Reply #10 on: March 29, 2022, 00:06
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I second (or third, lol) WriteNow for amazing editor!  I use more than one Word Processor, but in a pinch I'll dive into WriteNow. WordPerfect made news in the Mac-world when they released it and Corel Draw for Classic Macs as freeware, and it also helped that a loyal-community kept a nice collection of useful add-ons, although I'm not sure just how many were specific for the Classic Mac version  I may as well remind everyone that the hunt is still out to get the ultimate add-on for WriteNow, which is a neat shareware software that adds a toolbar for it! More on that here: https://system7today.com/forums/index.php?topic=3147.0
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Europa
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64 MB Posts: 109 she/her
Reply #11 on: March 29, 2022, 15:35
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I admittedly use multiple editors too, although my editors of choice are AppleWorks/ClarisWorks and Microsoft Word. I hope you're able to find that plugin! It sounds amazing and I'd totally use it.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #12 on: March 29, 2022, 16:08
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I tend to be very old school. I find word processors distracting from writing. I can only think about one thing at a time. I can write words, or I can think about how they will look on a page. In System 6 & 7 I always wrote in TeachText or SimpleText. When I was sure I had wrote what I wanted to say, then I could think about formatting and just pour the text into a word processor or page layout app to make it look "nice". That continues on to today. In Linux I write in nano or pico, then pour the text into something else to format generally I just use LaTex to keep it all plain text. With System 7 I used ClarisWorks. I am always interested in the different work flows that people develop to suit their needs. I have always been most productive when working on a blank slate, with the one needed task being the only option available. I can either walk or chew gum and I gave up gum.
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #13 on: April 03, 2022, 17:48
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I love writing Books & Novels with MS-Word and QuarkXPress. As I am a Word Smith of the old fashioned kind, I'd be using up tons of TipEx, would I try to write my books with pen and paper.  Maybe if I'd go all the way back to pencils and erasers - but hey, why then use a computer in the first place? I plot my storylines with Impact and store my character data in a FileMakerPro DB. The author of a now abandoned ancestry DB app with a neat tree interface was so kind to hand me over his source code for that.
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Europa
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64 MB Posts: 109 she/her
Reply #14 on: April 04, 2022, 03:59
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@wove That's pretty cool! I like that idea of "content first, add the decoration later" and I'm sort of doing that with what I'm doing right now, although I do include different font sizes to delineate chapter headings and such. @68040 That's a cool way to manage story data! I honestly should probably try that sometime, as my current story is getting really complex.
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