In his latest video, Yuvi believes he discredits his entire attack on Microsoft Word when he “contradicts” himself by saying:
I actually think he is proving his point. Most people use Microsoft Word because they think it’s what they should use, not because it is what they want to use. If you end up using Word, fine. I don’t get you for the life of me, but seriously, it’s fine.
However, if you plan to write with any kind of frequency, you owe it to yourself to try a few tools and find the one that you want to use. I’m not saying you should obsess here (even though I tend to), I’m just suggesting you set aside some time to experiment. I don’t know many who truly love writing in Word. I know plenty who love the flexibility and innovation in the world of plain text and Markdown.
At the end of the day, the real problem is that when it comes to a total package solution, there isn’t anything that’s better than Word. There isn’t anything (yet) that takes the best of our geeky love of plain text and bridges the gap to the world of Microsoft Word. Even beloved apps like nvALT, Byword and Scrivener are unlikely to ever solve this problem. That’s why, much like writing your local senator, I think anyone who cares about this should continually write Brett Terpstra letters and send him Tweets begging him to bring his envisioned text editor to life. When it comes to someone inevitably solving this problem (and it is a problem that needs solving), my money is on him.
While we wait for Brett, take a look at the the tools that are available and figure out how to “write however the hell you want.” It won’t solve everything, but enjoying what you use to write gives you one less excuse for not writing.
As always, enjoy Yuvi’s latest.
Unrelated side note: best and only mashup of Futurama and Say Anything, ever!