CopyWrite

There are several programs available that purport to be For Writers, which seem to compete for Most Cluttered Interface awards more than anything. The other two descriptive phrases they all seem to have is Glorified Word Processor and Costs Too Much. One of this breed is CopyWrite.

Interaction with CopyWrite is based on Project files. Within a Project, one can create several types of Documents, corresponding with various sorts of pieces of stories: Chapters, Characters, Places, Elements, Ideas, and Premise (as well as an Unfiled category). Categories can be customized. One can view all Documents or, using a tabbed interface, an individual category; finding and replacing are also available. In addition to Documents, there are associated Notes, which appear in a side drawer and are divided into those on individual Documents and Notes on the Project as a whole.

Some interesting features include one-click document versioning, pages/words/character goal tracking, status (new, rough, second, final), and some sort of external (and possibly internal) linking capability I didn’t delve into too far.

One “feature” that is very strange is that available fonts are only those families with bold, italic, and underline versions available.

All and all, its execution seems okay, though it seems to me you can get the same effect — while using whatever fonts you want — via the filesystem and your favorite text editor. It is, however, inspirational to do exactly that.