I mentioned on Twitter recently that I’m a big fan of the note-taking software, Evernote, and said I use it extensively when planning my books. I soon got a reply from top author fella, Chris Priestley, who had never looked into Evernote before. We chatted for a bit and then off he went to download it to try it out for himself.
It got me thinking that maybe I use some other software that other writers aren’t aware or, or have never found time to try. And so concludes the largely unnecessary backstory for this post.
Over the next few days I’ll be revealing some of the apps and software I use regularly. I find them all helpful in one way or another, and so there’s a good chance you might get some use out of them, too.
Without further ado, then, let’s get to the first two.
1. Evernote
There are literally… um… many apps out there for note-taking, but Evernote is the mac daddy of them all. I first installed it on my iPhone about a year back, mucked about with it for a few minutes, then thought nothing more of it.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later when I was bored and sitting in my car outside a school (which isn’t as sinister as it sounds, honest) that I decided to play about with the app a bit more.
At its heart, Evernote is simply a bit of software that allows you to type notes and save them. That would be reasonably useful in and of itself, but it’s everything else Evernote does around that central concept that sets it apart.
Want to create folders for all your projects? No problem. I set up two folders in my Evernote – one called The 13th Horseman, and one called The Book of Doom. All my thoughts about each book went into their respective folders, keeping things nice and tidy.
But here’s where Evernote really shines, because as well as filing your notes you can tag them. Whenever I added a note about a character I tagged it with that character’s name. I did the same with locations. I also added the tags “characters” and “locations”. This meant with a single click I could bring up a list of my notes on my characters – descriptions, lines of dialogue, personality outlines, etc – with a single click, or I could choose one – War, say, and find notes on him from both The 13th Horseman folder and The Book of Doom.
Even this is just scratching the surface, though. Evernote also allows you to take audio notes (handy when an idea strikes while on the move) and insert photographs into your notes, too. It then lets you scribble on those photographs to add comments, circle important areas – whatever you like.
But this is where it gets REALLY good. Brace yourself.
If you’re anything like me you have a number of notebooks lying around, each with a few pages full of notes and ideas. They inevitably either A) clutter the place up completely or B) get lost. Well no more – Evernote lets you photograph those handwritten notes, and then thanks to the application of powerful magic by the company’s wizards (or something) those notes then become searchable just like normal text! Search for any of the words written in those notes and up comes the picture of your note alongside any typed notes you’ve made containing the search term.
And did I mention the whole thing syncs your phone, tablet, desktop, laptop – pretty much anything you like? It’s available for Android and iOS and if you only check out one entry on this list, make it this one.
2. Dropbox
Something else I’d struggle to cope without these days is Dropbox. Unlike Evernote, which is crammed full of great features, Dropbox really just does one thing, but it does it better than anyone else, in my opinion.
When you install Dropbox it creates a folder on your computer. Anything you put in that folder – photos, audio files, or in my case manuscripts – are automatically synchronised with the Dropbox server in the background. You just save it in the folder like you would any other, and quietly and without any fuss Dropbox will back it up.
If, like me, you work from a number of different devices, you can install Dropbox on all those, too. This means that if you save a file in the Dropbox folder on your desktop, it becomes available in the Dropbox folder on all your other devices, and vice versa. It means I never have to worry about losing files, and don’t have to faff about copying files to USB sticks to transfer between desktop and laptop.
Dropbox also keeps backups of files in case you accidentally delete them. If you somehow manage to save over your current Work in Progress with 200 pages of “All work and no play makes Barry a dull boy” have no fear, because Dropbox has kept every previous version you saved, and can restore it with a few clicks of a mouse.
There are other services similar to Dropbox – Skydrive from Microsoft and Google Drive being just two – but Dropbox managed to establish itself before these two came along, and as such it feels a bit more polished than the others. Lots of other apps and software now link in to Dropbox, too. For example, every photo I take on my Android phone is automatically backed up to my Dropbox account – handy if my phone ever gets lost or stolen.
Add in the fact you can share folders within your Dropbox with friends or colleagues – or even make them public – and you can see why I consider this another must-have bit of software. You can grab 2GB of storage space completely free, and earn up to 14GB more just by referring friends, so go get started now.
Come back tomorrow when I’ll be revealing two more pieces of software I’ve developed unhealthy attachments to.