writing tools

[Isabelnewth]

Hallo, I'd welcome any opinions from people who know....I am quite ignorant re computers, and my old one has finally pegged it in an unfortunate incident with a glass of wine. I don't want to spend much, and I was wondering about a Samsung Chromebook which seems to get good reviews.

But does this type of thing work well for a writer: can you access Word easily, and can you create Plain Text documents, which one of the customers insists on?

I understand that you have to store things in the Cloud, which I would get used to I suppose. It's just the word processing I am wondering about. Thanks for any help.

Cheers.

[Lysis]

pegged it in an unfortunate incident with a glass of wine.

Oh, I think I love you!

Anyway, I don't think I would do a Chromebook as a main computer. Everything is in the cloud. I don't think that's good for a local user. Great for traveling though. I beta tested the original chromebook when it was first introduced. It's not like a typical laptop.

Dell has some cheap laptops, so you could look there.

[Isabelnewth]

Steady on, Lysis! But thanks for the reply. Do you know whether one can get to Word and Plain text to create documents on these things though? That's what I don't understand.

And by the way, I forgot to say, thanks for the tip ( I think it was you) about removing automatic para breaks in Word before copying and pasting submission extracts...I think you suggested it on another thread and it works a treat!

Cheers.

[Lysis]

Steady on, Lysis! But thanks for the reply. Do you know whether one can get to Word and Plain text to create documents on these things though? That's what I don't understand.

And by the way, I forgot to say, thanks for the tip ( I think it was you) about removing automatic para breaks in Word before copying and pasting submission extracts...I think you suggested it on another thread and it works a treat!

Cheers.

No problem. That always annoyed me too.

I only beta tested the first chromebook, and didn't use it much, because it was more for travel. It's more like a dumb terminal PC that does everything in the cloud. I had to install apps from the app store to write anything, and then you save the doc to the cloud. That's what I didn't like about it -- couldn't save things to the hard drive. I'm not sure if they changed it for the new ones. There must be some article out there that will tell you. For the first ones, everything was saved to the cloud, but I'm not sure if you could upload to another site like CC.

This article looks pretty good: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3121_7-575 ... work-done/

If you read it, you'll see that drive space is limited (they say one of the models has 320GB solid state drive in it). SSD is super fast, but 320GB is really low for storage space. But, if all you are doing is saving documents, then that's fine. He does say in his review:

Google Drive works best for simple text-based documents with minimal formatting. You can add images, tables, and other design elements, but these are not as full-featured as in Microsoft Office, and don't always translate as one might expect when exporting to a DOC file.

For the money, personally, I would go for a regular laptop or netbook. Netbooks are super light. Chromebook has everything in the cloud, so it's good for traveling, but my netbook travels well too.

[Isabelnewth]

Thanks very much Lysis, that's really helpful.

[cmcmahon66]

I compose in Google docs and have my main archive of writings and notes there and it is great when jumping in from different locations/computers via wireless connections b/c you can reach your stuff from anywhere and don't risk losing everything (or everything since last backup) if something goes wrong with the computer. But so far I have not found how to save a document as an .rtf inside of Google docs so when it is time to submit an article, I have to export from Google Drive to my desktop computer, which I then open in MS Office for a last look over before I upload it with the submission form.

Basically I find using Google Drive/Docs/"the cloud" very convenient for accessing and working from anywhere but I can't get by with it alone, which you pretty much would have to do with a Chromebook. If you are comfortable with a small amount of screen real estate (7-10inches) then I suggest getting a netbook, with an external keyboard if necessary to have a full size typing area (I find myself having to hunt and peck on the native keyboard due to size.). We have an early Acer which is fine for mobile working (writing in coffee shop etc) but I would get tired of it as a full time machine. It is manageable but not overly comfortable. I have a desktop computer with bells and whistles and I mainly use my iPad for watching video or reading ebooks. Doing those on a netbook would make me nuts pretty quickly.

If you do any media on your laptop (stream videos, graphic design, photo editing) best to go for a low end laptop with a reasonable screen size (12" minimum, 15-17" more practical and flexible). Watch for the black Friday/cyber Monday deals next month for some sweet mid range (500-700 dollar) laptops at low end and even netbook/Chromebook prices. The downside is, of course, everyone else going for them at the same time,

[Isabelnewth]

Thanks, C, that's very interesting. Having been warned off Netbooks by Lysis, I actually bought a cheapish Lenovo laptop which is mostly ok, but adjusting to windows 8 is now my headache!

Thanks again, cheers.