Software Suggestions

The standard for document creation in business and education is Microsoft Word. In the United States, companies and government agencies expect documents in Word’s “.docx” file format. However, European Union nations have been adopting the Open Document Text Format (“.odt”) of The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice suite. You should verify the format desired by any school, company, or agency and provide data accordingly.

Commercial Software

The following commercial software vendors provide the most popular tools used by academic authors, business writers, and technical communicators.

• Microsoft: The Office Suite is the standard for documents in business settings and academia.
• Adobe: The Creative Suite dominates print, online, and multimedia content creation.
• Final Draft: Screenwriters and playwrights use Final Draft, the industry standard, even though many options exist.
• MadCap Software: The leading vendor of single source authoring and publishing tools.

Creative Writing Tools

The safe choices for writers are Word and Final Draft, but there are other tools for writing — dozens or even hundreds of writing tools continue to be developed and many writers cling to discontinued software they love. My personal recommendations for writers seeking alternatives include:

• Scrivener: The Swiss army knife for writers, Scrivener would take months or years to master because it does almost everything writers might need, from name generation to manuscript formatting. This is the writing tool I suggest above all others.
• Apple Pages: If you live in the Apple ecosystem, Pages works across the Apple iOS and macOS devices, alongside Numbers and Keynote.
• Screenwriter: Personally, I like Screenwriter better than Final Draft, but it isn’t as popular among screenwriters.
• Mellel: Many academics, especially those working with non-Latin languages and advanced mathematics, have come to appreciate the power of Mellel which works well with Bookends for citation management.

Academic Writing Tools

Academic presses now request Word documents, but the Word reference and citation manager lacks advanced features and often trails behind academic citation standards. For bibliographies, these options offer more power and flexibility and they work with Word:

• EndNote: The standard for academic bibliography databases, I used EndNote for many years before migrating to Bookends.
• Bookends: The best commercial bibliography database for the Mac platform.

Other Document Creation Tools

Though less common in general use, the following vendors provide software used within segments of business and technical communication.

• Corel: Within the legal profession, WordPerfect remains popular. CorelDRAW is popular in small print shops, sign making, and other fields because it can drive plotters and embroidery machines.
• Quark: Once a leader in the publishing industry, Quark now specializes in single-source authoring and content creation for the iPad and other tablet platforms.
• Just Systems / XMetaL: XML content authoring tools.
• SyncRO Soft: Developer of the <oXygen/> editor, which supports HTML, XML, and several other document standards.
• Author-It: Another single source specialist.

Choosing File Formats

Some people are tempted to provide simple documents in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). The nature of PDF rendering often results in large files with fonts and graphics embedded. Simple, text-based documents should be transmitted as PDF files only when requested. For complex layouts, PDF is the best output file choice.

For example, we had a student who prepared a résumé in Microsoft Word 2011 (OS X) with no graphics or special font choices. The Word file was a reasonable 146 kilobytes. The student, however, assumed a PDF should be submitted to employers. “Save as PDF” generated a 56 megabyte PDF file. After repeatedly attempting to upload the PDF, the student read an onscreen warning that the personnel system limited uploads to 2 megabytes. The applicant checked the file sizes and was able to upload the Word file.

Open Source Software (Free)

There are some open source applications that are used primarily in research and academic settings.

Reference Tools

• Zotero: An online tool for creating bibliography databases, with both free and subscription versions.
• JabRef: My preferred free bibliography database tool, based on open standards and well-integrated with LaTeX/TeX publishing tools. I encourage students to try JabRef.

Office Suites and Related

• LibreOffice: An independent version of OpenOffice, now more popular than the original suite.
• OpenOffice: Word processing, spreadsheets, and more. Similar to Microsoft Office.

Though not included with Office, Microsoft Project dominates project management and resource planning. There are several good free alternatives to Project.

• ProjectLibre: The most feature-complete Microsoft Project alternative.
• GanttProject: A good Project altnernative, but a .
• OpenWorkbench: Windows-only project management system.

Desktop Publishing and Graphics

• Scribus: Desktop publishing application. Similar to Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, and CorelDRAW.
• GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program. Similar to Adobe Photoshop.

Text Editors

Text editors manipulate “plain” ASCII or Unicode files without formatting. All operating systems include at least one simple text editor, and often several are included. The two best known text editors are emacs and vi, which are popular among programmers. There are dozens of good free text editors, but the best might be:

• jEdit: Java-based editor for multiple content formats and programming languages.

E-Book (ePub) Creation Tools

• Calibre: ePub management, conversion, and creation tool that supports current standards and most eReaders. ePub is a specialized XML format.
• Sigil: A great and easy-to-use editor for ePub texts.

HTML/CSS and XML Tools

• Amaya: HTML editor, the standard tool of the World Wide Web Consortium. Similar to DreamWeaver.

Scientific Publishing

For academic and scientific documents, the preferred tools remain TeX-based output generators. The TeX User Group recommends distributions that include all tools ncessary to create LaTeX documents, including specialized editors.

• LaTeX (TeX): Specialized markup language, used within the sciences. Nothing is similar to or equal to what LaTeX can do with math-intensive papers.
• TeX User Group recommend distributions:
  • TeX Live for Unix/GNU/Linux, OS X, and Windows.
  • MacTeX for Mac OS X, based on TeX Live.
  • proTeXt for Windows.
• Specialized TeX editors:
  • LyX: Somewhat WYSIWYG editor for LaTeX documents, cross-platform.
  • TeXniCenter: Outstanding Windows-only open source TeX editor.
  • Texmaker: Popular and cross-platform.
  • TeXstudio: Another alternative TeX editor.

The free tools for TeX document creation suffice for most users. For a few dollars, Mac OS X users might consider TeXpad. If you use Windows and have an unlimited budget, Scientific Word is a $495 application for editing LaTeX documents. Many TeX users prefer to compose in general-purpose text editors.