Writing is an important part of any job, particularly if you use social media, where communication style and language are integral to maintaining a consistent voice. However, there are times when a writing project arises which is longer than 140 characters or the average Facebook post. And if you are tired of looking at Microsoft Word’s clunky interface, trying some new tools may help get your creative juices flowing.
Workflowy is a spiffy new organization tool that is great for to-do lists, and even incorporates tagging assigning various items to different people. But at its very basic function, it’s a SUPER outline tool. You can delve into unlimited levels (okay, there be a limit somewhere, but I’d be surprised if anyone reached it), and Workflowy expands or collapses your view depending on where you are within the hierarchy. This can be really helpful in writing, if you have an overview content outline and want to be able to go in and add content to various parts of your project, and then be able back up or “zoom out” and look at the overall outline without seeing sublevel content, and then zoom back in again. It makes it more fun and easy to craft a full piece, by focusing on the current element, and hiding the rest until you need to see it. If you were to do this same thing with Microsoft Word, you’d end up indented past the left margin of the page, and get buried in xviiis!
Iceber.gs is an inspiration tool that is a bit like Pinterest’s visual interface merged with some of Evernote’s privacy. Like Pinterest, you can create separate boards for various projects, where you can bookmark a web page, add a note, or upload a document. This is great if you want to use various sources around the web as research or inspiration for your piece. Why not just use Pinterest? Pinterest limits you to a maximum of three secret boards, and you can’t upload documents or add text-only notes to Pinterest (you must use images). Why not just use Evernote? Iceber.gs is a snazzier web interface than Evernote’s web-based service, although if you’re an Evernote user already and have Evernote installed to your computer, it can work the same way, although you may need to be a premium (paid) user to upload larger documents. (Note: at the time this article was written, Iceber.gs was still in “request an invite” mode, but signing up should get your account approved within a day or two.)
What sorts of tools do you use in your writing projects? Please share them with us! We’re always on the lookout for cool new tools, and we hope you’ve found a couple new tools here today!
