What program to use?

[moonmomma]

I have three writing programs on my computer: the Scrivener for Windows beta, PageFour, and Liquid Story Binder. (These combine organizational and planning tools with a word processor; they don't tell you what or how to write.) I've spent a ridiculous amount of time the last few days dithering over whether to use PageFour or Liquid Story Binder for Earthsinger, and switching back and forth between them. I think I've finally settled on Liquid Story Binder. PageFour is very clean and easy to use, but Liquid Story Binder, for all its free-formness and quirks, is so cool, and my favorite.

links:
PageFour: www.softwareforwriting.com/ The free trial isn't timed; it just limits the number of documents you can create.

Liquid Story Binder: www.blackobelisksoftware.com/ 30-day free trial, there's a summer sale going on right now.

Scrivener for Windows Beta: www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/ free test version of the Windows version of the beloved writing softward for Mac.

[moonmomma]

On the other hand:

Unlike Liquid Story Binder, all of PageFour's files are in .rtf, no special file types, which makes a whole project (notes and everything) more portable if, for example, you're going to be stuck for several days using an ancient Windows 98 laptop with only a working floppy drive and WordPad. oh, and Solitaire

LSB can be run off a USB thumb drive, so you can keep the whole thing (and all your folders, files, and data) on there and run it on any computer. That is, any computer that has a working USB port. This old laptop I'm going to be using does have a USB port - I think USB was brand-new at the time - but Windows 98 wants you to run an installation CD when you plug something into it, and this machine doesn't have a working CD drive.