From MediaShift comes a roundup titled “The Top 5 Apps for Authors.” Such things are inherently subjective; of the five mentioned (bit.ly, Feedly, Scrivener, Tweetdeck/Hootsuite and Tweetwall) there is only one I personally use. And of course, there are apps I use often that this article fails to mention…
So, what apps would I recommend? Here is my list of top five apps.
1. Evernote
I use Evernote to clip articles and quotes from books, plan projects, keep lists and notes, back up a few apps I use that connect to it, and in general just keep handy stuff I want to reference often. Check out Teleread’s series on Evernote for more on how I use this wonderful cross-platform app.
2. Google Drive
I keep nearly all of my documents in Google Drive. I can access them at home, from work, from my iPad, and so on. Everything stays syncced and backed up. This is where I do my longer-form writing, and I often use spreadsheet templates to manage and organize bigger projects. The iPad version even allows you to cache a file for off-line viewing now. This is another essential for me.
3. Dropbox
I keep a few vital folders in Dropbox: the ‘My Documents’ folder on my computer, my iTunes library and my Calibre library among them. This means that if I ever need to access something important on the go, I can use the Dropbox app to get it right away. It has filters built on for quickly reading a variety of formats, or you can send a file to other apps, such as iBooks, with one tap.
4. MagicalPad
This is an iOS app for outlining and mind-mapping. I love his visual it is. Every component is a moveable box. You can drag and drop things as needed to get it just right, and mix different elements into one file. You can also export as a PDF and send to Dropbox and Evernote.
5. Wikipanion
This is an app for reading Wikipedia in iOS devices. I know, you can do that from a Web browser too. But I access Wikipedia often enough that I like having an app that makes it look pretty on the screen.
So there you have it! Any great apps I missed? What would you say is a must-have app for the writers in your world?
SCRIVENER. SCRIVENER. SCRIVENER.