Nimble · 12:43am Jan 24th, 2016

Once upon a time, I did my writing with Microsoft Word.

Y'know, that really bloated, kind of eye-straining (mitigated by changing the program's theme), incredibly expensive thing that, while feature-packed, isn't all that practical if you aren't even using the majority of its features? Yeah, that one. I began to find that opening Word had inserted itself somewhere into the writing process somewhere before "type gibberish to remember how to keyboard" and was rather problematic, since I just plain didn't want to do it.

Plus, finding a totally legit* copy of it when I got my new laptop was not fun. Nor was transferring the document files back and forth between devices.

So, one day, whilst I was doing anything but writing, I decided to go craft some FTL badges on Steam, because I really like FTL. Valve showed its uncanny knack for guessing my interests that day, rewarding my spontaneous card-collecting with a 75% discount coupon for... Nimble Writer?

It took a moment to set in.

Previously, this "surprise discount coupon" behavior had bestowed upon me Frozen Synapse, one of my favorite strategy games of all time, despite its low playtime on my Steam profile. (None of my friends want to fight me.)

This time, it seemed to be listening in directly upon my chat logs, thinking "ohohoh? This guy is a writer, you say? WELL, I SUPPOSE I SHOULD POINT HIM IN THE CORRECT DIRECTION!"

The screenshots of its lovely, comfortable user interface were almost enough to sell me already, before I had moved down into the feature list. Needless to say, I gathered up what little funds I needed and bought it then and there.

Never again, Microsoft. Word is dead to me.

A quick rundown on Nimble's features:

-User customization
-Chapter index
-Notes
-NOTES
-YOU WANT NOTES? WE GOT NOTES.
-THERE'S A WHOLE SECTION OF NOTES JUST FOR CHARACTER SHEETS
-Plugin support; comes with name generator and wikitionary
-Import from external files
-Export to a wide range of file types (including .docx, for your Microsoft-laden friends)
-Live statistics tracking
-Cloud storage
-Encryption-locked files
-Achievements

Yes, you heard correctly, a word processor with achievements. 17, in fact, with three inspired directly by Stephen King.

If this doesn't kill my procrastination with a sharpened pencil, nothing will.

My solitary gripe is the lack of in-line spellcheck. Considering the program does still have a spell-checker in it, this is basically nitpicking. At least I don't have to worry about red squiggles highlighting character names and "unknown" words.

In other news, I didn't know how page breaks work on this site yet, until exactly this point in the blog.

Smart horse is smart.

*validity of the statement "legit" may be argued