Liquid Story Binder: First Look
NOTE: Yesterday I posted advance notice about the 66% discount offer for Liquid Story Binder, available on Tuesday only at Bits du Jour. Check my earlier post for links to the discount offer website. I downloaded a copy for advance evaluation. Here are my first thoughts.
At the current discounted price of $15.95, Liquid Story Binder may be a good buy for creative writers. For me, it’s a deal I cannot let pass; I’m buying it. It will, however, probably not appeal equally to business and technical writers.
Once downloaded, installation is quick and easy. Upon first launch, one is presented with a screen packed with perhaps too much information for a first-time visitor. A review of the elements on screen reveals little that is familiar. Drop-down menus, for example, offer unfamiliar titles and commands. The opening page presents a long list of program elements, the use of which is not immediately clear. Many potential users may flee in confusion, closing and deleting the program as too strange to put to use.
Such action would be a mistake. The program does merit exploration. There appears to be much to like.
Over the past two months or so, I’ve run several times into the phrase “writing environment.” I used to interpret this to refer to one’s physical setting of desk, chairs, lighting, noise and distraction control, proximity of various tools and references. I am now expanding that definition to include the environment within the computer itself. Liquid Story Binder is a superb example, as it puts right at hand dictionaries and a thesaurus, plays your favorite “writing mood” music, calls up your favorite photo editor and even your former word processor, and more.
Let me walk you through some of my first discoveries.
Once you’ve launched the program, read down the list on the black screen or the list of files on the white screen. Several items will jump out at you as unusual elements for a writing program. Click on the feature or file name to see examples. Work your way down through the entire list. You’ll perhaps be overwhelmed by all that is there. One can even include within the program “playlists” of your favorite music — Liquid will open your designated audio player and present you with your favorite writing background music.
To gain insight into the program’s inner workings, I recommend that you go next to the Help Documentation. You’ll find it in the drop-down menu under the ABOUT tab. I was startled when I could not find that tab anywhere, when I first went looking for it. On my laptop, even though the display was set to 780×1080 to display as much as possible, I discovered that the ABOUT tab had dropped down to a second row and was covered by one of the program’s opening windows. Once I found the Help Documentation, I began to feel more comfortable with the program. I won’t repeat what’s there, just read it yourself. [NOTE: As you move around, you might lose the opening screens. Click on the WORKSPACE tab and click on the Welcome file to restore the opening screen.]
There are some features, however, worth pointing out.
FIRST, THE WORD PROCESSOR:
The program’s word processing window features a black background. When cutting and pasting text from other sources, one needs to change text color from black to some other color — otherwise, you won’t see it. Initially, this is an annoyance, but writers will soon adjust. The background and font colors can be customized easily enough, if one prefers.
Writers can choose “full screen” mode and even tailor tool and scrollbar behavior, from minimal to enhanced. The result can yield a screen similar to the other minimalist word processors I’ve reviewed before. Alternatively, the screen can look very much like any standard word processor, though it lacks many of the format features of more powerful office word processing. [To exit the full screen view, right click the mouse to bring up a menu and choose your command accordingly. The more standard F1 key doesn’t perform the expected “exit.”]
Files are saved in RTF format, making them readable by almost any other word processor.
Writer’s can format a document for printing, without changing the format perferences in your original file. That makes it easy to change fonts, line spacing, paragraph indentation and such to suit the requirements of your intended reader. Separate chapters can be gathered together into a full book, all in one file.
The program will link with an external word process of your choice, allowing you to work on a document in Word, for instance, if the occasion demands. Some writers will thus find Liquid to serve as an enhancement to Word, using both for their writing. Just remember to save work in RTF format.
Writers can insert “notes” into their documents that will not show up when the document is printed out. That’s a handy feature.
MORE FEATURES:
Despite the wording on the program’s license, limiting installation to one person on one PC only, the Help file clearly states that the program can be installed on multiple computers, as long as they are for your own personal use. Thus, one can maintain the program on a desktop and laptop — or at the office and at home.
Moreover, the program can be run from a USB memory stick, meaning one can carry the program from computer to computer, ideal for roving writers who rely on internet cafes and hotel business centers.
The program allows writers to associate various files created within the program, making it easy to access associated notes, images, related materials. Apparently, the program does NOT allow associations with files outside of Liquid Story Binder.
One can create Project Goals, against which writers can measure their progress. This feature ties in with a particularly well-designed chapter statistics window. Personally, I really like this feature.
The program includes a special “Reader” function, making it easy to read your documents, chapters and books in a book-like format. Many writers will really like this feature — I sure do! I currently use a separate program [yReader] for this functionality.
One can easily analyze word use within a document, identifying words that are overused, for instance.
The program includes a 300,000-word spell checker. Writers can also easily integrate the free WordWeb Dictionary and Thesaurus into Liquid. That provides the writer an extremely useful tool only a click away. That puts essential reference tools immediately at hand.
Incorporated in the program is a basic outliner, following the traditional collapsible tree-hierarchy structure.
While I have not checked this feature in practice, it appears that Liquid by defalut saves your work as “versions,” making it easy to roll back to a previous version if necessary. Personally, I think this feature alone makes this program attractive.
Integrated into the program is a voice recording feature. Read a part of your work and listen to it to spot problems with pace and rhythm. While obviously useful for speeches, this feature will also appeal to writers concerned about the flow of their work.
Timelines: I have not tested this, but the feature promises that writers can organize their stories into colored timelines and index cards. Over the past couple of years, I’ve bought or tested at least five commercial programs that offer this facility. With Liquid, you get it as an integral feature. To see a sample, just click on the Timeline file on the opening screens.
CONCLUSION:
Frankly, I’m astonished by the apparent power of this program. I’ll be playing with it a lot more to dig further down into these features. In the meantime, I recommend that readers of this blog, especially the creative writers and poets among you, to download it and take a look. If you are intrigued, you must buy it on Tuesday to avail of the big discount. At the discounted price, I just don’t think you can go wrong. You’ll find the discount homepage HERE.
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Not being a novelist myself, I’ve not gotten around to fully evaluating the software 
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