Software for Writers: A Roundup of My Favorite Tools for My Mac

I am always looking for and testing out software for writers, especially for Mac users. This article summarizes the gems that I have been able to find as well as use on an almost daily basis.

NovaMind Pro: This mind mapping tool helps me generate article and story ideas. While there are plenty of free mind mapping tools online, I find that NovaMind offers more creative flexibility when drawing my mind maps.

Market Samurai: I use this software to see if my article and website ideas are worth pursuing, both search-wise and financially. With Market Samurai, I'm able to perform a more thorough research for keywords than I was with the Google tool because MS pulls from several different resources.

Market Samurai offers more than keyword research. As a writer, I can perform in-depth market analysis about a book idea before I write a single word. That's why I ultimately decided to buy the program.

You can download a free 12-day trail of Market Samurai, but you'll have to give them your email before they send you the link.

DEVONagent: This research tool is a godsend for me because I can conduct deep research on topics and pull much more relevant results than I would from a typical Google search. The reason is because it uses both standard and specialized search engines. I'll conduct a more thorough review about DEVONagent in a future article because although I've been using this program for a while, I've barely scratched the surface.

NoteBook 3.0: After I gather all of my information from DEVONagent and Market Samurai, I put everything in NoteBook. This software simulates a physical notebook, allowing me to write notes, paste snippets of articles that I find online and their links, add images, outline story or article ideas, etc. You download your copy directly off the Circus Ponies website or purchase it offline at your local Fry's.

MacJournal: I use this for writing exercises, mostly. It makes a good blogging client, too.

Nisus Writer Pro: I have used this word processor for ten years to write my novels and articles. It handles long documents well, however I feel more comfortable separating each chapter into a separate document as a precaution against file corruption. Another reason is that I can import each chapter into InDesign, when I'm ready to self-publish my novels.

Pages: I have just started using this program to write my articles. The interface is simple. I appreciate the ability to export my articles in multiple formats, including .doc and .pdf.