While I do agree with the need for backups (I generally run 3: external hard-drive, flash drive and DVD), most of my writing is done with a Cross fountain pen and a spiral notebook. I transcribe every other day or so, print off the new pages and add ‘em the pile.

You want to see some what happens when the chicken’s bones and goat’s blood come off the fire and are cast onto parchment? Take a look in my notebooks! Don’t even try to imagine I can go more than a day or two without transcribing. Sometimes I can’t make out what the words are supposed to be from one paragraph to the next. Electronic backup can be the least of my worries. What I want is the rosetta stone for reading my own handwriting.

JESUS CHRIST DO THEY EVER

But I suspect Open Office is possessed by the ghost of a sociopathic Network Systems Administrator, because every time I’ve used to to try to convert back, it seems to only work when I don’t need it to. And you should SEE some of the demonic prophecy that comes out in glitchy text after switching back and forth. It’s like opening a window to a madness dimension. Which can be fun, now and then.

2. Open Office is hit or miss, in my experience. The search function is inferior to Office, always spitting you out wherever you searched to instead of where you started (not such a big deal with a 2,000 word short story, but a huge pain in the ass with a hundred-thousand-word novel). Also, it runs dog slow compared to Office (at least on my current hardware, a PIII 650mhz laptop). I’ve also encountered some other weirdities that have soured me to it. Maybe it’s just me, though. I attract weird.