It pays to be flexible. Clients often have many more needs than just pure writing - they might want to know how to work the content into their site in the most profitable fashion, they may need their site SEO, they might need photos with their content. The list goes on but the principle is simple - give your clients as close to a one stop shop as possible.
This means that you shouldn’t stop at just a word processor for your freelance writing toolbox. Here’s a list of some of the software I use on a regular basis (and what it’s good for!).
Word Processors
Open Office - Forget spending a ton on Microsoft Office. Open Office can read and write all the formats you need. This isn’t just a word processor - it’s a complete office suite.
Jarte - Although I love Open Office to death, it can be slow at times. It also has a bit of a memory leak, although I’m not sure if I should blame that one on Windows or the software. When I need a fast, low resource word processor I load up Jarte. It has basic word processing features (including spell check and word/character count) and takes up a minimal amount of system memory.
Blogging Tools
Microsoft Live Writer (Beta) - This is a standalone remote blogging software. This is a godsend when I need to post to multiple blogs. It’s also remarkably bug free for a Microsoft product. You can read more about my experiences with the software right here.
Performancing - Brought to you by the Mozilla team, Performancing is a Firefox/Mozilla plugin that allows you to remotely post to your blogs. It shows up inline with your browser window (as opposed to Live Writer) but I couldn’t get into this one as much (although I sorely wanted to). My main hang up with Performancing is the poor image handling, although I believe it to be superior to Live Writer as far as pure posting goes.
Unfortunately, on the majority of the blogs I work with (both clients and personal), I need basic image markup. I don’t want to have to go in and hand code images. You can read more about my experiences with Performancing if you’d like.
Graphics
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0 - I don’t do enough graphic design work to require the functionality of Photoshop. Serif Photoplus does exactly what I need - extremely basic editing and creation. All of their software is free for a quick registration. I linked the main page as there are several other interesting types of software that they offer.
FastStone Image Resizer - One thing that I do end up needing in many personal and client projects is a bulk image resizer. FastStone offers a nice little piece of freeware for the job - the thumbnails are pretty well done and it processes requests very fast.
Web Coding/Designing
HTML-Kit - Unless you have a full time web coder/designer on staff, you are going to end up needing to take a look at some HTML code. You do not want to run the code through any type of word processor. Many times they insert junk code that will completely ruin the functionality of the site. So you need to use a specialized editor (or notepad/notepad replacements). I’ve used HTML-Kit for several years now and it’s never failed me.
Aptana - Ever encounter CSS and need a great piece of software to help you edit it? Aptana is a complete godsend in that case. I don’t know how I managed to miss this lovely program before - I saw it mentioned on one of the designing blogs I read and I just had to go get it. It’s amazing for working with CSS and has Javascript and HTML editing functionality as well.
Color Scheme Generator - Have a hard time picking out color combinations? This web tool will help you out in a variety of
Productivity
Agenda at Once - Oh how I love Agenda at Once. I spent a long time looking for a project/time management software. Some had too many features, some had too little - AAO is jussssst right. A few of the features that made me fall in love with this software:
- To Do List that can also be scheduled in your caldendar. You can add priority arrows to the list as well as specifying the type of project it is. I have mine set up as new client, repeat client, personal project, etc. You can also indicate partial completion on the projects. You have unlimited space (as far as I can tell) for project details so I throw in pastes of all relevant emails and chat discussions into the entry.
- A Quick Notes feature that I don’t know how I lived without. Forget sticky notes, scribbling, and a mess on the desk - I can put all my short notes and messages right in here.
- Autosaving - I minimize and it autosaves all my projects, quick notes, and scheduling information. Very handy.
- Easy to use interface - Far too many programs nowadays forget what it’s like to be a newbie user. Agenda at Once is easy to pick up and get started with right away.
They offer a 15 day trial with no limitations. After that you pay $30 to play - it’s well worth it.
Feedreader - My bookmarks were out of control and I was visiting a ton of websites daily to see whether they were updated or not. Many of them offered RSS feeds but I hadn’t seen the aggregator light yet. That changed when I decided to download Feedreader. Work, play, or research - I now run all sites with RSS feeds through the aggregator so I know when the sites are updated. It’s a great piece of free software.