MakeUseOf Directory » writing

RhymeZone: Find Rhyming Words & Phrases

azim — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:05:30 +0000

RhymeZone is an easy-to-use rhyming dictionary. It lets you find rhyming words and phrases to use in poems, riddles, rap songs etc. Just type in a word and click on the “Go get it!” button to get a list of rhymes. The results can be sorted by a number of word syllables and letters.

Apart from rhymes, you can use the site to look up synonyms, antonyms, definitions, words with similar sounds, search the works of Shakespeare and more. If you plan to use the service primarily for one of those features there is an option to customize it for that functionality from the top-right corner.

Features:

Rhyming dictionary and thesaurus.
Find word rhymes and rhyming phrases, sort results by number of word syllables and letters.
Find synonyms, antonyms, definitions, words with similar sounds, search quotations and works of Shakespeare and more.
Customize the dictionary from the top-right corner.
Similar sites: WriteRhymes and Online Rhyming Dictionary.

Check out RhymeZone @ www.rhymezone.com

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RhymeZone: Find Rhyming Words & Phrases

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WriteBoard: A Collaborative Text Editor

abhijeet — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:35:14 +0000

WriteBoard is an online collaborative text editor which basically works like a text document to which everyone can contribute and edit text. You can also compare different versions of a document, roll back to a previous version and subscribe its RSS feed to track the updates.

WriteBoard was created by 37signals a company known for developing highly popular productivity and task manager apps like BaseCamp.

Getting started is easy, simply name your writeboard, add password & email and then click on the “Create the Whiteboard” button. Once the whiteboard is created you can easily invite others to contribute by forwarding them a URL.

Features

Collaborative text editor which lets you to collaborate on a text document online.
Compare different versions of the same document.
Easily roll back to a previous version.
Subscribe to RSS feed of the document to get notified of the changes.
Similar tools: EtherPad, XY WriteIt, Co-ment and ShowDocument.

Check out Writeboard @ www.writeboard.com (by Abhijeet from Appscrazy)

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WriteBoard: A Collaborative Text Editor

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Ayenotes: Free & Quick Note Taker

kaly — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:05:19 +0000

AyeNotes is a unique and quick note taker tool that allows users to write notes online using shorthand that expands to longhand. Users who are familiar with Textpander (Mac), ActiveWords (Windows), or autotext (BlackBerry) will understand the concept immediately.

By using AyeNotes’ shorthand to longhand text expansion, users can jot down commonly used phrases, templates, or strings quickly and in a standardized way online. The ability to make these expansions on the fly can also be customized to help users create documents in simple markup or assist the user in avoiding common typos that they are prone to. The possibilities are limitless.

AyeNotes uses a highly optimized interface that consists of only two main windows and virtually no images. Users can organize clips by context and also categorize notes by tags. When a user begins authoring a note in a particular context the clips available for that context along with the appropriate shorthand is displayed as the user starts typing the note. AyeNotes is not a rich-text note taking editor, but a fast, simple and universally accessible note taking platform.

Features:

Fast note taking tool for taking and storing notes online.
Expands pre-configured shorthand strings into longhand clips.
Configurable auto-save features prevents lost data.
Organize and find notes quickly using tags.
Download notes in Multi-Markdown format.
E-mail notes to other users.
Keystrokes (ctrl-s for save, ctrl-e for email, etc) for common tasks supported.
Unlimited note and clip storage.
Hover over clip and note titles to preview contents.
iPhone application coming soon.
Free and no limitations.
Similar Sites: Webnote and txtb.in.

Check out Ayenotes @ www.ayenotes.com

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Ayenotes: Free & Quick Note Taker

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CountOnIt: Count Words in PDF, Text, HTML, XML & CSV Files

kaly — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:03:01 +0000

CountOnIt is a free online word count app that lets you quickly count words in PDF, Text, HTML, XML and CSV files without even opening them. All you need to do is select/upload the file you want it to count and then click on “Count” button. The site then processes submitted file and gives you a quick overview including the word and character counts.

Features:

Count words in text, HTML, XML, CSV and PDF files.
Max. allowed file size is 1 MB.
Counts words, characters (with/without spaces), asian characters, non-asian words.
Free, no sign up.
Other online tool for counting words in documents is WordCountTool.

Check out CountOnIt @ felix-cat.com/tools/wordcount

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CountOnIt: Count Words in PDF, Text, HTML, XML & CSV Files

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Luminotes: Your Personal & Free Online Notebook

TehseenBaweja — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:33:52 +0000

Luminotes is a free online notebook application that allows you to collect and organize your thoughts online. It gives you a single platform to easily create, store, edit and share all your notes and ideas. No hassles like coding, publishing e.t.c. Just start typing and click save when you’re done. It also allows you to create links and attach files to your notes. Excellent for writing down ideas, writing a story or a novel, collecting recipes and a lot of other things.

Luminotes mainly focuses on simplicity but that doesn’t mean they don’t emphasize on portability. You can download your notebook as a standalone file or easily share it with your friends & family online.

Feature overview:

Easy to use online notebook.
Create multiple notes and link them to each other.
Attach images and other files to your notes.
Various word processing options like bullets and numbering.
Search within your entire notebook or a single note.
Invite your friends and share your notes with them.
Keep track of all the changes you make to your notes.
Get updates through RSS feeds.
Download your notebook as a standalone file.
Import notes from other software.
Similar tools: Springnote, ÜberNote and Notefish.

Check out Luminotes @ www.luminotes.com (Contributed by Tehseen Baweja from Ijaar.com)

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Luminotes: Your Personal & Free Online Notebook

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WordCountTool: Tool For Counting Words in Text

kaly — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:54:43 +0000

Looking for online application that can count words in text? Head to WordCountTool.com, it is a simple utility that can count and give you total number of words for any submitted text. Counting words is dead easy, simply copy’n paste text into provided field and click on “Submit” button.

Features

Online word count tool.
Simple and clean interface.
Free

Check out WordCountTool @ www.wordcounttool.com ( via matteodini.com)

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WordCountTool: Tool For Counting Words in Text

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Write or Die: Get Back To Writing!

kaly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:18:48 +0000

Here is an interesting text editor that can keep you on toes by constantly reminding you to get back to writing and finish the task you’re working on. You can customize the type of reminders from nice and gentle ones such as screen color change to more aggressive reminders in form of pop-up boxes and music alerts.

To get started, simply set your word count and time goal, then choose reminder type and click on “Write!”. Next it will open up basic text editor where you can start writing. When it doesnt’ detect any typing activity for a certain number of seconds it will start the reminder alert and not stop playing it until you get back to work.

For more info watch video below:

Features:

Get reminders when you stop writing.
Choose reminders types, from gentle ones to loud ones.
Simple and easy to use.
No sign-up or registration needed.

Check out Write or Die @ lab.drwicked.com/writeordie ( via downloadsquad.com )

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Write or Die: Get Back To Writing!

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WEbook: Online Book Publishing For Wannabe Authors

abhijeet — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:20:48 +0000

WEbook is a new website which aims to redefine the books publishing industry and claims to do the same for the industry as what American Idol did for the music industry. If you are a wannabe author who has the talent and the content but haven’t had a good luck with publishers, then you could go ahead and sign up with WEbook and submit your project for the feedback of the community.

According to the feedback, you could further refine your work and improve it. Finally, if you get great reviews and your project gets voted as one of the best then WEbook will publish your work in both print and electronic form.

As it mentions on its site – Be a part of the “WE” in “WEbook.” Achieve Your Lifelong Goal of Publishing A Book, with Plenty of Time to Revel in It. So go ahead and sign up if you think your writing needs attention.

Check out WEbook@www.webook.com [ via LifeHacker] ( Contributed by Abhijeet from Jeet Blog )

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WEbook: Online Book Publishing For Wannabe Authors

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WebSourceIt : Which of The Two Spellings is Right?

kaly — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:29:33 +0000

Not sure which of the two spellings is right ? Head to WebSourceIt. It is a web tool that lets you enter two different phrases/words and find out which one is more popular, measured by search engine popularity. Find out whether it’s priviledge or privilege? Away from or away of? etc.

Similarly, it can be used to choose between the right homophones (or homonyms). Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled and defined differently. For instance, using WebSourceIt you can check whether it’s more then or more than.

How does it work?

(1) Enter your words or phrases in to the provided fields and click “Enter”.
(2) WebSourceIt will then count the number of times the terms appear on the web.
(3) The higher the number, the higher chances of it being correct.

Features

Max phrase length: up to 5 words.
No sign up or registration needed.

Check out WebSourceIt @ www.websource.it

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WebSourceIt : Which of The Two Spellings is Right?

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MyTextFile: Minimalist Online Text Editor

kaly — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:49:31 +0000

Simple text editor to write and store your text notes and documents online. MyTextFile is build on top of Google App engine and thus can be accessed using your existing Google account. Some of noteworthy features include ability to switch to full screen mode, change background and text colors, auto-saving, and document versioning. So if you’re looking for a simple minimalist text editor with the capability to revert text documents to any earlier version give MyTextFile a try.

Features:

Create and store your text notes and documents online.
Sign-up using your existing Google account.
The max. allowed size for individual file is 256 KB.
Customize text size, text color, background color etc.
Switch between full screen and standard modes.
Auto-saves opened documents every 5 minutes.
Keeps a log of document changes and lets you revert the file to any earlier version.

Check out MyTextFile @ www.mytextfile.com (via www.labnol.org)

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MyTextFile: Minimalist Online Text Editor

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WriteRhymes : Find Word Rhymes

kaly — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:07:35 +0000

Great app for all the budding rap stars and poets out there. Next time you need to find a rhyme for some word try WriteRhymes. It is a simple website where you can lookup word rhymes. Works simple, just type in the word, hold down the “Alt” key and click on the word using your mouse cursor. Check the rhymes.

Features:

Quickly find rhymes for almost any word.
Save rhymes on your computer or print them out.
No registration needed.

Go to Write Rhymes @ www.writerhymes.com

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WriteRhymes : Find Word Rhymes

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OneWord: Improve Your Writing and Quick Thinking Ability

kaly — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:37:54 +0000

Fun little web app that can help you improve your writing and quick thinking ability. OneWord comes up with a word and you are required to write about it for entire minute. At the end of it you can see and evaluate what you have written. You may also check out OneWord archives and go through stuff written by other users on various topics.

Features:

Get a topic and try to write about it non-stop for entire sixty seconds.
Read stuff written by other users.
No sign-up required.

Check out OneWord @ www.oneword.com

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OneWord: Improve Your Writing and Quick Thinking Ability

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DarkCopy : Full-Screen Online Text Editor

kaly — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:12:09 +0000

DarkCopy is an excellent distraction-free online text editor. It comes with a pretty black screen that is easy on your eyes and your laptop battery. No need to sign-up, simply log on to the page, switch to full-screen mode and you’re good to go. When you’re done, download and save text to your hard drive.

Another, quite similar service is recently covered Writer. Writer gives pretty much the same feature set but also allows you to save documents online.

Features

Full-Screen Online Text Editor.
No extra buttons. No font settings. Nothing.
Option to switch between Full-screen and normal modes.
Downlaod and save final text as .txt file.

Check out DarkCopy @ www.darkcopy.com [via LifeHacker]

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DarkCopy : Full-Screen Online Text Editor

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Writer : Distraction-free Internet Typewriter

kaly — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:27:17 +0000

Writer is a simple online text editor for anyone looking for a distraction free tool to write something. It has a clean black background with full screen mode. Unlike MS Word it doesn’t have a huge feature gallery, but only the essential ones. As you type your text writer will automatically save the document every few minutes. It also saves the current file everytime you open a new document. Registration is not required, though if you do register you will be able to come back and retrieve the documents later.

Features:

Write text in distraction-free environment.
Option to switch to full-screen writing mode. Press F11.
Automatically saves text every few minutes.
Text preferences: Customize text color, font type and line spacing.
Download and save documents as .txt file.
Share text documents with others or keep them private.
Other features: word count, email text to friend, print etc.

Check out Writer @ writer.bighugelabs.com

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Writer : Distraction-free Internet Typewriter

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MonkeyTex : Online LaTex Editor

Aibek — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:55:59 +0000

MonkeyTeX is a free fully functional online LaTex editor. Using MonkeyTeX, you can typeset, view and collaborate on TeX or LaTeX documents just as you would on your personal computer. There is nothing to install or download.

Feature List

Create, Upload, Store and Manage TeX/LaTeX files in your MonkeyTex account box.
Save documents in ‘.tex’, ‘.bib’, or ‘.sty’ formats.
Preview, download and save documents as PDF.
Collaborate on documents with colleagues, friends, etc.
Toolbar options: spell check, search within the document, undo / redo functions, and more.
User provided shortcuts for quicker navigation.
Create and save document template files.

Check out MonkeyTex www.monkeytex.com

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Rst2a: Create Plain Text Documents

kaly — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:10:30 +0000

Rst2a is an online application that allows you to create easy-to-read documents in plain text format. Rst2a keeps document content and the style/formatting of content separate. This enables anyone to easily change the look, style and format of the document after it has been created.

rst2a Features:

Create documents in plain text format. Access, Edit and View documents on any computer.
Upload and edit existing documents. Supports .HTML and .PDF formats.
Choose between various document styling options (style as report, book, article, etc.). Different styling options both for PDF and HTML documents.
Add custom styles and templates to your document.
Integrated spell and syntax check tools.
Preview created documents. Download and save documents as PDF or HTML files.
Option to Download document style file (If it’s not clear than don’t worry about it).
Try rst2a here (no registration required).

Visit rst2a [www.rst2a.com]

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Rst2a: Create Plain Text Documents

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SpellJax : Online Spell Checker

Aibek — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:48:31 +0000

SpellJax is a multi-lingual online spell checker. Just copy and paste onto it a piece of text and it will automatically highlight all misspelled words. Supports following languages: English, German, Danish, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Suomi, and Swedish,

Check out SpellJax @ (www.spelljax.com)

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SpellJax : Online Spell Checker

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