An Unaffiliated, Genuine Recommendation for a Free Word Processor

If you haven't heard of write.ellipsus.com by now, let me put you onto something. This is not sponsored but a genuine review from a neurodivergent writer who hates a certain slop-producing technology and wants to distance it as far as possible from my writing.

Do you want a word processor that

• is free to use

• simple and elegant

• hidden from greedy slop machine eyes

• can organize similar to Scrivener or Obsidian

• has multi-device syncing and sharing like Google Docs

• also taught me more about word processors despite using Microsoft Word and its alternatives for 3 decades?

Ellipsus is your program. First, I love the organization; I start a document and I can open up new drafts under that document. I can organize all my writing notes, character sheets, ideation, all under my main draft.

this is an overview of all my projects. I like using obscure or made up words as code names if I haven't nailed down a title. pls excuse

I can write on my PC, my iPhone, and my iPad all interchangeably. I actually bought Scrivener on all different platforms (including Mac, when I had one) but even with it, I still had Dropbox syncing issues. It made it impossible to write on the go, which was necessary for me. With Ellipsus it's a website. write.ellipsus.com I add it to my iPad and iPhone's home screen and it opens like an app. It syncs almost instantaneously; if I write one word and close it, add a ghost space, anything - it is there when I switch devices.

an example of the organization; top file is the first draft/master. lower ones are subsequent drafts/other notes. 'unfortunate' is my username. A file like \"a.3-4.2\" is a \"second draft (.2) of two chapters (A.3 and A.4); I like Ellipsus because I can just open a new fresh doc and type away when I'm stuck.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but this learning curve has helped me understand word processors a bit more. You ever have issues where you use your TAB key to add an indentation, but other programs fuck all those indentations up? Yeah, that's because you're actually not really supposed to use the TAB key. TIL.

Another cool feature is that you can change your themes; they currently have 37 different color combinations to choose from, and custom themes for paying customers (I don't pay I'm broke AF).

https://preview.redd.it/n8z6o220rldh1.png?width=560&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab7ac6d007b4a558b891efe87d49ec646356b62b

How I've removed my work from the sight of slop machines was by pairing Ellipsus with Word 2007. Finding a free key was easy, it works perfect. Slop machines do not see my work AFAIK until I post it online for others, or upload it to Google Docs (though IIRC you might have an OS-based privacy invader that needs shut off; I opted out of any and all one drive/cortana/tracking features on my PC because fuck that noise).

So now my workflow is:

Handwriting/Typewriting for early drafts/ideation > further drafting and extensive ideation/outlining in Ellipsus > export to Word 2007/Docs for critique > back into Ellipsus with their notes for editing > Word 2007/Posted to public for final product.

Hope this helps y'all!