Copywriting research and swipe file software

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I am working on a software program for my own copywriting needs and I was wondering if anyone had any feature suggestions and, quite frankly, if there was any interest from other users which would make it worthwhile to polishing it into an actual product (I plan on using it myself regardless)?

Right now the program has the following features:

Overall:
1) Spell check and Thesaurus in all text entry areas
2) Basic word processing functions (it is not meant to be a full featured word processor, think something between Notepad and Wordpad)/

Swipe File:
1) Ability to organize entries by type (i.e. headlines) and enter a custom description
2) Type or copy-n-paste swipe file entries from documents and the web (no way to do 'paper' import at this time)

Research:
1) The ability to categorize notes into different pre-writing research types (i.e. Competitive Product Weaknesses, Customer Fears)

Final Copy:
1) A place to type the final copy, with easy access to both the Swipe file and Research items.

Thx
#copywriting #copywriting #file #research #software #swipe
  • Hi,

    You can take a look at a program that came out a few years ago called Scribe Juice. Maybe it will give you some additional feature ideas.

    Personally, I found it harder to use than the tools I already familiar with (Word & Dreamweaver)

    Hope that helps,

    Mike
  • I would suggest looking at products like InfoSelect, Rough Draft, and Keynote first.

    Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. Which wouldn't be bad, if anyone researched wheels first.
    • [1] reply
    • Speaking of research, you may want to head over to download.com and search with the keyword "archive".

      Now, you will get back-up software and such, but there is website and webpage archive software out there that's pretty good.

      - Rick
  • I started (then stopped) using this to organize my swipe file...

    TaggedFrog - Free file tagging and document tagging application - Lunar Frog Software

    One big drawback, if you tag a file and then move it to another folder, the tags no longer work. So it's actually not ideal at all, unless you don't see that being a problem.

    I imagine that's going to be the case with all downloadable software.

    Apparently you can edit PDF (format most my swipes are in) files "notes" with this...

    Quick PDF Tools — Preview PDF files, edit PDF properties, PDF security, merge PDF files and much more.

    ...So then a quick windows search would do the trick. Couldn't get this working for me though, with Windows 7.

    LASTLY, try this if you're on Vista...

    Windows Vista Tip: How To Tag Files For Searching

    I'd be surprised if you could do this with a file you've not created though (i.e. downloaded from Makpeace swipe of the week or whatever). But I haven't tried, so worth a shot.

    Colm
  • Yeah I recommend looking at Scribb Juice too. Great idea but just headche to use.

    The big thing I would recommend is making it simple. Simple works.

    Personally what I would be looking for is:

    - Has an extensive library of Swipes from headlines to action verbs
    - A full Thesaurus for the creative writer (look at Verse Perfect)
    - Something I could use to keep my own library of swipe files
    - The ability to add to or create custom Swipe/ Lists
    - Something that easily integrate with my favorite web editors.
    - Templates for various media (postcards, squeeze pages, etc)
    and the ability to create my own on the fly

    And that's just off the top of my head....

    You would be competing with extensive library of tools:

    Excel sheet and Word Processor...so simplicity is the key.
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    Copywriting research and swipe file software

    I am working on a software program for my own copywriting needs and I was wondering if anyone had any feature suggestions and, quite frankly, if there was any interest from other users which would make it worthwhile to polishing it into an actual product (I plan on using it myself regardless)? Right now the program has the following features: