What is Reddit's opinion of The Guide?

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I use a free software called The Guide (http://theguide.sourceforge.net/) it is a tree structure organizer combined with a notepad, it allows you to add inside links turning it into a simplified offline wiki.

The actual organization for my files really depends on the world itself. I found that a great way to organize things is to make a mind map, you put all the topics you have where you can see them (you can do this with cut paper strips, or in your pc in a software like inkscape or something) and start organizing them into a mind map, at first its gonna be a mess, but after some time messing with it you'll find your own order.

After that it's just a matter of using your newfound order with whatever software or tool you use, like I said, I personally prefer The Guide because it allows me to keep the mind map structure inctact

EDIT: Here's an example of the mind map, it's in spanish but I hope you can get the basic idea

Long version: http://i.imgur.com/glDYPFq.png

Short version: http://i.imgur.com/UAGFZYq.png

I have varying tools. My most common is to just get a bunch of word documents and jot down what's in my head in various set categories.

I discovered one tool a while ago that's interesting called The Guide. It functions like a wiki but on your desktop, and it saves files in RTF, so you have a lot of the functionality you'd want on your average word processor put into something that can organize pages for you like an actual wiki does. It's been a very helpful tool for when I write up stuff for D&D. I recommend giving it a try.

Any hierarchical text program (or site) should work fine for those who don't like to work in a single long document, and there's plenty of free ones. /r/worldbuilding has a ton of writing and organizational resources listed here, in case anyone finds it useful.

My personal favorite for Windows is The Guide -- it's old and missing a few features that have since become standard, but it's very easy to use. I can write my books and organize my world in the same document + navigate it 100% without a mouse.

(I'm working on a modern Java remake of it that should fill in those missing features and simplify web export, but the original is more than enough for most purposes. The only downside for NaNo is that you'll have to count your words separately.)

Edit: for those who need to convert to epub as well, check out Sigil.

I use MediaWiki (same as Wikipedia), if you use Categories to keep track of everything it works well. Otherwise I used to use The Guide, which also works quite well, but you can't put pictures directly into it.

I use The Guide.

It resembles a wiki, with support to images, hyperlinks, formatting, etc. And focus on a hierarchical, tree-like structure. With the hyperlinks, it's easy to manage my pet-peeves of organization: double-referencing (having double entries in different places, for example. You just link them together).

Edit: While not an online resource, I keep everything in dropbox, so I can access it from any device.

If you want something simple and easy to use then I highly recommend The Guide (http://theguide.sourceforge.net/). It's free and offline (to me that's a good thing, but I know it can be a negative to some).

Then there is this excellent reddit post about organizing worldbuilding: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/6k8fi6/the_how_do_i_organise_my_worldbuilding_masterpost/

It has a lot of programs and tips and tricks, it's a good starting point and a light read.

Spreadsheets can work well for organizing some data, a good way to use it can be found in this video by Matt Colville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9capmKmysAE

Mix and match and pick what you prefer. This is one of those things you can only really figure out as you go along and keep in mind that the same goes for playing. You can only learn so much about prepping from prepping - make sure not to let prepping keep you from playing; a large part of learning what is important to prep and figure out comes from playing.

I use The Guide, which lets me make a real nifty tree of unique items and documents. You can upload as many lines of text and images as your heart desires.

Source is here: http://theguide.sourceforge.net/

here's an example of what it looks like.

http://i.imgur.com/9yxnwyZ.png

Sure. I use The Guide. It's unfortunately no longer being developed but I've had no issues thus far. Just stay away from the "portable" mode, as that can cause problems. Other than that, The Guide is a really great, simple program. It even has autosaves and automatic backups.

I used to use Zim Desktop Wiki, and Outwiker, both of which caused data loss/big issues, so I'd stay away from those.

I am currently using MediaWiki (same wiki as Wikipedia), but for a long time I used The Guide, which worked out well for me, I just wanted an online solution so I switched.

I've found that The Guide has been useful for me for organizing stuff. Otherwise I use a wiki like Shoutwiki when I'm ready to post something public, or Wordpress if I'm going to make something cool like a web serial or something.

But yeah, The Guide's basically a 'desktop wiki' which you can use to organize your online notes. It saves individual pages as an RTF file (so you have some better organization abilities) but it also saves the whole document on one of its own unique files. It's a fairly decent program, I recommend checking it out if you otherwise are tired of just saving your notes on individual word documents in a folder you rarely ever visit.

I've always had concerns about web platforms and ownership, but their ToS doesn't look that bad. So far I've used an old software called The Guide and its age is really starting to show and wear on me. Seriously considering porting over my work.

So, what's you favorite and least favorite features of World Anvil?

(It really doesn't look like there's anything it's bad at, but I thought I'd at least ask)

I use The Guide to organize my world. Unfortunately development was stopped ~11 years ago, but it still is the best personal offline wiki I've ever used. I would stay away from the portable mode if you gave it a try. Other offline wikis I've tried have had technical issues, and online wikis can sometimes erase your data. I make regular local backups of my wiki, and there's 100 automatic backups on Google's servers.

That being said, with any wiki (I've used several) I would make a page for an overview of the project, a todo list, and then try to make very broad categories (like environments, society, factions, etc). As you start to build more of your world, you can expand upon these basic categories and make subpages. That's how I go about things; starting with the general pages and getting more specific as things develop.

Before I heard about OneNote (or found it in my Office package) I used a program called TheGuide to organize everything. It’s a little barebones and better for behind-the-scenes work, but it shouldn’t have any network dependency.

I'm currently using the Guide from http://theguide.sourceforge.net

This is my third wiki, as the past two eventually developed major issues. The Guide is very simple and even though its old software it works great. The only thing to watch out for is the Portable mode, as that can cause some issues. I'd just avoid the portable mode altogether if you use The Guide.

I use a program called "The Guide". I backup to a dropbox account that I just use for worldbuilding.

In the program organise by having one page for something, let's say a race. Then I make underpages for the race, with factions, religions, etc. Then I can make underpages for that again. A screenshot from the guide's website.I can also later make a page for factions then link between. Sadly you can't have pictures, but you can hyperlink.

So I have folders in the dropbox for pictures, also text documents with links to wikis, inspiration or other useful stuff.

EDIT: Someone else mentioned Zim, it looks like guide just better.

Someone on this sub recommended The Guide a while ago. Personally I think it's easier to work with than a wiki page, which I used before, but that's just me (I tended to "lose" pages that had few connections to them from other pages, but maybe I'm just bad at organizing).

I have the file stored on OneDrive, so if my computer goes, at least the world doesn't go.

There is a program called The Guide which is excellent at categorising information in folder trees. You can also hyperlink words to other folders, just like an offline Wikipedia. I highly recommend it.

http://theguide.sourceforge.net/download.html

I use The Guide

It hasn't been updated since 2008 and the formatting options is just a teensy bit broken, but it's easier to use than wikis in my opinion and not half bad. It can also be installed on a USB for worldbuilding on any computer.

So right now I'm working on a project called "Antithesis RPG".

It's main feature is the use of eight "Affinities", which are number lines with opposite traits at each end. If you choose D12 for one end, you get D4 for the other, or it can be D10 and D6,and lastly just d8 for both. They can be changed, if the character's personality shifts to fit said change, but they cannot be made strictly better. Their are eight of these, and they cover most of the interactions you'll find in my setting (A Shadowrun-inspired fantasy/cyberpunk world). Because of some of the Affinities, characters do not have a charisma stat.

Besides that, the world has some ancient titans (One is a walking city, one spends its life terraforming, one is a huge bridge that shifts in a way that makes it impossible to cross), a long with other fantastical creatures. I am currently working on Big Game Hunt creatures (Like Monster Hunter or Borderlands size).

The magic system goes by eight generic elements, and the four forms of magic (Creation, Destruction, Alteration, and Restoration). Elements are tied stronger to some forms then they are to others. Getting particular spells is kinda cool, too. If you want a level four Dark Alteration spell, you can either get level two in Dark and Alteration, or level one in one and level three in the other. It costs a bit more to level up forms than elements, though.

Aaand that's about it. Right now, I'm diverting my focus to monsters and the plethora of energy weapons available. Also, im planning the whole thing in The Guide.

I like to use The Guide. It's basically a tree diagram. I prefer it to a wiki because I like to have that sideways visibility (that is, I can see the titles of a whole tree of articles while looking at the one I'm working on), but it doesn't have the ability to link to another page in the same way a wiki would, which makes it harder to keep track of the interactions between articles.

If you want a nice sidebar with tree hierarchy, go with The Guide. There's also yWriter, which has a lot more features. You can also get your sidebar set up with Microsoft Word by using the Navigation Pane (also called Doucment Map on older versions, I believe).