The Essentials is a reoccurring column where I talk about what we (Paul and I) use to write, work and honestly, survive the work week.

Writing. Paul and I do this a lot, in the tens of thousands of words a week, which is not a surprise considering that what we do for a living is to provide opinion and factual reporting on the world of Microsoft and beyond. But when it comes to the tools we use, we differ on what applications we use to create the content you read on a daily basis.