Bad Language » Writing tools

Tools for writing: How to upgrade your PC

Matthew Stibbe — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 08:42:08 +0000

Four years ago I bought a fantastic near-silent Chillblast PC in my quest for a quiet writing room. However, the technology in it is getting out of date and it was time to consider an upgrade.

I looked seriously at buying an HP workstation and an Apple Pro but the price would have been north of £2,000 for the spec I wanted. (Full disclosure: HP and Microsoft are clients of my company Articulate Marketing.)

But then I considered an alternative route that might put off an new PC purchase for a year or so and save me a few bucks. Prolonging the life of a still-serviceable PC is good for the environment. Also, I wasn’t sure that the likely replacements would have been as quiet as the PC they would replace. This is important to me because silence is golden for a writer.

Here’s what I did:

I bought a Crucial 256GB solid state drive (SSD).
Installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on it as my new boot-up disc.
Upgraded my memory for 4GB to 8GB, again from Crucial.

The result is that my computer boots in seconds, runs cooler and quieter, loads applications almost instantly and, because I’m starting with a fresh install of Windows, my computer doesn’t have to deal with four years of crud and multiple install/uninstall cycles. It just has the programs I use every day.

The memory cost less than £100, the SSD was about £300 (although I could have bought a smaller capacity drive for about £80) and I already had a licence for Win7. It took about two hours to install the hardware because of a hiccup with the drive mounting, which I had to buy separately for about £10. Reinstalling Windows took a bit longer because I had to reinstall my applications too; perhaps 4-6 hours over a couple of days.

I wouldn’t recommend this approach if you don’t feel comfortable opening up your PC or installing operating systems but it’s less challenging than it sounds and a cheap way to refresh an existing PC.

How to create your own eBooks

Matthew Stibbe — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:32:53 +0000

With a little help from my friends, I have figured out the basics of getting a Word document into a series of eBook formats. I have got my own eBook, 30 Days to Better Business Writing up on the Amazon Kindle store.

The process is pretty straightforward but fiddly. This is what I did:

Start with Microsoft Word. This is my main writing tool and I guess many people use it for composition. The problem with Word is that it outputs crappy HTML with lots of Microsoft-specific tags that don’t work in eBooks. There are other problems too, like the way it curls apostrophes and speech marks.
Use Microsoft Live Writer. This is a great way of stripping out Microsoft-HTML-crud from your Word documents but retain basic formatting including links. It’s free and it’ll help with blogging too. I used Live Writer to tidy up the formatting, especially for stuff like bullet lists and sidebars that didn’t convert easily into HTML.
Export the HTML source to Sigil. Sigil is a free tool that lets you compile an eBook in EPUB format, including meta data, a cover and table of contents. You can import straight from Word and this may work if your formatting is pretty simple and you can edit the source code directly in Sigil to fix any errors. (You have copy from the source code window in Live Writer and paste into the source code view in Sigil.)
Convert in Calibre. Calibre, another free tool, lets you import eBooks in different formats, view them and then convert them other formats. Again, you can import directly from Word but I think my approach, though more laborious, gives more control and reduces the chances of errors and weird formatting. I used Calibre to export a MOBI version of my eBook which I could upload directly to Amazon. And bingo!
Checking your eBook. Calibre is a good way to preview your eBook in different formats but I also used Kindle Previewer and I downloaded the eBook onto my Kindle directly.

Of course, this is a summary and you’ll need to read the various bits of documentation and have a basic knowledge of HTML etc. It took me about a day to turn my book from Word to Kindle (and, along the way, PDF, EPUB and MOBI). Thanks to everyone who shared their tips. Now, go buy my book. And buy one for all your friends and family.

I need advice about eBook publishing

Matthew Stibbe — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:26:42 +0000

I’d like to take my free eBook, 30 Days to Better Business Writing, and make it available as an eBook in both Amazon Kindle AZL format and either EPUB and MOBI formats so that it is available for other devices.

So, here’s the thing. I start with a Word document because that is what I write and edit in.

How do I get from a Word document to EPUB, MOBI and AZL format?

Ideally, in a smooth automated way that preserves chapters and inline images such as screenshots? Does anyone have any tips about this? Is there software that will do it?

Cool tools: HP mini-projector and accessories

Matthew Stibbe — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:15:41 +0000

I made a couple more videos for HP about some of their cool accessories. (Full disclosure: they’re a client at Articulate Marketing.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

I got Scrivener for Windows

Matthew Stibbe — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:48:32 +0000

Several years ago, I wrote that I want Scrivener for Windows and it has had 16,403 page views since. It’s obviously something that other people want too. It also came up in my interview with Sci-Fi author Charlie Stross.

And now, wonderfully, Literature and Latte are developing a Windows version and you can download the beta version. I have just downloaded it and I’ll write a review soon.

Frazeit: Google for phrases

Matthew Stibbe — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:02:59 +0000

Check out Frazeit. It searches the web for phrases in six languages. Type a phrase like “all’s well that ends well” and you get a list of examples of that phrase in use online, along with context.

17 creative iPhone apps for writers and designers

Matthew Stibbe — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:38:37 +0000

My iPhone has become more than a phone; it’s become an indispensible part of my life. The main reason is the number of apps that I use. I have 178 in iTunes and about half that number actually on the phone. They help me navigate, check the weather, book restaurants, learn Dutch, play, communicate etc. etc. It’s like a brain implant that makes me smarter. And, yes, they help me write and be more creative. Here are some of the Apps on my phone which I use regularly.

1. Camera and Photos

It’s great for taking pictures of whiteboards and flipcharts. Also, napkins with genius ideas on them and great lines or quotes from books. Found objects and street poetry can be inspirational. It’s a good way not to lose or forget anything. For example, I take pictures of my flying log book so that I have a backup in case I lose it.

Free. Built in.

2. Wikipanion

Wikipedia on an iPhone is a great way to win arguments. Also, it’s very useful to satisfy your curiosity and check facts if you’re sitting in a cafe thinking about your next writing project. It reformats Wikipedia pages to make the work well on the iPhone.

Free. http://www.wikipanion.net/

3. Kindle

All the joy of the Kindle but on an iPhone. I love the way it synchronises the pages with my Kindle 2 so that I can pick it up when I get home and carry on from where I left off. It gives me access to great writing and lets me read more than I would normally because I can read a few pages almost anywhere, any time.

Free. http://www.amazon.com/kindleapp

4. Stanza

Stanza is a lot like Kindle. It lets you buy eBooks from publishers but it also gives you easy access to thousands of free books from sources like Project Gutenberg.

Free. http://www.lexcycle.com/

5. TaskTask

I use Microsoft Outlook 2007 on my PC for task management and scheduling. I also have my own Exchange Server. I’ve been tracking tasks more or less the same way since the days of Schedule+ in the early 90s and so I was disappointed when I found that the iPhone didn’t sync Outlook Tasks like it did Email and Contacts. Luckily, TaskTask does. If you have Exchange Server and you use tasks, this is the app for you. When I get a minute, I’ll write a post about how I use Outlook. It’s like GTD except I never wrote a book about it! (Full disclosure: Microsoft is a client.)

£2.99. http://tasktaskapp.com/

6. Voice Memos

I wrote about using the iPhone’s built-in voice recorder in February. It’s very helpful indeed for interviews. I also found a great firm to transcribe MP3 interviews.

Built-in.

7. This American Life

This American Life is my all time favourite radio show. I’m a great believer in interviewing people and getting to the heart of a story that way but TAL does that to a whole new level. I also download the podcast, which is a free way of getting the latest episodes.

£1.79. http://www.prx.org/

8. Meditate

Use this to time periods of concentration on your writing. (If you’re near a computer, though, I recommend this free web-based timer instead.)

£1.19. Suzu Meditate.

9. Dropbox

It can be frustrating if you don’t have your documents with you; for example you might go for an interview and need to check your research files en route. I already use Dropbox as a way of sharing files over the internet between computers and with clients. Dropbox for the iPhone lets you access and view your Dropbox files on your phone. Yay!

Free. http://www.dropbox.com/

10. Oxford English Dictionary

This puts the Concise Oxford English Dictionary on your iPhone. It’s a useful tool for checking definition of a word. It’s more detailed than free online dictionaries (although Wiktionary is pretty good). It’s also slightly cheaper and more portable than the print version.

£14.99. http://iphone-software.penreader.com/

11. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is my favourite Twitter client on my PC and the iPhone version synchronises with it nicely. I’m finding the constant stream of tweets a little overwhelming and when I get time, I want to set up some more columns for people and topics I’m interested in. But still, this is the tool to do it.

Free. http://www.tweetdeck.com/iphone

12. Skype

I’ve already spoken about the value of Skype as a tool for conference calls and so on. It’s nice to have on the iPhone, especially if you are abroad and you have a Wi-Fi connection because you can make cheap international calls and receive incoming calls on a Skype In number. It’s also helpful for certain kinds of interview.

Free. www.skype.com.

13. Creative Whack Pack

A long time ago, the Roger von Oech gave a presentation at the Computer Game Developers Conference and I thought he had a neat way of provoking creativity. Now it’s available for the iPhone.

£1.19. http://www.creativethink.com/

14. Mindjet

I wrote about the Mindjet brainstorming application before but now it’s available on the iPhone too. Very helpful for getting your ideas straight before you start writing.

£4.99. http://www.mindjet.com/products/add-ons/mindjet/overview

15. IDEO

IDEO is a famous industrial design company. I profiled them for Director ages ago and I thought they were a really cool company. Their method cards give creative people inspiration.

£2.99 (Eight card sampler is free). http://www.ideo.com/

16. WordPress

A lot of my writing is for my two blogs. This one and Golf Hotel Whiskey, my flying blog. WordPress for the iPhone helps me manage comments, write replies and create new posts. I haven’t done a lot of blogging directly from my iPhone yet because I tend to write longer posts and I don’t think I could do that on the iPhone but I like the picture blogging capabilities.

Free. http://iphone.wordpress.org/

17. WriteChain

WriteChain helps you keep track of your writing output. It is sort of habit-forming.

Free. http://www.hownottowrite.com/writechain/

40 essential online apps for freelancers

Matthew Stibbe — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:59:22 +0000

Online applications give me a competitive edge. I want to be a ‘big little company’ with the same (or better) IT capabilities as the biggest of my clients. I try to make the maximum use of online applications because they let me deploy new capabilities quickly without adding to my IT or admin burdens. This is a list of some of the best online applications that I am researching or which I use on a regular basis.

1. Mozy

A friend of mine recently lost all his work, his family photos and his music collection when his hard disk failed. It cost him hundreds of pounds to recover it. Now, if that had been a book or business files, the cost might have been much higher. This is why I use Mozy Pro to backup my key data over the internet. It costs $0.50/GB per month and the software backups my server automatically.

http://mozy.com/pro

2. Dropbox

Dropbox is an online file system. You can create folders and upload files via a web interface or with a downloadable application that puts those folders onto your PC and keeps them synchronised. The neat thing is that you can share folders with other people so that they can access files in selected folders too. It’s very elegant and easy to use. I use it to make sure I have access to key files on my laptops and also to share files with clients. I have 50 GB of storage and that costs me $99 a year.

http://www.getdropbox.com/

3. Basecamp

Basecamp is a great intranet-style online application that lets you share files, project plans and generally collaborate over the internet. I don’t use it as much as I used to because DropBox does file sharing better (bigger uploads, easier to use etc.) and because I’m not running so many team-based projects. But if you need a team site, this is the system I would recommend. There is a limited, free version but prices start at $24/month for a fully-featured service.

http://basecamphq.com/

4. Scribe

Scribe is a WordPress plugin that helps you optimise the content of posts and pages for search engines. It gives helpful feedback to tweak the content and highlight keywords. I’ve just started using it on this blog and so it’s too early to tell how effective it will be in the long run. I’m slowly working through the most popular posts and optimising them. It takes me about 5-10 minutes per post to tweak the content and metatags to get a high content score. What I like about Scribe is that it gives you clear instructions about how to improve the score. The only drawback – it’s not cheap. I pay $47 a month for 120 evaluations. To be honest, I’d rather pay a one-off fee and get unlimited evaluations but if the income means they keep improving the tool and I get better SEO as a result, it’s probably worth it. Certainly, the fee is relatively cheap in proportion to the the time I put in for SEO.

http://scribeseo.com/

5. Site 24×7

Site24x7 monitors your website(s) and reports weekly on uptime and downtime. It can also send SMS and email alerts if a site becomes unavailable. It can also monitor DNS settings and mail servers. If you have a business site, this is an invaluable service. There is a free service and the paid-for services cost little per site.

http://site24x7.com

6. Shrink O’Matic

Okay, it’s not exactly an online application but an Adobe Air app. That said it’s a neat little tool for resizing images in batches and giving them some liposuction. I like it a lot. It’s free so you can’t beat the price.

http://toki-woki.net/p/Shrink-O-Matic/

7. Skype

I wrote about web, video and phone conferencing tools in February and I don’t want to repeat that content here. However, Skype is an essential tool for writers. I use it to interview people worldwide and with the addition of Pamela, a voice recorder program, it can keep recordings of interviews for future reference. Pamela costs €14.95 if you want unlimited recordings although there is a free version. Skype is free but you need to pay for a Skype-In line to receive calls from the regular phone network and for Skype-Out credit to make outgoing calls to non-Skype users.

http://www.skype.com

8. Remindr

I like this a lot. It lets you ping your future self with a message via Jabber, email or Twitter at a given time.

http://remindr.info/

9. Writer

Writer is an online distraction-free editor. It will let you focus on writing without any of the icons, menus and screen clutter you find in Word.

http://writer.bighugelabs.com/

10. Write or Die

If Writer is too tame for you, Write or Die is an online editor that punishes you if you don’t get meet your word count target.

http://writeordie.drwicked.com/

11. SlimTimer

Track your time using a simple web application that uploads your data directly to the web for analysis and reporting. This is much easier and more accurate than using timesheets. If you want to see where the time goes and, even more if you can bill for it, Slimtimer, is the app for you. I looked at it in detail a couple of years ago and it still appears to be free.

http://www.slimtimer.com/

12. Pick-Fu

$5 for 50 opinions. Get instant user feedback from real people. This is very cool and straightforward.

http://pickfu.com/

13. BlueMailCentral

BlueMailCentral is a cool system that lets you print letters on your PC via a customised printer driver. Instead of popping out on your local printer, the letter goes to BlueMailCentral’s HQ where it is distributed to a printing center near your destination where it is printed, enveloped and posted for you. You can use it for one-off letters, invoices or huge mailshots. You get local postage rates worldwide and you don’t have to both with putting things in envelopes or buying stamps anymore. [Full disclosure: BlueMailCentral is a client.]

http://www.bluemailcentral.com/

14. WordPress

I use WordPress for this blog and my other sites. It’s great. It’s free. Newbies can get a free blog via WordPress.com and not have to worry about hosting or anything technical. I wrote an article about how to create your own blog in 2008 and I think this is still a good place to start.

http://wordpress.com

15. Timebridge

Timebridge helps you schedule meetings with different people. It’s fine if everyone is on the same mail system but it’s much harder coordinating people from different companies. (Also look at ScheduleOnce.)

http://www.timebridge.com/

16. TripIt

If your life is like George Clooney’s in Up in the Air, then TripIt.com is going to be great for you. It tracks your itineraries – planes, hotels, car hire etc. – and warns you if there are any problems. An iPhone app lets you keep track of everything on the move. To update the itinerary just email your confirmations to TripIt and it will parse them automatically. I was sceptical at first but now I use it for every trip and I paid $59 for the pro version. (The free version doesn’t do updates and doesn’t track frequent flyer miles but it’s perfectly good otherwise.)

http://www.tripit.com

17. Joe’s Goals

I first wrote about Joe’s Goals back in 2006 and it’s still a great app for tracking and maintaining habits online.

http://www.joesgoals.com/

18.Zamzar

Good news everybody, Zamzar converts all kinds of graphics files from one format to another and emails you with the results. And it’s free. Bad news: it comes with a bunch of adverts, including an irritating pop-up and pop-under ads. Bad app. Naughty app. You still get ads if you pay $7 a month but for $16 a month they go away. Does anyone know a less ad-hungry conversion app online?

http://www.zamzar.com/

19. Formspring

Formspring lets you create interactive online forms. I use them to run surveys for my customers. With PayPal integration, you can use them to let people sign up for paid services. It’s very easy to use and while there is a limited free version that lets you create three forms, prices start at a very reasonable $14 a month.

http://www.formspring.com/

20. ProofHQ

ProofHQ lets you collaborate with clients and team members to manage design reviews and approvals with share online document mark-up. [Full disclosure: ProofHQ is a client.]

http://www.proofhq.com

21. Rypple

Get quick, anonymous 360-degree feedback about your work with Rypple.

http://rypple.com/

22. Issuu

Read and publish books and magazines online with a neat interactive reader. I use this for my free eBook because it has a good WordPress plugin.

http://issuu.com/

23. Scribd

Scribd is very similar to issuu but I suspect it has more readers and more content. My book is also available there and it has had slightly more readers via Scribd than Issuu. I just think that the WordPress plug-in is less attractive.

http://www.scribd.com/

24. Xmarks

If you have more than one browser on your PC or you use more than one PC, keeping your web browser bookmarks and web passwords synchronised is a nightmare. This is where Xmarks comes in. It works with Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It synchronises everything so that you are, in effect, using the same set of bookmarks, quick links and passwords everywhere. It’s fantastic.

http://www.xmarks.com/

25. Postini

I have a Microsoft Exchange Server and I get a ton of spam. At one point last year, between bounceback spam and spam spikes, I was getting 30,000+ spams a day. My broadband connection and server were struggling to keep up and on a few occasions I couldn’t send or receive messages at all. However, for $12 per user per year, Postini blocks all that and email malware out in the cloud before it comes anywhere near my systems.

http://www.google.com/postini

26. Datum

I wrote about Daytum before. I think it’s a cool way to track and share numerical and time-based data, such as bugs fixed per week or miles run per month or calories consumer per hour (I had cake yesterday!). It produces the kind of data dashboard you normally see with high-end business intelligence systems, except of course, you have to enter the data yourself. I think that the way it uses tags to give structure to the data is very elegant; very smart.

http://daytum.com/

27. Runkeeper

Okay, it’s not a strictly business application but I really like it and I think work-life-exercise balance is essential if you’re a freelancer. RunKeeper tracks your exercise and running history, including map overlays, and it lets you share the results. With an iPhone app, you can track your runs in real time using GPS and upload the results automatically.

http://runkeeper.com

28. Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us is a free online mindmapping application. It’s very easy to use and you can embed your diagrams in WordPress.

http://bubbl.us

29. Rescue Time

RescueTime is a tool that you can download to your PC and it tracks what you do. This lets you block distractions, like websites or Twitter, for a period of time or track work on given files or projects. All the reporting comes back to the website and you get lots of data and administrivia to help your reform your habits.

http://www.rescuetime.com/

30. Google Maps

Google Maps is really helpful for planning trips to meetings. Now you can get Google Streetview for every road in the UK, that’s become a really helpful tool as well. It’s also worth putting your own business up on the map and editing your own entry properly.

http://maps.google.co.uk/

31. Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a great tool for creating quick website mockups and sharing them with other people. The deliberately cartoony and Comic Sans style stops people obsessing about pixel perfect art and focuses them on words and layout. See my review of seven website mockup tools for some other online wireframing applications.

http://www.balsamiq.com/

32. Google Reader

I have used a number of different RSS readers but I have ended up with Google Reader because it is easy, free and ubiquitous. I’d like to find a ‘five-minute guide to Reader mastery’ because I feel like I’m missing some tricks with it but it’s still be the best system I’ve used for managing and reading lots of blogs.

http://www.google.com/reader

33. Concentration and meditation timer

http://www.articulatemarketing.com/tools.htm

34. Readability checker

This tool will help you improve your writing by giving objective, numerical feedback using Flesch Kinkaid, Gunning Fog and SMOG indices. You can analyse all the text on a web page or paste in some text directly.

http://www.articulatemarketing.com/tools.htm

35. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is not a good primary source for writers but it is a great way to explore and understand a topic and the best Wikipedia entries have useful links and sources that can help you get to primary sources quickly. I find it very useful for understanding technical jargon that my interviewees throw into discussions. I can quickly look up a word and scan the page while I’m interviewing them (on the phone!) and it helps me follow the conversation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

36. Wiktionary

Wiktionary is a reasonably reliable place to look up words and check meanings. I have the Oxford English Dictionary on my iPhone which is more authoritative but Wiktionary is right there in my browser which makes it more convenient. It’s also very helpful when I’m trying to look up Dutch words.

http://www.wiktionary.org/

37. Google Translate

I like Google Translate a lot. It’s a good way to quickly check spellings and translations. When I’m doing prose translations from English into Dutch for my homework, I like to try the Dutch version myself and then use Google to ‘proofread’ it.

http://translate.google.com

38. Visual Thesaurus

Visual Thesaurus is an interactive, animated thesaurus that makes exploring the dictionary easy and fun. Because it is quick and easy, you can find the word you’re looking forward much quicker and get inspired at the same time.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

39. iStockPhoto

I’m good with words but rubbish with images so I find iStockPhoto a very useful tool. It lets me find images, icons, pictures and so on for websites, blogs, presentations and documents. They’re relatively cheap to buy and you can use the lightbox tool to offer clients a selection of images. It’s widely used, however, so you have to be careful to avoid picking clichéd images or just using images for the sake of it.

http://www.istockphoto.com

40. Wobzip

Did you ever have a weird compressed file that you needed to uncompress? You know, a Linux fanboy sends you something that is compressed as a .RAR file and your puny Windows box can’t do anything with it. Wobzip is the answer. It uncompresses 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZHCHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS files online.

http://wobzip.org/

This post is brought to you in partnership with Intel(R) as part of the “Technology in tomorrow’s cloud & virtual desktop” series. For more information please click - HERE

Me want: HP Windows 7 Slate

Matthew Stibbe — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:00:00 +0000

I’m a sucker for small, ultraportable PCs. I am the proud owner of an Toshiba Libretto 70CT, OQO, HP95, Newton, Sony Vaio P11z, HP 2133, Kindle and an iPhone (my third). The iPad left me feeling a bit ‘so what’. Too big, too limited.

But now I’ve spotted a new thing to want: the HP Windows 7 Slate. It’s a real PC so you can run regular applications but it’s also an iPad style slate. It should be out later this year.

(Hat tip: Wired. Full disclosure: HP is a client of Articulate Marketing and if they want to give me a Slate, I’ll shill for them all day. But this post is my own thing.)

Kindle and Stanza: great ways for writers to read more

Matthew Stibbe — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:56:26 +0000

If you want to be a great writer, be a great reader. There are lots of ways to improve your writing but mindfully reading other people’s work is one of the most pleasurable and effective.

This is why I love my new Kindle. It lets me keep a portable library of great writing with me wherever I go. I also have the (free) Kindle app on my iPhone. The two devices stay synchronised so that if I stop reading on my Kindle, I can start again from the same page on my iPhone. Right now on my Kindle, I have:

On Sparta, Plutarch
The Storm of War, Andrew Roberts (excellent)
Finest Years, Max Hastings
Virtual Light, William Gibson
The Last Days of Socrates, Plato
The Gateless Gate, Mumon
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
The Conversations of Socrates, Xenophon
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thycydides

I’m going through a bit of a Greek phase. All sweetness and light etc. But I love the way that I can switch between books depending on my mood. (Yes I know I can do this with real books too but I would need a big bag to carry around my current reading!)

My only frustration is that some of the books I want to buy aren’t available for Kindle. C’mon Amazon! C’mon publishers! Play nice!

I also have the Stanza app on my iPhone Kindle and that lets me download free out-of-copyright books as well as commercial books and cool Creative Commons releases. It’s a bit of a chore getting these books onto the Kindle without paying something for them so Stanza is a great companion to the Kindle app.

Ebook readers make reading easier, more flexible and more portable. This makes them ideal for writers.