Writer – Editor – Blogger
Software
Life Journal™ Software
Nov 14th
Journaling is a great way to collect subject matter and organize your thoughts for your articles and stories. I still do most of my journaling on in notebooks, and I’ve tried to organize and index them as I complete a volume. However, over time, the sheer volume of my journal content has made it hard for me to find my notes on a given topic when I need it.
Last year, I purchased Life Journal™ software which was developed by Ruth Folit, a writer with 30 years experience with journaling. Lee Jones, the programmer, also is a journaler. I chose the version for writers, but there are also versions dubbed For Staying Sober, For Christians, and For Educators. It’s not as expensive as some software, and you can try it for free before you buy.
Before I share my evaluation, see this excellent summary of the features and benefits of Life Journal™ . More >
FeedDemon Redux
Sep 15th
FeedDemon is still the best way to follow multiple blogs, in my opinion. I’ve written about it in previous blogs here and here. Just after I posted my last rave about FeedDemon, I got an e-mail from Newsgator saying there would be changes, effective August 31, 2009. Here’s my take on the changes.
- There’s an ad in the lower left corner of the FeedDemon desktop. Annoying, but pretty unobtrusive.
- FeedDemon now syncs with Google Reader instead of Newsgator, which is an improvement, I think. I usually recommend Google Reader for beginners to feed-reading, because there are online tutorials on how to use it and it’s easy to use. Once a beginner has learned to use Google Reader, it’s easy enough to move to FeedDemon for more efficient blog tracking.
- I think it runs a bit slower than the old version, but I really can’t complain.
Go to the FeedDemon site for a complete overview including features description and screenshots. I welcome comments from anyone who uses another feed reader. If you would like to write a guest post on an alternate feed reader, e-mail me at akinemily[a]gmail.com.
Twitter and Facebook on Tweetdeck
Aug 13th
In my last post on social networking, I provided links to tutorials and evaluations of Twitter and Facebook. I said then that I wasn’t sure if it was worth the time involved to keep up with both. In the past week, I’ve had several experiences that make me lean toward Facebook as the better choice for social networking. Here’s why.
- Facebook lets you enter longer messages. In Twitter, you’re limited to 140 characters.
- Facebook lets you hide some of your “friends” that post too much extraneous stuff. On Twitter, you have to “unfollow” them entirely.
- Facebook comments allow for more inter-communication between me and my ‘”friends.”
I’m not ready to write Twitter off, though. I am currently tracking my Facebook friends and my Twitter follows through Tweetdeck, a free desktop application that lets you organize your tweets into groups. It also allows a Facebook friend column so that you can monitor Facebook, too. When I post something about my blogs on Twitter, I can send a duplicate post to Facebook from Tweetdeck. Here’s a partial screenshot of my Tweetdeck.
If you’re already using Twitter and/or Facebook, try it. It’s free. There are a number of other desktop applications that work with Twitter. There’s Seesmic and Twhirl which I have not tried. As long as I’m using both Twitter and Facebook, I would want a desktop client to track both. Twhirl only tracks Twitter.
I welcome comments on this post, especially if you have used Seesmic or Twhirl.
Followup on FeedDemon: I Love It!
Jul 27th
Update (7-30-09): Since I posted this, Newsgator has made some changes in how they do things. There will be a new version of FeedDemon that can sync with Google Reader, but it is not clear to me at this point whether it will still be free. More later on this.
In a previous post, I mentioned that I had started using Newsgator’s FeedDemon to track blog posts. See the May 20, 2009, post here. I described some of the basic features in that post, but I have since discovered a number of other goodies in FeedDemon. More >
FREE Software Solution for Writers
Jul 15th
Writers, especially beginning writers, often don’t have money to spend on 
software and equipment for their writing projects. Experienced writers may get tired of spending money of software upgrades to keep in step with the publishing industry. Microsoft Word has become the standard for the publishing industry, and keeping up with the upgrades is a challenge.
The solution? Open Office 3.1.0. More >
Update on Bamboo Fun Pen Tablet
May 25th
Just after Christmas, I bought a Bamboo Fun pen tablet thinking that everything I needed was included in the package. I blogged about it in a previous post.
I’m still operating on Windows XP instead of Vista, so it turned out that I didn’t have everything I needed in the original package. I discovered that I needed software to make the Bamboo work with Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel.
I Googled and found a trial version of JustWrite Office. After the trial period expired, I found that it wasn’t available in the USA, so I contacted the manufacturer of Bamboo, Wacom. The vendor recommended Meander’s Annotator available here, which is not too expensive. I’m now setup to use handwriting in Word, so I’ve done a sample for you below.
I’m still not sure it’s worth all the time and effort, but, for editing clients who don’t use Word’s track changes feature, this might be a way to provide an edited copy without having to resort to postal mail.
Submission Tracking Methods
Feb 24th
Freelance writers need to track their submissions to print and online publications. I’ve always used a card file, because I could keep it handy on my desk, and the box was not subject to computer crashes or lightning strikes. Thinking I should probably be tracking on the computer instead, I have checked into various ways of tracking submissions electronically. Here’s what I’ve found and what I think about each option.
Microsoft Excel File (Spreadsheet): I set up a table in landscape view with header row containing these labels: Article/Story, Publication, Contact, Word Limit, Pays, Date Sent, Response In (time period stated in guidelines), Number of Pages, Postage (if any), Reply Expected, Responded on (date), Accepted (date), Amount Paid, Date Paid, and Notes. Once my file was set up, I just entered the data for each submission when I sent it out. When I got a reply, I’d update the listing. This works pretty well for tracking your income for the year as well as keeping up with your submissions, but you have to know how to use the spreadsheet software. More >
