I use Google Drive (and other cloud-based file storage systems) to access materials from a variety of locations, to share content easily with local and remote collaborators, and to have the reassurance of there being an off-site backup of what I’m working on. As an added bonus, I’ve recently discovered that if you realise you’ve messed up and over-edited a file, and would be better off starting over with a version from earlier in the day, or a few days ago, or a few weeks ago, you can access a list of the available versions of a particular file and reopen an earlier one to work with! Continue reading “Retrieving old file versions on Google Drive”
Category: Tech
Leanpub.com
I discovered this nifty site (leanpub.com) when it transpired that someone was writing a textbook on a subject I was researching for a client. Authors can put up and sell work-in-progress and completed books (fact or fiction), and readers can get early access to in-progress texts on new or rapidly evolving topics.
The WIP aspect is interesting, as it means that an author can be funded while completing their text, allowing them to spend more time on it, rather than having to go earn a living elsewhere simultaneously. Additionaly, authors set the price, keep the rights, and earn a decent royalty (90%, minus 50c per sale). It sounds like this should also make writing for a niche audience more practical – and if the topic goes mainstream later on, then the enthusiastic author has a headstart.
Given that the time overhead of traditional publishing (writing, editing, printing, marketing, …), and the need for a sizeable audience and ROI for publishers, too many technology texts either don’t make it to market, or are almost obsolete by the time they do. This site is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Podcasts for tech writers
Heading into the holiday season, I’m going to spend a bit less time in front of my laptop, but I’ll be keeping myself entertained and informed by continuing to listen to podcasts. Here’s a quick roundup of podcasts I find entertaining/useful. Continue reading “Podcasts for tech writers”
Do not spellcheck!
Generally speaking, you should spellcheck everything you write. Word has some fairly decent in-built spelling and grammar checking, and while it may not get everything, it’ll catch a lot. However, on occasion, there’s content you really don’t want to spellcheck. Case in point: API/developer documentation rife with code samples: yes, I did mean to spell it that way; yes, it is all one word; no, I don’t want to capitalise that just because it’s at the start of a line; no, I don’t want a space after that semi-colon… And by the time you’ve hit Ignore for the umpteenth time in a row, you realise you’re back in body text, and you’re not sure how long you’ve been on auto-pilot clicking Ignore, and who knows what garbage you’ve said is ok to leave as is now, and you may as well go right back to page 1 and start over. So what do you do? Forego spellchecking entirely? Copy and paste the non-code-sample bits to a separate doc, spellcheck, then merge back in? Or magically tag the code samples as not to be spellchecked and live happily ever after? It’s a leading question, I admit it. The last option it is, and today’s post is on how to do just that! Continue reading “Do not spellcheck!”
More or less?
Some people like less, I like more. What’s your favourite Unix paginator? Dave pointed me at this article about the origins of more, written by its creator, Dan Halbert.