People don’t realize how much Jane is involved in the writing of these books. In this case she dropped her own writing, parked herself in a chair, and 48 hours later, including taking the book to bed, she handed me a brilliantly-done critique, with line notes and suggestions…now and again I like her wording better than mine. So when I dedicate a book to Jane it’s often because she’s got paragraphs in it. 😉
I handed her a new version 24 hours later, and 24 hours after that she handed me another compare file WITH a copy of the original with the suggestions already embedded, which took some mental algebra to get properly compared with MY original text…and 24 hours after that—I have produced a final from the combination of her notes and that text. NOW she’s in there trying to clean up the kitchen disaster area after my marathon re-editing which started early this morning. We’re having pizza tonight and starting another stew pot tomorrow if I don’t intervene with my brilliant notion of crescent-roll-based pastry shells for a chicken pot pie. We’ll see what I feel like doing. I might get inventive.
But bless her, I’ll have a clean kitchen to do it. I hear the bangs and thumps. And all this while Jane is working on her own story.
Did I mention I just fired the finalfinal back to her because she said she wants to read it. And I realize now that I’ve sent it to NYC that I haven’t run the check for certain words I wanted to run before I sent it—sometimes our modern age just moves too fast for its own good… SO there may yet be a finalfinalfinal before Betsy gets to edit it.
I’m now happy with it, however. We get inventive on file names: trackerv1jsf, trackercjc, trackercjccomp, tracker2jsf, tracker2cjc, trackercompnov3, trackerfinalcjc, trackerfinaljsc, trackerfinalfinalnov5…
And this isn’t saying there won’t be more. This is the only mode in which I really appreciate Windows over DOS—when I can call up two files side by side, and run the red-letter version of the edit past the original in the same screen.
Thank goodness also for hyperclean focus on the glasses. I have one pair set so I can read 8pt type. And that really matters when I’m trying to get 2 whole pages on at once. Since I work only with a laptop in an undersized armchair, occasionally with kitty help, this miniaturization helps.
I’m now started on the next book, the title of which I know but have not yet announced (no, I won’t, not yet!), and Jane’s going to follow up on that one, too, so we can make sure the data matches from book to book.
The named version problem is why I’m looking into using version control software for my writing, academic and creative. I wonder if any other writers use or are considering using Git for this purpose. I thought of using cvs or rccs, but they’re a real pain to administer.
Do you have many multiple, networked authors? That seems to be why Linus developed GIT. You don’t mention Subversion, svn. Have you looked at that?
NB: SCCS, RCS, SVN, & GIT are all Linux version control packages.
My own answer to the eternal problem is ‘one folder to rule them all,’ and subfolders inside subfolders.
This has its limits, but if you Archive the old stuff, it’s better than some systems.
My solution:
1-Every filename includes the date, year first, as in: 2014.11.06.BlahBlahFilename.doc
or: BlahBlahFilename.2014.11.06.doc as leading numerals sometimes make my eyes glaze over when searching through a file list.
2-If I have two versions from the same day, I add a letter directly after the date: BlahBlahFilename.2014.11.06a.doc
In list view, the most recent version is always on top (or bottom depending on which the window is set to sort).
3-I include the current filename in the footer of each version, so when I’m reading printout, I always know which version I’m dealing with.
4-For me, adding “final” to any version that I still have the option of changing turned out to be problematic–(as in, BlahBlah.FinalFINAL.REALLYFINAL.EVENMOREFINAL-I’MNOTKIDDING.doc)–so I don’t do that until I’ve already sent out/posted whatever-it-is and *can’t* change it any more. YMMV.
In case you didn’t already know, there are some commercial document comparison tools that can take 2 Word documents and give you a single page view of the color-coded differences (or side-by-side views). Word also has pretty good built-in tools for this, but they have limits.
There are also some very good open-source tools, but they all require that you export / convert into another format, and aren’t as user-friendly for non-geeks 😉
Just some options that might let you use larger font pitches. If you’re interested, happy to follow up further here or via email / chat.
I use Word Perfect, which has good comparison and indexing tools, and oops, forgot to convert to Word before sending it off to Betsy. If she complains I will convert it. Don’ tknow whether the latest Word deigns to convert other formats, but WP is handy at it, even for antique ones so you can even read your archive.
I don’t know about the most recent version of Word (I haven’t bothered to install Office 2010; I hear the differences are a problem) but Word 2007 can open WP5 and WP6 files. It says.
As far as version control, depending on the file and whether I expect to use it father in the future than next week or next month, I use [filename]yymmdd as a name. At least that way I know when it was created and last touched.
The last Office I’m familar with is ’97. I see later versions from time to time, and if asked try to offer helpful suggestions, but the later versions have changed things so much my suggestions aren’t so helpful. It’d be naive to grouse, “Why can’t they leave well enough alone?” Of course, they have a vested interest in changing things. But if only the changes made things demonstrably better… [sigh]
Without the profit motive with Linux, sometimes it’s youthful enthusiasm that may drive gratuitous changes, but on the whole it seems more of the changes are actual improvements. 🙂
My favorite version of Word is 2003, but Excel 2007 is better than the earlier ones. My pet peeve for the later versions of word is hiding the tab control box. It’s like they don’t believe anyone sets or clears tabs. (That’s stuff I use a lot.)
Softinterface’s Diff Doc also does Word Perfect. Not an endorsement, I haven’t used it, but there’s a free trial. I’ve gotten spoiled by code comparison tools, most of which are so much better than the ones used for text.
CJ, is Word Perfect still being supported and updated? I really liked that word processor for features like the ones you mention. The last version I recall using was this Linux version Corel experimented with in the nineties.
Oh yeah, WordPerfect Office X6 in 3 flavours: Office, Home and Student. I run it on both Windows 7 and 8 machines. I’m not sure whether they’re still supporting the Mac version though. Now if Adobe still supported PageMaker and quite trying to make everybody go to InDesign in the cloud, I’d be a happy bunny.
Ditto what Teasel said about Corel WordPerfect Office X6 for Windows.
Unfortunately, there is not a version of Corel WordPerect for Mac OS X, including Yosemite. Nor is there a current version for Linux. — I really wish there were.
However, there *is* a WordPerfect File Viewer App in the iTunes App Store. — And I see several viewers or utilities for WordPerfect Documents in the Mac App Store.
I also see Google hits for running WP X6 for Windows in one of the Windows emulator systems (Boot Camp, etc.) for the Mac. I haven’t tried that, so I don’t know how well it would work.
(I really, really miss Macromedia Freehand, by the way.)
It would be wonderful if Corel would create Mac OS X and Linux versions of WordPerfect.
Re: I really, really miss Macromedia Freehand, by the way.
There’s a solution for that. Just keep an old box around that runs the old stuff that you prefer. I just decomissioned my 1991 32MB 486/33 DOS/W31 this summer and I’d been using it to do the same old things it always did every day. I didn’t go too far though, just far enough. Its replacement is a 128MB K6-2 333 W98/Office97/Linux (that doesn’t go outside the LAN with W98). And I use that every day for the same old things. (There’s an i7 on the cart over there when I need power 😉 , but my “daily driver” to visit here is a Conroe. (Running “Paul’s Own Distribution”, of course. 😉 )
I have used WP8 for many years, and have no problems with its compatibility with MS Windows.
My first word processor was LetterPerfect on an Atari 48k machine. It ran from the drive —which cabled on—and took all of 7k for itself.
I then went to Volkswriter, which on a 300k machine could manipulate a whole 1 meg of novel, by spooling.
Then I had to leave DOS and go to Win 5. And I picked up Word Perfect, wondering if it possibly had grown out of old LetterPerfect. I got along with it very well—all I missed was VW’s faculty for creating macros ad hoc and on the fly. But it was good, and I’ve stayed with it ever since. I’ve made several tries at Word when people have sworn to me on a stack of various religious documents that this Word is really good, — but no. It still steers like a tank, compared to WP.
What I like about WP: it’s sooooo simple it gets along with most things; it can convert most formats to or from itself; and it produces a code that, if it’s 1.5 meg as a Word file, will be about 1 meg in WP. The difference is the way Word inserts its codes, which is incredibly messy and artifact-producing if you want to put the file into HTML.
And of course, deciding factor—I don’t even think about WP commands. They’re automatic, and most are natively keyboarded(if you like) instead of moused. I’d ever so much rather do Alt-i for italic than mouse it off the top bar. Probably Word has some of that too these days, but the WP commands are just no-thinking for me, as is.
And yes, you can get it on Amazon. WP8 has been quite enough for me. They can improve a software right into problems. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=word%20perfect&sprefix=word+per%2Caps
I’ve seen WP at MWave.com, from which I’ve bought stuff (hardware, mostly). They’re all right, but probably more money than Amazon.
Word is much like WP; instead of alt+i for italics, it’s ctrl+i. But what annoys me about the whole Office suite is that they change the look of it regularly, so you have at least a little retraining, but they never increase usability. I had to do some word and exact capitalization searches recently, and changing those options is a pain. And when you’re looking for a font, all you get is a huge list; fonts have serifs or not, are for text or title–even some dingbat (symbol) fonts aren’t obvious. Excel has similar lapses.
Steps to Avoid an Accident
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/science/steps-to-avoid-an-accident.html?_r=0
Good article. Tai chi, vitamin D, and other recommendations. Or maybe at some age or state-of-balance, one should just put on an inflatable sumo suit before getting out of bed. 😉
The fall thing—building the right instincts, too: when we were actively skating, we learned how not to break things, like arms, like skulls. Falling happened, but accepting you’re going to fall and knowing how does help. Standing on one foot with your eyes shut—our chiropractor showed us that one. And taking the right vitamins and minerals to keep from getting brittle bones. But good posture, balance, and decent shoes are important. There are also, should anyone know someone who has serious issues, the gel-pads skaters use—thin, unobtrusive, and protective of hip-bones—they’re called crash pads. I got them, tested mine early on, when I went backwards through a rink gate that I’d thought I could trust to be solid…someone had left it unlatched. Hit the left hip, bounced off the right hip and landed on my tailbone on the rubber mat 2 days after acquiring the crash pads. Heh. Tested all three in one fall. And nary a bruise.
I have MS Office 2007, as well as Sun Microsystems Open Office 3.2, which is an open source and free software productivity package. I can’t say that I like either one better than the other, since Open Office sometimes doesn’t save the file in the same formatting that MS Office does, or there are some features that aren’t available, or whatever.
Still, it’s not a bad package for the price. I haven’t played with it that much, though.
I switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice, which does seem to handle file formats. I usually use it when I have to open a really big file to cut it down.
On the Mac, I use NeoOffice, because neither OpenOffice nor LibreOffice handle Mac fonts properl¥ for some arcane reason. NeoOffice works very well and though not free, it’s pleasingly inexpensive. a bargain.
On Windows, I use LibreOffice, after Sun/Oracle got grabby about OpenOffice. LibreOffice is free and open source. The interface is, for better or for worse, very close to the old (pre- 2007 – 2010) Microsoft Office.
iu82306 <– Smokey's cryptic feline comment on the issue. Possibly, he likes unsigned integers on a very old chip?
On file versions: Most things I do now don't require it, but when they do, I use the date, either eye-mm-dd or yymmdd (which my spell-checker just tried to change to yummy!), and if anything further is needed, a single letter a to z.
On drafts where I might need a version to track them, I either use -draft01 or, if there might be branching cases for plot structure, etc., a letter a to z, -a01, while the number might increase. However, that's a compromise, as the whole thing seems silly, if it's that complex.
I wish that word processors had an easier interface to get to chapters and sections and headings. Most now have some sort of controls, but they seem unwieldy to me.
—–
Frankly, I am really surprised that someone hasn't created a better word processor and publication layout program that relies on HTML + CSS + SVG directly, or EPUB3. And I'd love to be able to click on a pane with a document table of contents, a navigation pane that could easily take me to a chapter, section, heading, or bookmark (hyperlink). It's a natural need and a natural part of most larger documents. So why make it difficult to use?
Yet Sigil is apparently not being updated and Calibre might or might not end up as its successor, and I'm not used to either yet, or Scribus.
So much now is going to be destined for the web or ebooks that EPUB would seem a natural file format to use for a modern word processor and publication layout program, and then export to Word .doc or WordPerfect .wpd formats. — The folks at WordPerfect might want to try a fork of WordPerfect to see if that would work. I haven't used WP in a long time, but again, I wish it were available on the Mac, and I will try it again on Windows.
Google ‘outliner software’. There are any number of programs that will do this.
“I wish that word processors had an easier interface to get to chapters and sections and headings. Most now have some sort of controls, but they seem unwieldy to me.”
If you religiously use Word’s header formats to create your document, then you can use the navigation panel to get anywhere. (In the view menu.)
I don’t know why anyone would put dates into the names of files. Every file automatically has a date created, date last modified and date last accessed.
Go to List view, then add and arrange extra columns as you wish. Then you can see and sort by dates.
Sure. But in the past at least, too many instances of loss-of-date-info when migrating from one machine to another, or going back and forth between platforms. Or working with someone who only uses printout & wants the date as a version number on each page (put the filename in the footer, no problem). Or (for example) if you’re using the filenames to create a list-of-html-links that needs to be in date order (and it’s important that the recipient knows the date). File-transfer defaults are kinder than they used to be about preserving original date information on a copy, but I’ve been including dates in some form in filenames (and *not* including spaces) since the time when one had to squeeze everything into 8 characters, and got clever about abbreviations. Too late to change now. 🙂
Okay, that makes sense.
I use XYplorer as a file manager, and I’ve set it to preserve all dates on copy or move, so I never worry about dates. And dates are preserved in backups too, if I ever need them. But I can see that there are circumstances where you would need the date in the name.
XYplorer is by far the best file manager I’ve ever used, by the way, and I find the free version is more than ample for my needs.
Yes to Levanah10. In addition, co-workers / bosses and, oops, myself, have been known to bring up an old file to look at it…and accidentally hit Save by reflex, thus messing with the date-time stamp. Some programs, both ancient and modern, will either insist an archaic format ought to be saved in the newest and greatest of their own choosing, or else will even save anew, whether the document has in fact been changed or not.
Yes, some file transfers will still alter the Date Modified time stamp on the file, and there are still old files from before there were separate fields for Date Created, Date Modified, etc.
So some method to preserve one’s sanity is needed. — There are not, for instance, fields to store what program / app and version were used to create a document; or for a user-defined version number of the file, for instance. Be it, “Version 10.10.01-beta” or “Version 2014-11-07 13:49” or “Branch A Draft 04” or some such scheme. ::shrugs:: — Of course, the Mac has long had a (big) Comments field, not liked by Windows; and the Mac now has some sort of tagging scheme, more useful, an expansion on its old color-coded tags.
Knowing, for instance, in a more sure manner that a file is in, say, the older, common Word .doc (pre-2007), or Freehand .FH11, or say SVG 1.1 or HTML5 + CSS3, things like that, would be useful. — Currently, Mac and Win give you some idea, but if you don’t have the creating program or one that can handle the format, you still don’t know what the thing is, usually.
Not that I know the answer, but it seems Linux, Mac OS X and iOS, and Windows could get together and decide on some way to aid people who need some kind of version marker, or other fields.
Many moons ago, back in the Stone Age (80’s and 90’s) when I did desktop publishing, customers would sometimes (rarely) bring in files they had created. (More often, they had no computer skills at all.) Most times, I knew the file format from the extension. But there were occasionally times when I didn’t know it or didn’t have anything that could read what they already had.
Side Note re Freehand: — Alas, Adobe Illustrator will *not* properly import a Freehand file. It refuses some things entirely, while others, it partially imports as…a horrible grouped mess. (Certain gradients and blended objects, especially.) Yet those were very commonly used and should’ve been imported properly. So almost none of my hundreds of Freehand files ended up being useful after Adobe bought and killed Freehand. — I’d love to be able to run it on an old machine. But the installation process requires Adobe’s keys and verifies with, aha! a website (macromedia.com) that no longer exists, so…one is prevented from installing the program anymore. Also, my first copy was bought while a student in university, and then the upgrade required proof of same, which I had, but later, it became necessary to buy at full price because of their installation validation scheme. Sigh. In other words, I *might* be able to get an older version installed, but the last versions or two would not, because they went to validating via the web before killing support entirely. (Because of this and a couple of other moves by Adobe towards its registered users, such as the current, “Hook them as subscribers for $20, $30, $40 dollars per month, or they can’t use their own files!” — I stopped buying anything from Adobe as much as possible. Sigh again. — Adobe very neatly put me out of doing professional graphics, due to budget and compatibility issues. 🙁 I wish they’d rethink how they do things.
I’d love to use Inkscape, but I keep having basic usability issues or bugs that prevent me from doing anything much with it.
However, I’ve seen that they are talking about an upcoming new release past 48.6, possibly a jump to 91. I’m still interested, but I want a working program.
Yes, that’s why it’s important to keep the old boxes runnable. I’ve got a little Compaq “pizza-box” with /XP and an old laptop with a dead battery, that’ve suddenly become valuable. I’m going to be toying with running virtual machines on my i7 box, but /XP won’t be one of the things I’ll be playing with. It’s hard to convince /XP that one is not, har-har, a pirate when it sees a new hardware configuration, and M$ will be no help with that anymore.
Wish I could’ve, but the box (and its successor) died ignoble deaths at a time when my budget was not happy at replacing a computer.
I have never had luck with installing internal hard drives in Windows boxes. Externals are OK. Macintosh, I didn’t have a problem with either, but back when I fooled around with Macs’ innards was the reign of the (wait for it) SCSI drives. LOL! Back when a 20 MB hard drive was a step up, then an 80 or 120 MB drive was really something. … At the time, we began usuing SyQuest cartridges. Heh.
You can have multiple versions of the same file. Backup files, for example. Or, as I said, something where I want both created date and last-edited date.
As confused as I get, I’m down to relying on the timestamp on the save, and even then I ask myself—at times—is the best one the 10:07 one or the 10:06?….
Foldering is how I herd the sheep into more and more restricted pens, so if I’ve gotten to the deepest folder, except the one marked TrackerJunk…I’ve gotten the last few sheep, one of which I have to keep.
But the way Jane and I trade versions back and forth—it can still get scary. Is the sheep Jane curried, or is this the sheep I sent?
I know there is a limit to how far you can go–12 I think maybe. I’ve run into it on my file servers where I have a whole taxonomy of file globs.
There’s data and then there’s its own meta-data. I don’t know of a single OS, and I’ve used more than a few, that respects the needs of meta-data. ISTR hearing of a system that didn’t have a file system–everything was kept in a built-in database–define your own heirarchy tuple of data and meta-data. Obviously it hasn’t been a great success. But that’s what we need. 😉
Not an OS, and only for Windows, but XYplorer has it’s own database of metadata. You can add Labels (colors), Tags (keywords), and Comments (any length) to any file, and sort and search by them. Metadata is preserved during file operations, but obviously only while you are using XYplorer. You can also create virtual folders containing files from different locations.
I’m going to get egged, but I just started copyediting at a small local paper, and they’re running WP for DOS using 15-yr-old software. I *loathe* it. I’ve been doing graphic design on Mac for twenty years, and I feel like I’ve been thrown back to the stone age. Just moving text is a trial. Alt-F4, arrow, arrow, arrow, arrow 30x, cntrl-del, arrow, arrow, arrow 15x, enter. Seriously? Like, SERIOUSLY? And I have to remember and type a fifteen character series to move a freaking file to another folder? Seriously?? I’m tellin’ ya, the copyediting aspect is fine, it’s the @&$: archaic system that’s driving me insane. I mean, I’m not exactly the most up-to-date, tech-savvy person out there (still using a flip phone), but this is…. arrgh!
On the plus side of the post…YAY for Tracker! Can’t wait. Any idea when it’ll be released? 🙂
Dear me, that is pretty hard. Moving text on modern WP is highlight, ctrl x, zip over to spot, ctrl v, done. I suppose there’s no talking them into an upgrade?
Mrgawe, you hsve my complete sympathy. Eek, old DOS software could be a pain! Best of luck getting something more modern.
(despairing laugh) An upgrade would be lovely, but we’re tracking articles using lined paper in a binder, and transferring files on … (shudder) diskettes. I hadn’t even SEEN diskettes in ten years. And to be honest, with the state of the newspaper business, I should count myself lucky I’m not back to using a waxer… I really shouldn’t complain at all, really, (yay for gainful employment! sorta in my field!) but it gets to me at midnight when I’m hittin’ that arrow key over and over and…
Oy. I think at a point I’d pick up a pencil and stab the thing with the eraser rather than use my fingers.
When I game, though most of my fire keys are 1-2-3-4-5, some are F1 and F2; and other attributes are 6-7-8-9-0, and motions are w,s,a,d,q,v. When it gets really hot and heavy, I feel put upon having to hit 1, because autofire isn’t fast enough: so I play cross-handed, relieving the abused digit. Arrow keys to move text is pretty scary….