Computer woes, Part 2

I had trouble finding a file again today.  And it was an important file.  I'm trying to get various "eyes" looking at the first book in my Great Medieval  Science Fiction Masterpiece With Neandertals, The Invaders.  I  have one set of"eyes" reading it as I write this, so to speak.  And I started from Chapter 1.  The person reading it is part of a writer's group, but it's not a critique group, exactly.  It's a group of writers who try to keep their creativity going.  We're all doing more or less different projects, and my writing partner suggested it.  It's interesting.  Anyway, one of the members agreed to read it, and I'm sending her e-mails with the chapters attached, in Word 2002, which presumably everybody can read, because "everybody" has Word.  I have a program called Word Perfect, as well as Word, and I do my major writing in that, but convert the files to Word. 

 

Unfortunately, for some reason, Chapter 6 was missing in my hard copy, and on the hard drive where I keep my writing files together.  So I tried the file where the Word documents are(in Vista, it's Documents).  There was a Chapter 6, but it was a bunch of blank pages.  There was a Chapter 6 in Word, but it was only part of the chapter.  Don't ask me how this came about.  I have absolutely no idea; I think it had something to do with a separate critique process that involves e-mail.  And something went wrong.  Anyway, I ended up deleting those useless files.  I could have sent the "critiqued" version, but that might have confused the reader, and I didn't want to do that. Then, hurray!  I remembered!  I have an external hard drive!  And I put a lot of stuff on there, such as copies of my pictures of wolves and prehistoric people, and the like.  I also put copies of my writing documents there, just in case.  And fortunately, Chapter 6 was in that file!  I heave d a great big sigh again, and e-mailed it to the "eyes".

 

However, I can say, that at least I've learned to back up my documents periodically, onto this external hard drive.  Thank heavens for things like DVD's, flash drives, and external hard drives, which nowadays, are often cheap, cheap, cheap, for what you get.  I paid under $100 for 250 GB, and I think that much is even cheaper now.  After a year of use, I've used only a little over 1 gb, so there's a ton of space left for whatever I want to do. It's worth the investment, and saves me from tearing out more of my gray hairs.

Anne G

Some Cool Writer’s Tools

 

Every writer needs a good word processing program. I have two: WordPerfect X4(the latest version of it), and Word 2007. I've used various versions of WordPerfect for a long time, and I use this particular program for my writing. It's very powerful, and I've gotten used to the way it works for my writing, so I continue to use it. It has something called Lightning to go with it, which maybe I could use, if I could figure out how to use it efficiently. Maybe I will, someday.

 

But when I got my newest "computer toy"(my laptop, actually), I also got Word 2007, which just happened to be on sale at the time. I needed Word 2007(or some version of Word), because so many people use it, and when I upload the draft of The Invaders that I'm working on, it's easier to use Word than try to "translate" what I've written in WordPerfect, into Rich Text Format. I don't have any particular objections to Microsoft programs the way some people do, I'm just finding that I'm using different programs for different things.

 

For example, Word 2007 comes with another, bundled program called OneNote. I've just started using it, partly to store ideas to fill out my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece(s) With Neandertals, but also for mundane things like recipe collections and "to do" lists. These are not related to writing, but they do help me keep track of what I'm supposed to do on any given day. And while I waste a certain amount of ink printing this stuff out, I can always pull up the recipes and print those, any time I need to(I lost one recipe for cranberry-pear chutney that I was going to make for Thanksgiving, and I had to Google it today. It is now in OneNote). The equivalent program on WordPerfect, Lightning, doesn't have these features organized this way. So I am actually using the two word processing programs somewhat differently.

 

Most people would probably have Word, and that's fine. I, personally, find it quite useful to have both programs. Word 2007 also allows you to send things you've written to a blog. And that's what I've done with the last two blogs at The Writer's Daily Grind. I find this convenient, though not perfect, since Word only sends the entry into the Drafts section, and you have to edit it on the blog itself. I also haven't figured out whether it's possible to upload pictures at the same time, but since Blogger allows you to upload your own, I just save mine in my picture files and upload them from there.

 

No program, or set of programs, will suit everyone's needs, so I'm not recommending or "dissing" any of them. Some of you may find other solutions may work better for you, and I have no objection. I have just found some things that work very well for me. If, gentle reader, you are also a writer, you may want to look into these things. Or you may wish to try something entirely different. Again, I have absolutely no objection. My only advice here is, find something you like, and that works well for you, and stick to it! It will only make the writing go more smoothly.

Anne G