01.31.05
Thinking with Type
For those who work with text, either in print or online, Thinking with Type, the online companion to a book of the same name, is an invaluable resource.
Archive for January, 2005
01.30.05
Damn You, Dunham
My TiVo nabbed a bunch of episodes of Comedy Central Presents for me this weekend, which was good — sure, they’re hit and miss in terms of quality, but every once in a while you get a Lewis Black or or a Dom Irrera or maybe an Arj Barker, and that makes up for the dreck you get the rest of the time. Anyway, one of the comedians I saw today was Jeff Dunham. The Joneses and Smiths among you might not understand this, but I get kind of excited when I see someone with my surname. It doesn’t happen often — in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone in person who had my last name and wasn’t related to me.
Anyway, I was prepared to laugh, but as it turned out Jeff Dunham is a spectacularly bad ventriloquist. He had several puppets, with different voices and mannerisms for each, but not a funny or original joke the whole show. He actually thought it would be a good idea to steal the dentist bit from Bill Cosby, Himself, cut out all the funniest punchlines, and put it in the mouth of a purple muppet-like creature with no teeth. And he wasn’t any good at the technical aspect of ventriloquism, either.
All I can hope for at this point is that he doesn’t become famous and create a stain on a perfectly good family name — the way I assume Carrot Top has done for all the Tops of the world. I don’t want to have to change my name just to avoid the uncomfortable “are you related to…” moments.
Best. Bumper Sticker. Ever.
Saw this bumper sticker on a car in front of my apartment building on Friday:
01.28.05
Weight Loss Technique
It always amazes me that people who would never dream of asking someone, “Why are you so fat?” have no trouble asking why I’m so skinny. But at least now I have an answer: apparently, it’s because I fidget a lot.
01.27.05
The (American) Office
Those of you in the habit of scrolling down a bit may have noticed the Amazon Associates link to the complete DVD edition of The Office that’s currently residing in my sidebar. Well, today I was alerted by a Metafilter post to an American remake of this great British sitcom. The pilot is available online, and if you want a summary of what’s wrong with American sitcoms, you could do a lot worse than to compare this dreck to the masterful original.
It’s entirely possible that if I saw the American version without having experienced Ricky Gervais as David Brent first, I wouldn’t hate it. But it’s such a pale imitation … I just can’t express how much I hate it. The pacing is off — the original let you wallow in shocked, uncomfortable silence, while this one zips you off to the next scene. The direction is bad — there’s always a reaction shot, always a reminder that what you’re watching is not a documentary. And the casting is all wrong. It’s just wrong.
If you haven’t seen the original, there’s no time like the present. But don’t bother with the remake.
OS X Software for Writers
Writers these days are dependent on computers — they make archiving, editing, and copying your work so much easier that going back to the days of the typewriter is unthinkable to all but the most die hard traditionalist. But most word processors weren’t created with a writer’s needs in mind. Nor is a word processor the only software tool writers need: other useful options include a database for storing and sorting ideas, a quick and flexible brainstorming tool, and a document formatter for submitting work to publishers.
As an aspiring writer, I’ve spent a lot of quality procrastination time surveying the tools available for writers using OS X, and in this post I’ll summarize my findings, organized by the stage of the writing process each program is designed to help, and I’ll describe what’s in my own personal writing toolbox.
Idea Gathering
VoodooPad, by Flying Meat Software, uses the wiki concept to build a personal idea database. If you’ve ever used a wiki, there’s virtually nothing to learn: you’ll be up and running in minutes. If you’re unfamiliar with the wiki way of formatting a document, VoodooPad comes with a complete tutorial. I’ve become completely dependent on this program — there’s no faster or simpler way to record, edit, and organize ideas for later reference. VoodooPad is $24.95 and worth every penny, but there’s also a Lite version available for free.
I also tried Circus Ponies Notebook and AquaMinds NoteTaker, and found both lacking. They’re essentially the same program: both grew out of a notebook outliner for NeXT systems called NoteBook, and in fact both still contain some of the original code from that program. That’s not to say there aren’t differences — I won’t go into a full comparison here, but the curious can find one at ATPM. Suffice it to say, however, that I found both awkward, slow, confusing, and overpriced (NoteTaker is $69.95; NoteBook is $49.95; demos and academic discounts are available for both). Your mileage may vary, of course, and I know some people swear by them, but to me it seemed they put more effort into the spiral-bound interface than usability. I’ll stick with VoodooPad.
One other program bears mention here: MacJournal. MacJournal used to be available for free, but as of January 4 it’s been “republished” by Mariner Software as a commercial product ($29.95 boxed; $19.95 for the download edition). I’m still using the freeware version, so I can’t comment on any changes as of version 3.0, but I’ve always found it to be a solid product, perfect for keeping a personal diary or dream journal.
Outlining
For fleshing out an idea before starting the writing process itself, I like NovaMind because it combines the features of a brainstorming/mind mapping tool and an outliner. You start with your core concept in the middle of the screen and build branches outward, like a flowchart. Then, when it’s time to structure your ideas, you can switch to Outline view or Screenplay view and follow your story step by step, increasing or decreasing the level of detail as needed. You can also export your map in a variety of formats, including PowerPoint, XML, RTF, PDF, or even a Java-based web presentation. At $79 for the standard edition, it’s not what I’d call a bargain — and of all the programs I’m listing in this entry, I consider NovaMind the least essential for most writers. Still, the combination of mind mapping and outlining in one tool is pretty convenient, and the program is stable and easy to use, so if you’ve got the money and the feature set appeals to you I can recommend it without reservation. There’s also a screenwriter’s edition for $99, but the only unique features it offers are duplicated by Final Draft, which is the one program you need to be using if you’re a screenwriter on a Mac. Save the extra money and go with the standard edition.
Writing
The big players in this field right now are Ulysses (100 €) and CopyWrite ($29.99). I’ve tried and enjoyed them both, but in the end my recommendation goes to CopyWrite. Both programs organize your project as a set of individual subdocuments: each chapter, each character outline, each location description is its own document, and each can have notes attached to it for future reference. Each document can also have its own status — draft or final, for example. You can add and remove categories to fit your way of working. And when the project is done and it’s time to format it for submission, you can export your chapters in a variety of formats.
Exporting documents is one area in which Ulysses has the lead: it can save your work in plain text, RTF, or Latex formats, and an SDK is available so third-party developers can create export plugins. Another nice feature of Ulysses is its fullscreen mode, which removes everything from view except the text you’re working on.
Both Ulysses and CopyWrite de-emphasize formatting and layout — these are not word processors or desktop publishing programs. You’re expected to structure and type your document first, and fiddle with the appearance later, in a separate program. I like that idea, especially since different markets often have different rules regarding document format. For my taste, though, Ulysses takes this concept too far: even italicizing text has apparently been deemed an unnecessary distraction. One might wonder what one is expected to do if one wants to emphasize a given word, or set off a passage of internal monologue. As it turns out, the developers expect you to think up some sort of plain text delimiter, such as underscores or asterisks, and then set the export feature to convert those into something else, like rich text italics or LaTeX commands. I don’t have a problem with that per se, except that if I’m going to be using some sort of text delimiter anyway, why can’t I just use Command-I to italicize text on screen and then let the export feature convert that to the relevant command? That way the program would work the same as every other Cocoa-based program, and I wouldn’t have to learn anything new or take any extra steps.
And, in fact, that’s exactly what CopyWrite does.
As a matter of fact, CopyWrite does pretty much everything exactly the way I expect it to, and that’s what I like most about it. I don’t think I’ve resorted to the manual yet — the options are self-explanatory, and the interface is simple and elegant. It keeps a word count for both each individual document and the project as a whole, and the project word count only includes words from the documents you specify. You can associate not just notes but also URLs with each document, or even create a link within a document — very handy if your project involves a lot of online research. And while the emphasis is still on the text, there are enough formatting options to make the job of writing pleasant — you can bold, italicize, and underline text, change the font, line spacing, and color, and specify how CopyWrite should handle paragraph breaks (space between paragraphs, indentation, both, or neither). It’s intuitive, simple, and powerful, and if I had to choose just one program to handle my writing, it would be CopyWrite.
Formatting
Formatting is a necessary evil for all writers, but our needs in this area aren’t particularly complex because it isn’t the writer’s job to lay out a story or book — the publisher has professionals for that. We do have to format documents properly for submission, however, so some sort of word processor or DTP software is needed. Just about any will do, actually, from Microsoft Word right down to TextEdit if you’re so inclined, but the ideal lies somewhere in between.
There are several OS X word processors that aim to fit this niche, including Nisus Writer Express ($59) and Mariner Write ($59.95), but for my taste the perfect balance of features and simplicity is found in Mellel ($39). Mellel offers all the formatting options a writer is likely to need, including things like multiple chains of footnotes in a single document, which you won’t find even in bloated, high-priced competitors like Microsoft Word. That’s because Mellel focuses on features needed by scholars and writers, whereas the big boys go for the lowest common denominator and emphasize features needed in a multi-user office environment. This also happens to make Mellel a better word processor for home use, since most of us are unlikely to use, say, a Track Changes feature when typing up a letter. Mellel’s menus and preferences aren’t cluttered with stuff you’ll never need. Since Mellel is also fast, easy to use, and inexpensive, it’s an excellent choice as your primary word processor if you don’t absolutely need 100% MS Office compatibility. If you happen to be a writer or research scholar, it’s the ideal solution at any price.
Conclusion
Apple’s reputation as the platform of choice for creative work is borne out by the wide range of software available to help writers with every stage of their work. As long as this article is, I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s out there — every section of this survey could have included at least two more programs, and all of them have their uses and their loyal fans. And there are also specialty programs that were beyond the scope of this survey. I mentioned, for example, Final Draft, the most popular software for writing scripts of all types, but there’s also Movie Magic Screenwriter for the same job, or even Final Draft AV, which includes features specifically aimed at audio-visual scripts like advertisements and presentations. Since every writer’s process is unique, every writer has different needs. Fortunately, all of the software I’ve reviewed here is available in demo form, so you can try it out yourself before spending any money.
Having tried it all myself, I’ve decided on my own personal novel writing software toolbox, and it seems to be working well for me thus far. Here it is again, in descending order of importance:
- CopyWrite — the single most important writing tool I know.
- VoodooPad — a fast, easy to use idea database.
- Mellel — a word processor created with writers’ needs in mind.
- NovaMind — an intuitive brainstorming and outlining tool.
- MacJournal — for tracking my dreams and experiences.
01.26.05
Nova ScienceNOW
There’s a new science show on PBS called Nova ScienceNOW — and, silly capitalization aside, if you’re at all interested in recent developments in the world of science, you owe it to yourself to TiVo this show. If you don’t have a TiVo, this is the perfect excuse to buy one. It’s for science!
The first episode featured segments on hurricane prediction, an engineer’s attempts to engineer every aspect of his life, “booming” desert sands, and — most interesting to me — mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are, in short, the reason we can learn by imitation, the driving force behind human culture, and the biological basis of empathy. If you missed it, check out the ScienceNOW web site for clips, updates, bonus materials, links to further resources, an RSS feed, and even the complete episode in streaming video.
Update: I had thought Nova ScienceNOW was a completely new show; turns out it’s just a recurring feature within the Nova series. Disappointing, but I’ll take what I can get.
01.25.05
Proper Feed Formatting with Textile
I use WordPress as my weblog engine these days. I also use the Textile humane web text generator for formatting. WordPress comes with a handy Textile 2 plugin, which works beautifully. Unfortunately, it completely ignores RSS and Atom feeds.
In other words (as some of you may have noticed), reading my blog in an aggregator until recently yielded you the raw, unformatted Textile markup, not the beautiful, humane, formatted text. Links didn’t work, nothing was bold or italicized, and things just generally looked awful.
Turns out there’s a very simple fix — all you need to do is add two filters so that outgoing feeds are parsed by the Textile plugin. But if you change the original plugin file (textile2.php, located in your plugins folder), your changes will be overwritten if the textile plugin is updated. And you don’t want that.
Instead, you want to use a my-hacks.php file. The details are on the wiki and in this support thread, but here it is in a nutshell: make sure the “Use legacy my-hacks.php support” option (under Options -> Miscellaneous) is checked. Then create a file in your root folder called my-hacks.php (with permissions ensuring the server can read it) containing the following code — and only this code. Extra lines before and after the PHP code block can and will foul things up, so make sure there are no blank lines or other garbage in there. Also, please note that I’ve only tested this on WordPress 1.2, because that’s the only version I’ve ever used as of this writing.
<?php
add_filter('the_content_rss', 'textile', 6);
add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'textile', 6);
?>
Unfortunately, as mentioned in the support thread linked above, this will create another problem: Atom feeds won’t validate because they have a mode="escaped" attribute on their <content> and <excerpt> elements, and that mode conflicts with the XHTML entities that now appear in our Atom feed. The fix for this is a little bit messier: open up wp-atom.php and delete the two occurrences of the string mode="escaped". You’ll note that we’re not using my_hacks.php here, so the next time you update WordPress, this change will be lost and you’ll probably need to do it again (unless, of course, the next version of WordPress fixes the problem).
The result should be nicely formatted RSS feeds for your loyal readers. Also, note that although the name of the filter only mentions RSS, this hack does work on Atom feeds, too. Enjoy!
Approach the Bench
No player hater I, but I must confess I would have felt a touch of embarrassment bringing this case before the court — even in Louisiana. Still, it provides an amusing respite from a rather stressful day.
01.20.05
Stop Verbing Nouns!
If I hear one more teacher using the word norm as a verb, I’ll start hitting people — especially in the phrase “norming data.” Why would anyone take a perfectly good noun, turn it into a verb, derive the participial adjective of that verb, and tack it onto another noun, only to end up with a synonym of the original noun?
