Writing update

Well, I've been using Buzzword on and off for the past few weeks. I've been switching between Word and Buzzword (and the archaic use of pencil and paper too) in a random and sporadic manner. In actual fact I've been tending to use Word to draft some rough paragraphs and then copy them into Buzzword to compile it.

Still very happy with Buzzword, although there was one rather frustrating day when it was being upgraded or offline for some reason. So, I reverted to my mac's trusty TextEdit for the day instead!

I've just shared two files with my supervisors for comments, so we'll see what happens and how Buzzword, and my supervisors, cope with that.

As an aside, I'm currently half considering the use of InDesign at the end to format all the copy and convert to pdf (I hope to turn my thesis into a set of Lulu books). Only trouble is I don't know how to use InDesign yet, but that seems like a minor point!

Buzzword - Am I being as stupid as I think I may be?

So the title says it all really. I've decided to take what I think may be a somewhat unusual step on my road to PhD thesis writing. I'm using Adobe's Buzzword.

Yes, I know it's pretty simplistic, but if I'm honest that what appeals. An online, accessible-from-anywhere, intuitive, and, frankly, elegant design for creating documents just screams 'use me'.

It could be dangerous (it's still in Beta afterall). What if I lose files, want to add TOC (table of contents), and other exciting MS Word features? Hmmm, well I've thought about it and my concession is this - I don't think it's going to be completely realistic for me to use Buzzword as my one and only word processor and I'm going to be printing off lots of draft versions as back up (which I do when using Word anyway). So I'll be switching between Buzzword for creating drafts and Word for 'fine-tuning' the drafts.

I feel like I can write quicker and create smaller (read as 'concise'!), more modular documents in Buzzword's simple, uncluttered interface (with half a mind somehow aware of the hellish task awaiting me in collating these multitude of docs with only Word).

Yet it seems appropriate to use an online tool to tell my thesis story - after all my research is all about how technology is changing the way we communicate. Why not extend that to the way we create and distribute?

Any comments from anyone who has used Buzzword would be welcome...

GuiMags

So it's been a while since my last blog (understatement of the year) but I just came across this website and felt compelled to blog about it.

I'm becoming increasingly technophobic whilst still maintaining an aspect of geekiness (it takes skill I tell you) so when I found this suggestion on a website I was thrilled:

"Could designing software without a computer save you roughly 80% of your time...?" - GuiMags

They've created GuiMags - magnets of, you've guessed it, GUI elements like drop-down menus, radio buttons, labels etc, designed for use on a whiteboard. Much quicker than the use of paper prototyping and, I think, would offer a much more collaborative, interactive workflow.