January 22, 2021

Improve Your Writing With TextSoap

Along with PaperEdit, I'm using TextSoap, as a proofreading tool. Not the editor itself, but it's ability to combine RegEx with text highlighting and capitalization to call out words and phrases for improvement. My original "cleaner" had a list of common words I wanted to avoid, such as "just" and "that." I've made several enhancements to look for past tense words, prepositions and others. These are in separate "cleaners" I can call on as needed. Or I can chain them together in a single pass. For example, I've added \b(been|has been|being|to be|was)\b to call out specific past tense words. There is also a check for words ending in "ed," which is usually past tense. Of course, Ted isn't past tense, so it's not foolproof. \b(was \w+ed\b) Same goes for adverbs and "ly." Again, Lily isn't an adverb, so you have to take the good with the bad. \b(\w+ly\b) I've also created a list of prepositions, just to see how often […]

January 21, 2021

How I Use the Shell

I am by no means a master at programming the shell. I'm not even sure my skills would be considered novice. However, even with just a few commands, the Terminal/Unix Shell of the Mac can be an incredibly powerful tool. Things get more exciting when you couple it with Keyboard Maestro. A few of my most common shell commands include grep, split,find, mv,cp cat, wc, head, tail and rsync. Even with just these few you can perform some very clever tricks and save yourself a ton of time. Grep is used to find text within a text file. That may not sound like much until you try it with a .CSV file that's 1.5GB in size. Go ahead and look for a customer, SKU, or phone number in that mess. With grep it's light work and results can be piped off into a much smaller file you can open. In fact, grep was my re-introduction to the Shell when using […]

January 20, 2021

Affinity offers big discounts and extended trials on Photo, Designer and Publisher

Affinity is back with another big discount and extended trial versions to help out those working remotely or who need to finish their projects. In their own words: A message from the Affinity team As a way to lend support to the creative community during these difficult times, we’re once again offering a 90-day free trial of the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite, for anyone who wants to use them (even those who have previously completed a free trial). We’re also bringing back the 50% discount for those who would prefer to buy and keep the apps, including our iPad versions. This is a fabulous discount from a great company. Affinity

January 19, 2021

Improve Your Writing With PaperEdit

When it comes to revising your first draft, whether it be blog article or book chapter, the task can be daunting. Of course, there are tools like spellcheck and grammar check in macOS that are great, but what about other problems like, weak phrases, long sentences, passive voice, hyperbole, and other wording to clean up. While it’s no substitute for manually proofreading, tools like PaperEdit can help you focus your editing efforts on these specific areas. PaperEdit allows you to load or paste text, then highlights sentences that could be improved. As mentioned it will highlight passive voice, long sentences, recycled starting words, and repeated words. At a glance you can see where to focus. You can then cycle through each highlighted passage to see if you agree. I find this a great first step in the revision process. If there’s a rainbow of color, it’s time to make some serious edits. That’s not a bad thing because I know […]

January 18, 2021

How I Use Scrivener for Journaling

Despite the "dear diary" image the word journaling may conjure, it's an extremely beneficial tool and process. It's something I have been doing with Scrivener for years. Travel writers keep a journal of the places they visit, sites they see, people they meet. Scientists keep a journal a of their experiments, the results, and discoveries. Why not do the same thing for the journey of life? The "journal" can take many forms and isn't always written. Some people meditate to clear their minds or to focus on specific ideas. Some use yoga for the same purpose. Others listen to music and step away from tasks and chores for an hour. This allows their mind to explore and wander to new ideas. Others take time to write gratitude and affirmations. Some keep track of goals, activities, or events. For me the journal and the process of writing in it serves several purposes. At times it's a way to warm up for […]

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