Month: August 2006

Scrivener: Novel Writing Ecstasy

August 7, 2006 /

Scrivener Novel Writing Tool

Finally, a (nearly) perfect novel writing tool. Scrivener software (still in beta) is a light-weight but innovative software tool exclusively for Macintosh users. You can download a beta version for free at http://www.literatureandlatte.com. Click on the thumbnail images for full screenshots.

Scrivener's outlining and note card capability allow you to organize your novel. You can annotate and categorize content in ways to allow you to flexibly craft the outline to the way you write.

Scrivener Fullscreen

Scrivener also has a full-screen mode text editor that whose background color is an eyeball-friendly black. No distractions and a slim column complete this optimized environment for the serious writer.


Google Webmaster Guidelines

August 4, 2006 /

Google SearchGoogle has published a nice, concise guide to help you optimize your site for Google Search:

Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index.

A must read for considering your SEO strategy. Read full article: Webmaster Guidelines

Advanced Google Search Operators

August 4, 2006 /

Google SearchGoogle has published an improved help center which gives information on advanced search operators such as "link:":

Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com.

This is helpful if you do day-to-day SEO analysis. Read full article: Advanced Google Search Operators

Essential email filters

August 3, 2006 /

gmail_filters.jpg
You may not use them all, but there are some great ideas for email filters here:

I receive hundreds of email messages a day, but only a couple dozen actually make it into my inbox. Thanks to the automated power of full-strength email filters, just the messsages that are important enough to deal with catch my attention when I'm busy.

Read filter details at Geek to Live: Essential email filters

Gmail Contact View

August 2, 2006 /

A great Gmail tip:

In Gmail, I keep finding it really useful to hit the Contacts button on the left side navigation area, and then click on a contact’s name. What comes back is a little contact card area up top (complete with picture, if they’re a Gmail user, or if you’ve bothered to add pictures to your contacts).

Full article at lifehack.org