Dicehaven

Tabletop RPG Podcast and Roleplaying Resources

Author: Stan Shinn (Page 94 of 111)

Deleting entire words in a keystroke

October 18, 2006 /

A productivity boost for all writers — deleting entire words in a keystroke:

Hot off the presses from Lifehacker headquarters LA (i.e., just discovered this morning in my dining room-cum-office) comes my favorite new keyboard shortcut, Control-Backspace (Windows)/Option-Delete (Mac).

Ctrl-Backspace/Option-Delete will delete the entire word to the left of your cursor in one keystroke, meaning no holding down and waiting to individually delete every letter from Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – the swift shortcut will take care of the whole word in one fell swoop. Source

Storing Your Files on the Go

October 3, 2006 /

boxnet-logo.png

If you’re like me, you find yourself working on multiple computers, and lugging a USB stick around can be a pain (what if you forget it?). Moreover, what if you lose your ISB stick?

Answer: use Box.net to store your writing documents and have them accessible from any PC or Mac.

This article shows how to connect to Box.net via the Mac Finder, giving you desktop access to a free, mountable 1 Gig online storage account. In a nutshell:

1) Get a box.net account.
2) In the Mac Finder select the GO menu then choose Connect to Server (Or Command-K).
3) Put in the address: https://www.box.net/dav
4) When it prompts, put in your Box.net username as your name and your Box.net password in the password field.

That’s it, look on your desktop. There should be a new connection mounded on your hard drive called dav.

Here’s an article for connecting to Box.net under Windows XP.

The secret is a web protocol called WebDav, which both XP and Mac support, and Box.net now provides as one of their many ways to access your Box.net file storage.

Writely Keyboard Shortcuts

September 9, 2006 /

Here are some helpful shortcuts for those of you using Writely to compose your works.
FROM THE EDITOR MENU:

  • Ctrl S to Save
  • Ctrl K to Insert Link
  • Ctrl M to Insert Comment

FROM THE BROWSER:

  • Ctrl B to Bold
  • Ctrl I to Italicize
  • Ctrl-Z to Undo
  • Ctrl-Y to Redo
  • Ctrl A to Select All
  • Ctrl C to Copy
  • Ctrl V to Paste
  • Ctrl X to Cut
  • Ctrl Home to go to the top of the document
  • Ctrl End to go to the end of the document
  • Ctrl Alt-? to select the next word
  • Ctrl Alt-? to select the previous word

OTHER TIPS:

  • To count the number of words in your Writely doc, just select “Edit” > “Count Words.”
  • Another handy shortcut is Shift Enter. This keyboard combination adds a carriage return that stays only one-line high when you export the document from Writely.

Chapter Breaks for Each Scene?

August 25, 2006 /

Maximum RideHere is an interesting page-turner technique. James Patterson (www.jamespatterson.com), author of numerous best-selling books, has released the latest installment of the Young Adult series.

In this book (titled School’s Out Forever) there are 142 chapters (yes, 142!). There are only 406 pages. Some chapters are three or five pages; others are only a paragraph or two.

Each scene gets a chapter break. You end up with a lot of white space, but I think this is on purpose. My theory is that by having each scene be a mini-cliff-hanger, and requiring the reader to glance over at a new page or turn to a new page, you create suspense.

A glance at some of his Patterson’s books targeted to adults make me think he does this all the time.

Is this a new trend? A gimmick? Or a valuable tool for thriller writers to create suspense?

More importantly, what do you think publishers think of this technique? Should writers consider this technique when they are preparing their manuscripts?

Let me know your thoughts. Discussion is underway at the Faith*In*Fiction ‘For Writers’ forum where I have also made this post.

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