writing tools

The gravitational pull of Linux

A pair of stories on /. today hold a particular fascination for me, particularly when taken together:

“Linux Desktop Distro Shootout”

“War Brewing on the Inexpensive Laptop Front”

They point to a pair of stories:

Infoweek: “Linux Shootout: 7 Desktop Distros Compared”.

We tested openSUSE, Ubuntu 8.04, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva Linux One, Fedora, SimplyMEPIS, and CentOS 5.1. All performed well, and each had at least one truly outstanding feature.

(At the moment, I am veering toward Kubuntu.)

And The Christian Science Monitor: “More computer brands chase the ‘$100 laptop’”.

Bye bye, bulk. New lines of tiny PCs fit both in your purse and into third-world classrooms.

Taken together, I can see my near-future computing needs handled, particularly on the writing front.

Bookmark: Using MultiMarkdown with Scrivener

From Fletcher Penny: “Using MultiMarkdown with Scrivener”

This document assumes a basic familiarity with Scrivener, and with MultiMarkdown. It is designed to help you combine the two programs into a system to help you with the writing process, as well as the printing and publishing process.

It will guide you through the process of setting up a document that will be compatible with exporting to MultiMarkdown.

I’ve been taking a look at Scrivener again of late — I waver back and forth about using it for my next book, but I’m leaning toward it at the moment.

(In case you don’t know, Fletcher is the one who expanded on John Gruber’s Markdown by creating the spiffy MultiMarkdown. Thanks Fletcher!)

Hidden Dictionary.app gems

Back in the days of NeXT, there was a bundled application called Digital Librarian. And as AppleInsider describes in this article, “Road to Mac OS X Leopard: Dictionary 2.0”,

Included with the system were the complete works of Shakespeare, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus.

With the new Dictionary.app, you have the ability to view other dictionaries, as well as all of Wikipedia — I’ve already been using this capability a ton. Combined with using the keyboard shortcuts under the “Search” menu, searching multiple places is very easy and quick.

An item that might go overlooked is in the “Go” menu — “Front/Back Matter.” Choosing that while the Dictionary is selected reveals various meta items like the people associated with making the included New Oxford American Dictionary, prefaces, introductions, etc. But there’s actually a massive amount of additional resources here. Check it out:

  • American Voices by William A.Kretzschmar, Jr.
  • How to Read an Etymology by Anatoly Liberman
  • Key to the Pronunciations
  • Key to the Abbreviations

Ready Reference

  • Language Guide
    • Rules of English: Understanding Grammar
    • Guide to Spelling
    • Guide to Capitalization and Punctuation
    • Words: Making the Right Choices
    • Clichés
    • Proofreader’s Marks
  • The History of English
    • Timeline
  • States of the United States of America
  • Presidents of the United States of America
  • Declaration of Independence
  • Constitution of the United States of America
  • Countries of the World
  • Chemical Elements
  • Standard Weights and Measures with Metric Equivalents and Conversions
  • Metric Weights and Measures with Standard Equivalents and Conversions
  • Alphabets

Of course, in our always-online culture nowadays, all of this stuff is available via your favorite web browser. But if you happen to be offline (horror of horrors), these could be very useful.

Screenbundle: Version 3 Released

Oliver Taylor has released an updated version of his unique screenwriting bundle for Textmate. Full info at “Screenbundle: Version 3 Released”.

Version 3 of the screenwriting bundle is out. The bundle is all new, it’s got a help file, a preview function, a ‘check for updates’ function, Auto-Complete, an ‘Import from Final Draft’ function that actually works, and a lot more.

Like Brad Choate’s Blogging bundle, the Screenbundle metamorphoses Textmate like a giant Transformer robot into a tool that most text editors can’t even pretend to aspire to — displaying both the app’s flexibility and the potential for all kinds of new directions. (Novel writing bundle anyone?)

Blogging From Ubuntu Using Drivel

Via rootprompt.org comes this article by Ubuntu Geek, “Blogging From Ubuntu Using Drivel”. It does a good job covering the basics on installation and usage.

Drivel is a GNOME client for working with online journals, also known as weblogs or simply blogs. It retains a simple and elegant design while providing many powerful features.

Drivel Features

  • Support for LiveJournal, Blogger, MovableType, Advogato, and Atom journals (systems based off these are also supported, including WordPress and Drupal)
  • The ability to post, edit, delete, and view recent entries
  • Integrated spellchecking and HTML syntax highlighting
  • Offline composition and editing
  • Automatic recovery in the event of a crash
  • Journal system extensions, including LiveJournal security groups and MovableType categories