Contextures Blog

If you have a blog, I’d highly recommend that you write your articles in Windows Live Writer. It’s a free download, available on the Windows Live web site.

You’ll need a Windows Live account before you can use the program, so if you don’t have an account yet, it’ll take you a couple of minutes to set that up.

I’ve been using Live Writer for a couple of weeks and find it much quicker and easier than logging into my WordPress blog, and writing an article in the tiny window there.

Set Up a Blog

You can set up one blog, or several blogs, and publish to any of them from the same Windows Live Writer session.

It only takes a minute or two to set up a blog in Live Writer. Fill in the URL, name, password, and select from a few options.

Then, select a blog from the dropdown list, and start writing.

Write an Article

Live Writer has a nice big writing area, so it’s easier to see what you’re doing, and view more of the current article.

There’s a formatting toolbar, with most of the common tools. Align is on the Format menu though, instead of the toolbar.

A few more features that keep me using Live Writer:

• Spelling mistakes are underlined, so you can correct them as you work.
• From the sidebar, you can insert objects such as a table, map, or video.

• For articles with pictures, I keep Windows Explorer open, and drag the images in from there. That’s much quicker than using the Upload feature in WordPress.
• At the bottom of the article window you can set the categories or add new categories.
• The Set publish date feature lets you schedule articles for publishing later.

Improvements

There are a couple of things that I’d like to see improved in the next version.

• Tags — There’s an Insert Tags option, but I don’t see the tags in the published article on my web site.
• Align — Add an Align button to the formatting toolbar.
• Pictures — Don’t insert all the images as thumbnails. Maybe there’s somewhere to change that setting, but I haven’t found it yet.

Those are minor annoyances though, and the benefits far outweigh them.

Try It!

Whether you write a couple of articles a month or several per day, I think you’ll like Live Writer. If you do try, let me know what you think of it.
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Yes, I definitely need more space for all this office stuff. At least that was my first thought as I looked around my office on the weekend.

Even though I cleared out a few bookshelves recently, there’s just not enough room in here for all the remaining books, files, computers, printers, gadgets, project binders, and penguins.

So, I thought about a trip to Home Depot, to buy a shelving unit that would make better use of the corner space, and maybe hide some of the tangle of wiring.

Fortunately, I came to my senses and realized that the problem isn’t storage space. The problem is stuff.

• Do I really need those notes from projects I worked on in 1995. (No, I’m not exaggerating.)
• Why am I keeping those disks for CorelDraw 7? I haven’t installed it on my past 4 machines.
• When was the last time I used a floppy disk? And why do I have all those boxes of them in the storage closet?

Fire Up the Shredder

This week I’ll be keeping the shredder busy, as I clear the file drawers and storage boxes of old documents. The old floppy disks and CDs with client information will have to stay for now, until I figure out a way to securely dispose of them.

Any ideas on how to get rid of them? My shredder is only designed for paper, so maybe I’ll have to buy one of those fancy new ones that eats anything.

In the meantime, if you need me, I’ll be under that pile of paper in the corner. And don’t worry, the penguins are safe.

In Microsoft Word, recording a macro is just a double-click away.
Normally, to record a macro in Word, you’d click on the Tools menu, then click Macro, then click Record New Macro.

A much quicker way is to double-click on the REC box in the status bar, at the bottom of the Word window.

The Record Macro dialog box immediately opens, and you can begin recording.

Double-click the REC box again, to turn off the recorder.

Other Shortcuts

There are other double-click shortcuts in the status bar:

• TRK: Toggle the Track Changes feature
• EXT: Toggle the Extend Selection feature
• OVR: Toggle the Overtype feature (does anyone use that?)
• Page Number (or any area in the left end of the Status Bar): Open the Go To dialog box

If you use Feedburner to manage your blog’s email subscriptions, you can customize the activation letter that goes out to new subscribers. Instead of using the default address, subject line and email body, you can use your own greeting. I just discovered this feature, so if you got a boring, generic greeting from me, I apologize!

How To Customize the Email

Log in to Feedburn and click the Publicize tab
In the list of Services, click on Email Subscriptions

In the list that appears below Email Subscriptions, click on Communication Preferences

In the Communication Preferences page you can modify your From address, the Subject line, and the Body text. There are instructions below each box to help you.

Even if you just add a few words of your own, like “please” and “thanks”, it will improve the default message.

You could also add the URL of your main site (it won’t be clickable), in case the subscriber hasn’t found that yet.

When you’re done, click the Save button, and log out of Feedburner.

A couple of weeks ago I started reading Never Procrastinate Again, and promised to report on what I thought of the material, and how well it worked for me.

Reasons For Procrastination

This is an audio course with written transcript and worksheets, by Dave Navarro from the Rock Your Day blog. I listened to a few minutes of the audio files, but those just don’t suit my learning style, so I used the written transcript instead. There are also video files (about 100 MB) that you can download separately, but I didn’t bother with those.

The key to this course is identifying why you’re procrastinating, by reviewing ten possible reasons in a worksheet. The ten procrastination causes fall into three basic categories:

1. I don’t like to do it.
2. I don’t know how to do it.
3. I’m afraid to do it.

Beside each of the ten reasons there’s a suggested method for overcoming your resistance, and there’s space to write little pep talks to yourself. On another worksheet you can schedule time to practice these pep talks.

My Checklist

I haven’t bought into the self pep talk approach, but the list of procrastination reasons was thought provoking. So, I wrote a list of work-related things I have to do, and things I want to do, both long and short term. A few of those things made my stomach knot when I thought about them, so I ran a couple of those through the reasons checklist.

The first example was invoicing. Why do I avoid that task, even though I like getting paid for the work that I do? The reason seemed to be a mixture of dislike and fear. It’s a bit tedious, even though I have a database with all the information, and the reports and queries help make it easier. The fear is that I’ll make an error in an invoice or that someone will question an item or two.

My Solution

I decided to work on the October invoices and create a set of instructions as I worked. Next month I won’t have to remember all the details, I’ll just follow the written steps. I’ll also look for ways to make things easier for myself.

I built a few error checking steps into the instructions, so that alleviates some of my fear. I also realized that my time sheet data entry needs a bit of improvement, so I can clearly describe the work that’s being invoiced for on-going projects. That should reduce any questions about the invoices.

Break Down the List

The other thing I realized is that several of the things on my to do list need to be broken into smaller pieces. That will make those items less scary, and make it easier to know how to do them.

I keep my list visible on the computer desktop all the time, so that helps me stay focused. Instead of wandering off to explore something new, the minute I think of it, I add it to the list to work on later. When I’m between billable work sessions, I can pick something non-billable from the list to work on. So far, it’s going pretty well.

The Verdict

The Never Procrastinate Again course helped me get started on a few things, even though I didn’t follow all of the author’s suggestions. Maybe the self talk and role playing works for some people, but I’ll pass on those. However, the checklist is great for identifying problems, and for realizing that some tasks are too big to tackle in one piece. Next time a task makes my stomach knot, I’ll run it through the checklist.

I keep track of my tasks in an Excel file, where I have macros that export the completed data to Access for invoicing.

I check the list every morning, and at the end of the day, but not very often throughout the day. So, while I might have an excellent plan for the day, it can go off the rails if I get distracted.

NextAction is a little program in which you can list your activities, then mark them as done throughout the day. It’s a free download available on the TimeSnapper website. I’m testing it to see if it will help me keep on track.

When it’s not active, it’s still visible on my desktop, in the bottom corner of the second monitor.

So far, the benefits seem to outweigh the negatives.

Benefits

• I can copy and paste the current day’s task list from Excel, so there’s no time wasted in retyping anything.
• The window stays on top of other programs (optional setting) with adjustable transparency. This keeps my task list visible, no matter what else I’m doing, and reminds me of the day’s list.
• To keep track of start and end times, I can mark the task as Done when I start it, to create a time stamp. When I’m finished, I mark it Done again, to get another time stamp.

Negatives

• There’s no way to export the data, so I have to copy and paste the completed tasks back to Excel. If I decide to keep using NextAction, I’ll write an Excel macro to clean up the pasted data and calculated the time spent on each task.
• No drag and drop in the text editing, so I had to cut and paste to move things around.
• After changing a couple of the settings, it lost its Stay On Top capability, even though that setting was still turned on. Exiting and reopening seemed to fix it.