Writing

I'm surprised by how much of my typing is now done outside of
traditional e-mail or business software (like Microsoft Word). Instead,
my typing is done in web-based applications like my blog, Facebook, or
Twitter. That's where a program like Asutype really shines.

I have been using a very effective spell-checking and text expansion program for several years now. It works so well that I forget it's there, even though it automatically fixes most of my typing errors and makes it easy for me to enter repetitive phrases or pieces of information.  The bottom-line is that it helps me type more accurately and much faster.

There are three basic ways to use the software.

1. Correct Mistakes Interactively. The first is an interactive spell checker that works as you type (hence the name "Asutype"). When you type something that isn't in its dictionaries, it pops up a correction box with several of the most likely replacement candidates. This provides a quick and easy way to fix your spelling without having to retype anything.
   
   
2. Correct Repetitive Mistakes Automatically. The software also keeps track of the mistakes you make as well as the corrections that you apply and allows you to create a list of automatic entries. From time-to-time I'll review the list of corrections and choose to add them to my permanent list. When I do that, then next time I mistype that word or phrase, the software automatically fixes it (without even asking). This means I type much quicker because most of my typing mistakes are repetitive and that means I make them consistently). I'm actually surprised by how many different ways I could misspell certain words. It's not so much that I don't know how to spell them, it's that my fingers don't do the right thing when I'm trying to type quickly or get distracted.
   

3. Automate Repetitive Typing.  The software also has some very powerful text expansion capabilities. I think of them almost as abbreviations or shortcuts. There are certain words or phrases that I type often (examples include: Capitalogix, our web address, or phrase like "please contact me if you have questions or comments".). Another example might be to use the abbreviation "VTY", which could expand to "very truly yours" …  and then your signature block.

You never have a second chance to make a first impression, so I'm glad that Asutype helps me seem like a good speller. Here are the links for you to find out more information or to download a trial copy yourself. I don't have anything to do with the company other than I'm a happy user. I've had my license for years, and I can vouch for their service, support, and the good experience that I've had with their tool. I hope you like it too.

I got a new gadget. It is a Livescribe pen that records both what it hears and what you write.

From a small sample of using it about a dozen times so far, I am impressed; Livescribe works great, and delivers immediate benefit at meetings and seminars.  I use it to review conversations and brain-storming sessions for clarification, or to catch something I missed the first time through.

It generates an interesting polarity of responses though. Some people get it instantly and want to know where they can buy them.  Others couldn't care less.  No one objected to its use during the meeting – and I suspect that it became invisible quickly.

It records about a hundred hours of surprisingly clear audio.  The pen has a camera, just above the tip, that captures the image of what is being written — and synchronizes this to what you hear or say.  And if you go back and touch the tip of the pen to writing on the page, you hear what was being said while it was written.  You can even control the playback speed to go faster, or slower, when you want.

The Livescribe pen looks and feels nice.  It comes with a leather travel case and a dock to sync it with your computer.  There is well-designed software that lets you manage and share the results. Livescribe created a place to post "pen-casts" online, to share with your team.  You can limit who see it with an access control list or leave it open.  Click here for an example.

I'm sending my son to back to school with one.  It seems like the perfect environment for a tool like this. 

All-in-all, Livescribe is worth a try. For more information about this interesting technology, here is the Livescribe's site.

Here are some video demos.

It looks like college book stores and Amazon are expected to be the big distribution channels.

I got a new gadget. It is a Livescribe pen that records both what it hears and what you write.

From a small sample of using it about a dozen times so far, I am impressed; Livescribe works great, and delivers immediate benefit at meetings and seminars.  I use it to review conversations and brain-storming sessions for clarification, or to catch something I missed the first time through.

It generates an interesting polarity of responses though. Some people get it instantly and want to know where they can buy them.  Others couldn't care less.  No one objected to its use during the meeting – and I suspect that it became invisible quickly.

It records about a hundred hours of surprisingly clear audio.  The pen has a camera, just above the tip, that captures the image of what is being written — and synchronizes this to what you hear or say.  And if you go back and touch the tip of the pen to writing on the page, you hear what was being said while it was written.  You can even control the playback speed to go faster, or slower, when you want.

The Livescribe pen looks and feels nice.  It comes with a leather travel case and a dock to sync it with your computer.  There is well-designed software that lets you manage and share the results. Livescribe created a place to post "pen-casts" online, to share with your team.  You can limit who see it with an access control list or leave it open.  Click here for an example.

I'm sending my son to back to school with one.  It seems like the perfect environment for a tool like this. 

All-in-all, Livescribe is worth a try. For more information about this interesting technology, here is the Livescribe's site.

Here are some video demos.

It looks like college book stores and Amazon are expected to be the big distribution channels.

ClipMate is a little piece of software that I didn't expect to think much of.
Someone recommended that I try it, and I did; but without much hope.
Instead, I find that it's a utility that I use dozens of times everyday.

The simple description is that ClipMate is a universal clipboard enhancement that works alongside the regular Windows Clipboard and remembers every piece of data (both text and graphics) that you cut, copy or screen-capture.  Once your data is saved in ClipMate, you can select an item and it is automatically placed back on the Clipboard or directly to wherever you select. 

The author of ClipMate has been updating this program for over 16 years, and clearly
listens to user suggestions.  The result is mature product that does
more than I could have imagined.

For example, within ClipMate you can view, print, edit, reformat, convert to
upper/lower case, search, rename, and reorder Clip Items.

There are
several "heavy lifting" features such as pasting multiple items all at once, using
Templates, and lots of "clean-up" functions like spell-check, format stripping, removing extra line breaks, spaces and strange
characters (I call this de-crappifying the document). All-in-all, it does a lot of things well.

It's a Clip Organizer Too:

Once you start using it to capture data, you're going to want to find and use it too.  ClipMate allows you to store your clips in different folders, or
collections, based on how you work, and to set retention rules accordingly. I suspect that many users keep their most-commonly used data in their "Safe" collection, while others spread it out by topic, project, source, etc..  Personally, I have a section for "Templates" that I re-use, Quotes, Things to Purchase, Web Sites, Passwords, Humor, even graphic elements. 

Beyond basic organization, it is searchable; so I can find
something that I saved, regardless of where I put it.

ClipMate can hold tens of thousands of items, and its SQL-based search engine can find them all quickly for you.  Even if you decide to do nothing special with your clips – you'll always have the last 1000 clips at you disposal, ready to paste wherever you need them.  When you're ready to use a "clip", just select it in ClipMate, and it's "loaded" onto the system clipboard, ready for pasting into any program.  And with many programs, you can now drag/drop the clip directly from ClipMate.

Try it; it's an incredibly useful tool that you'll use everyday.

ClipMate is a little piece of software that I didn't expect to think much of.
Someone recommended that I try it, and I did; but without much hope.
Instead, I find that it's a utility that I use dozens of times everyday.

The simple description is that ClipMate is a universal clipboard enhancement that works alongside the regular Windows Clipboard and remembers every piece of data (both text and graphics) that you cut, copy or screen-capture.  Once your data is saved in ClipMate, you can select an item and it is automatically placed back on the Clipboard or directly to wherever you select. 

The author of ClipMate has been updating this program for over 16 years, and clearly
listens to user suggestions.  The result is mature product that does
more than I could have imagined.

For example, within ClipMate you can view, print, edit, reformat, convert to
upper/lower case, search, rename, and reorder Clip Items.

There are
several "heavy lifting" features such as pasting multiple items all at once, using
Templates, and lots of "clean-up" functions like spell-check, format stripping, removing extra line breaks, spaces and strange
characters (I call this de-crappifying the document). All-in-all, it does a lot of things well.

It's a Clip Organizer Too:

Once you start using it to capture data, you're going to want to find and use it too.  ClipMate allows you to store your clips in different folders, or
collections, based on how you work, and to set retention rules accordingly. I suspect that many users keep their most-commonly used data in their "Safe" collection, while others spread it out by topic, project, source, etc..  Personally, I have a section for "Templates" that I re-use, Quotes, Things to Purchase, Web Sites, Passwords, Humor, even graphic elements. 

Beyond basic organization, it is searchable; so I can find
something that I saved, regardless of where I put it.

ClipMate can hold tens of thousands of items, and its SQL-based search engine can find them all quickly for you.  Even if you decide to do nothing special with your clips – you'll always have the last 1000 clips at you disposal, ready to paste wherever you need them.  When you're ready to use a "clip", just select it in ClipMate, and it's "loaded" onto the system clipboard, ready for pasting into any program.  And with many programs, you can now drag/drop the clip directly from ClipMate.

Try it; it's an incredibly useful tool that you'll use everyday.