The original link is here:
http://mikepress.wordpress.com/working-tools/
Working tools
Michael Hohl and I started writing notes for research students on how to set up their computer so that it works well for writing and research. I have developed these notes further, and Michael’s website has very useful advice on organising workflow, folder structures, etc. The notes below concern software and on-line tools that support writing, research and collaborative working.
Whether you’re working on a thesis for a PhD, or researching for a book or major project, you need to set up your computer in a way that makes it easy to store stuff, find stuff, and sort stuff out. If you get a system sorted right at the start, then the whole venture should work almost by erms of manipulating images. It’s much easier to learn than Photoshop. As Michael explains, you can produce graphics in Keynote, save them as a screengrab then with GC, “turn them into jpg or png for use on website, thesis, presentations, papers. The same graphic for each of them! Very economic workflow! Save all the transitions your graphics go through over time in Keynote, and you got a great narrative of the structure how your research interests and knowledge changed over the course of the research!”.http://www.graphic-converter.net/
Doing stuff on-line
There are now many on-line tools out there to support research and to facilitate collaborative working.
Collaborative writing
Writeboards are, according to the site, “sharable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back to any version, and easily compare changes. Use Writeboard to write solo or collaborate with others.” It appears a very useful tool to collaborative writing. And it’s free. Perhaps most powerful is SubEthaEdit. It’s not a webapp, but a mac-based software tools that enables collaborative writing using ichat or similar.
Calendars and meeting scheduling
There are flexible alternatives to Outlook/Entourage that allow on-line calendars to be created and shared. Kiko “is a cool new web calendar that delivers all the functionality of desktop calendar software, and all the convenience of online access. And it’s free”. Doodle “is a web-based meeting scheduler. It is used to find suitable dates for appointments with other people. No registration is necessary. This makes Doodle particularly useful for people who do not use a common calendar or groupware system. Doodle can be used to find dates for meetings, dinners, cinema, events, and so on.”
Free file hosting
To be honest, I’ve not yet found a real use for on-line calendars, since iCal does everything that I seem to need. But the free file hosting services are immensely useful. A problem with collaborative working can be document size as many mail servers do not allow attachments larger than 5Mb to be mailed. So uploading a large file to a temporary hosting service is very useful. I use YouSendIt which is free to use, fast and reliable.
Project collaboration
Basecamp is the Scrivener of project management. All your notes, files, communications, timelines get put in this online tool that all your partners can have access to. It provides a clear and secure focus for all communication on a project. I use it to co-ordinate a project with partners in a number of different Universities, while I am also a partner in another basecamp co-ordinated project with partners throughout Europe. After you’ve used it for a week you’ll wonder how you managed without it before. There’s a free service that allows you just one project but no file sharing. I use the US$12 per month service which suits me fine so far and allows up to 3 projects. Try it.
Backing up data
The simple issue here is: do it. If you don’t then at some point all will end in disaster. I know. Some people backup on a nighly basis, others weekly. What you need is an external hard drive, the prices of which continue to fall and which you should currently be able to get for around 70 pounds (unless you have a lot of video data, in which case you need something bigger). iBackup is a neat shareware backup utility .