Product Reviews

I use a variety of hardware, software, and services in my work, and test others. On this page I'll post commentaries on these. Any that meet with my overall approval I'll endorse with the WordWork™ Seal of Approval.

Hardware

• CueCat barcode scanner: If you have any need for a simple USB barcode scanner — for use at your book table at a conference or signing, or in any other situation — I recommend the CueCat. You can buy one from LibraryThing.com (see Services, below, or use the link above), but it will require a bit of modification to work right. I suggest getting a pre-modified one. I found mine on eBay, where several sellers offer them in what seem to be large quantities; it cost about $18, including shipping. Here's a good tutorial on the CueCat (pdf format). The CueCat will drop a barcode into a designated field in a database or spreadsheet or an online service like LibraryThing.com, or into a word-processing file. Highly recommended, with the WordWork™ Seal of Approval.

Software

• FileMaker Pro Advanced: After roughly 20 years' involvement with computers, I have become increasingly convinced that database (db) is the core function of computing, and that regardless of profession any serious computer user should have a basic understanding of how db works and locate as much of his or her activity within a db context as possible. Filemaker Pro certainly holds the rank of the supreme db app. Simply invaluable. Highly recommended, with the WordWork™ Seal of Approval.
• Database apps for writers: I have searched high and low for what in db terminology they call a solution that would handle all my needs as a creative professional with specialties in writing, lecturing, and teaching short seminars. Nothing even comes close, alas. I'm working with one commercial solution plus a modified conglomeration of some of the free template sets that FM Pro provides, retooling them gradually to suit my needs. Nothing off the shelf does the trick — which tells me there's a niche market for some smart db developer to snag.
  For an extended discussion of my experiment with FileMaker Pro 9 Advanced to create one component of the db control panel that I need, see my article "FileMaker Pro 9 and an Open-Source Freeware Solution Make a Perfect Match for a Professional Writer!" at Mac Edition Radio (posted 2/4/08).
• Meanwhile, herewith some specific stand-alone and FMPro-compatible db solutions to particular problems. (Note: I consider the capacity for such programs to interface with each other in FMPro a primary concern.
  • Free FMPro Solutions and Templates: FMPro, and various FMPro developers, create and offer free db templates and even more elaborate interconnected template sets. FMPro calls the latter "solutions." Though none of these I've tested does everything I want, some do parts of what I need done. Moreover, they're user-modifiable, so if you know anything about db, or are willing to learn, you can revise them in various ways. The link above will take you the page at the FMPro site that offers these as a bonus for downloading the program's trial version.
  • Stories & Sources: As part of my process of centralizing as much of my computer activity as possible in a db context, I've looked for an application that would serve as a conducive environment for writing. Database has some serious limitations for writers, the main one of which is its inability to retain text formatting when exporting text files (except in pdf format). This means that ultimately you'll need to put your texts into a word processor in order to format your texts (italics, boldface, underlining), add headers and footers, add footnotes or endnotes, etc. Nonetheless, you can still create basic drafts in a text box in a database program, accessing other data files you have in that same program without having to open, save, and close them.
    So far, the best I've found is Steve St.-Laurent's Stories & Sources. Based on Filemaker 8.5, but stand-alone (in Runtime), it has a pleasant design and some very useful features. So I don't recommend it. (You can try the free 30-day trial version and decide for yourself.) I'll post a more extensive commentary here in a month or so.
• Mariner Write: When I began working on a computer, in the late 1980s, I used WordPerfect for Windows. Eventually I switched over to the Mac platform, where WordPerfect had inadequate support. After trying MS Word 97 for Mac, which I considered a classic example of bloatware, I settled on AppleWorks, a superb program that takes up very little memory (3.5mb in version 6.2.9, its latest and final release). AW does everything I needed a word processor to do professionally, and more; it includes the capacity to create databases, spreadsheets, and presentations as well as text documents. It served me well for close to a decade; indeed, my most recent book got edited and designed in AW, then saved as pdf files from which the printing house generated the finished book. However, Apple has officially abandoned the program, making it Jurassicware. So I cast around for a substitute and found Mariner Write. After an 18-month exploration, I found my dissatisfactions intensifying. Also, my confidence in Mariner's commitment to this app waned as the time lag between this release and a promised new one lagged (four years now and counting). I kissed Mariner Write goodbye. After much testing of various word-processing apps and writing environments, I'm now settled comfortably in . . .
• Word 2008. Much to my amazement, I'm entirely at home here. For my full report on the migration, see my article "Treating Word 2008 Like You Own It: One Writer's Report" at Mac Edition Radio (posted 6/24/08). Highly recommended, with the WordWork™ Seal of Approval. Herewith a few applescripts for you to try with it:
  • Apple helps those who script themselves: I retooled this from something I scrounged up. It will display any text message you put into it.
  • Clean Web/Email Text: Text copied from online sources, or from emails, often contains unwanted formatting. To strip that out, run this script; it'll get rid of a bunch of junk, including line breaks. This is a tweaked version of a script created by Joe Kissell, to which I've added the removal of all double spaces and closing angle brackets, which appear as > in some emails.
  • Change Underline to Italics: This will replace underlining with italicizing throughout a document — not just the main body of the text but also in the headers, footers, endnotes, and footnotes.
  • Change Italics to Underline: Some publication situations, especially in academe, still require underlining to indicate italics in a submitted text file or printout. This script reverses the above process.