![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Thursday, July 31st
Jul. 31st, 2014 06:26 amThe Daily Report
So, I haven't done a lot of writing on my new phone yet. It's been a combination of finding the right writing app, the right keyboard app, and the best way to actually type on it.
Right now I'm using a software keyboard with the best combination of features and actually working. Right now I'm using one called TSwipe. While it is serious quality when it comes to giving you a complete layout and lots of customization, it is a bit idiosyncratic when it comes to how it handles punctuation and auto-capitalization. Though, so far it's easier to work around that then it is to work around the buried punctuation keys on other keyboards, or the lack of easily accessible nav keys.
The writing app has been tricky. Every office clone I've tried--including the progenitor--has this thing where sometimes, if I tab out of the app and then go back in, it "auto restores" the doc to the point at which I opened it (so blank, or with nothing I've done in that session). It's very frustrating, and it's stopped me from writing anything longer than a couple hundred words on it. Even the project that I started writing on my phone, I'd gotten pretty gunshy about after losing complete new drafts a few times.
Last night, after I figured out a really pretty comfortable and efficient typing posture, I went back into the Play store to search for more Word clones to try out. I've been leery about this because the blanking-bug hasn't been consistent on all of them... inconsistent enough that I can't simply verify that a new one won't do it and relax, consistent enough to be a problem. But I was typing so well that I really wanted to do some serious writing before going to sleep, so I went looking for something to test drive.
This time, I noticed something that was coming up in the results that I'd been overlooking as not suitable based on past experience: Google Docs. I've had my frustrations with GDocs, but last night I remembered that the main reason I broke with it is that it got to be too big and my old phone got to be too slow. It would barely run on it. So I gave it another try last night, and was impressed with first of all how optimized the app is compared to the other office apps in terms of comfortable viewing size, second in terms of copying the features of the desktop Word in the mobile app, and third in terms of perfectly defining the seamless transitions from device to device that I've been demanding from my cloud solution.
And most importantly, it has continuous autosave even in mobile (which is a big part of where the latency came in, on my previous phone) and utterly lacks the problem I've been having with other office apps.
So this morning I got up bright and early to move the recent TOMU chapter drafts over, and copy the files far Harper's Folly and my other current project over. I'm going to try just writing in it the next few days, get used to it again and see if there aren't any lurking problems. Eventually I'll probably see if the offline mode is as buggy as it was a year ago, and maybe I'll try formatting an e-book in it. If those two things both work, then maybe I'll ditch Office entirely. It would certainly save some money.
The State of the Me
Doing okay. I'm awake really early this morning, mostly because I am full of the brain energy from being really excited about being able to write comfortably on my phone without cringing in fear of losing my work.
Plans For Today
This morning, I'm going to be continuing to break my phone in for actual writing, by working on the newsletter and other things, including the next chapter of MU. Normally I write that at the end of the day, but I'm going to make an early start today while I'm excited, because I don't like being too dependent on a routine.
Also, I have to run out during the mid-afternoon to get a new microwave, and while that errand shouldn't take much more than an hour, I don't have complete control over that since I'm not driving. So in order to preserve my streak, I want to have as much done before I go as possible.
So, I haven't done a lot of writing on my new phone yet. It's been a combination of finding the right writing app, the right keyboard app, and the best way to actually type on it.
Right now I'm using a software keyboard with the best combination of features and actually working. Right now I'm using one called TSwipe. While it is serious quality when it comes to giving you a complete layout and lots of customization, it is a bit idiosyncratic when it comes to how it handles punctuation and auto-capitalization. Though, so far it's easier to work around that then it is to work around the buried punctuation keys on other keyboards, or the lack of easily accessible nav keys.
The writing app has been tricky. Every office clone I've tried--including the progenitor--has this thing where sometimes, if I tab out of the app and then go back in, it "auto restores" the doc to the point at which I opened it (so blank, or with nothing I've done in that session). It's very frustrating, and it's stopped me from writing anything longer than a couple hundred words on it. Even the project that I started writing on my phone, I'd gotten pretty gunshy about after losing complete new drafts a few times.
Last night, after I figured out a really pretty comfortable and efficient typing posture, I went back into the Play store to search for more Word clones to try out. I've been leery about this because the blanking-bug hasn't been consistent on all of them... inconsistent enough that I can't simply verify that a new one won't do it and relax, consistent enough to be a problem. But I was typing so well that I really wanted to do some serious writing before going to sleep, so I went looking for something to test drive.
This time, I noticed something that was coming up in the results that I'd been overlooking as not suitable based on past experience: Google Docs. I've had my frustrations with GDocs, but last night I remembered that the main reason I broke with it is that it got to be too big and my old phone got to be too slow. It would barely run on it. So I gave it another try last night, and was impressed with first of all how optimized the app is compared to the other office apps in terms of comfortable viewing size, second in terms of copying the features of the desktop Word in the mobile app, and third in terms of perfectly defining the seamless transitions from device to device that I've been demanding from my cloud solution.
And most importantly, it has continuous autosave even in mobile (which is a big part of where the latency came in, on my previous phone) and utterly lacks the problem I've been having with other office apps.
So this morning I got up bright and early to move the recent TOMU chapter drafts over, and copy the files far Harper's Folly and my other current project over. I'm going to try just writing in it the next few days, get used to it again and see if there aren't any lurking problems. Eventually I'll probably see if the offline mode is as buggy as it was a year ago, and maybe I'll try formatting an e-book in it. If those two things both work, then maybe I'll ditch Office entirely. It would certainly save some money.
The State of the Me
Doing okay. I'm awake really early this morning, mostly because I am full of the brain energy from being really excited about being able to write comfortably on my phone without cringing in fear of losing my work.
Plans For Today
This morning, I'm going to be continuing to break my phone in for actual writing, by working on the newsletter and other things, including the next chapter of MU. Normally I write that at the end of the day, but I'm going to make an early start today while I'm excited, because I don't like being too dependent on a routine.
Also, I have to run out during the mid-afternoon to get a new microwave, and while that errand shouldn't take much more than an hour, I don't have complete control over that since I'm not driving. So in order to preserve my streak, I want to have as much done before I go as possible.