Category Archives: Writing

Try Ulysses for editing Multimarkdown documents

Posted on 2013/04/29 by

This is just a short note for those who may be relying on Multimarkdown documents at some point in there writing workflow. Aleh mentioned in one of his earlier post that he was using Byword and of course there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Custom Academic Searches on iOS

Posted on 2013/03/20 by

As a follow-up to my earlier post on academic searches on the Mac, here’s an easy way to replicate most of those custom searches on iOS. The key app is Drafts, which recently received a massive update. Among many other … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Notes, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Custom keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word for Mac

Posted on 2013/01/19 by

Despite alternatives to Microsoft Word it is not possible to completely avoid using it in academic work on a Mac. If you have to edit texts in MS Word you might as well do it smoothly and efficiently, save time and … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Mind-Mapping on Mac and iOS: MindNode and iCloud

Posted on 2012/12/12 by

For a few discrete tasks—short bursts of writing, for example, or annotating PDFs—it makes sense to loop iOS devices into a Mac-based workflow. Finally we can add mind-mapping to the list, now that MindNode syncs through iCloud. MindNode Pro, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Simple tables on Mac

Posted on 2012/12/01 by

After our entry on figures someone asked for tips on dealing with tables. I write academic articles and my needs are pretty basic, so I have a simple workflow for tables. Design shack has a great entry on designing nice tables … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Collaboration in academic writing: software and beyond

Posted on 2012/11/24 by

Unfortunately, collaboration in academic writing often causes frustration. Academics are used to think that co-authoring a manuscripts means emailing back and forth Microsoft Word documents with endless “Track Changes” and “Comments” layered on top of each other. Whereas writing is … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliographies, Collaboration, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

What software to use for figures on Mac

Posted on 2012/10/27 by

Recently I was sitting next to someone at a conference and he was working on figures for a paper during a session. So far sounds pretty normal. Trouble was he was using microsoft powerpoint…on a Mac. I realized that we … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Guest post by Ez: Annotating PDFs in Papers, Sente, Skim and other apps

Posted on 2012/10/26 by

Ez responded to the post on annotating pdf in Papers with a comment so useful I reworked it, with Ez’ kind permission, in a separate post. It was prompted by John asking about a “simple workflow”: ‘… [to create] referenced notes … Continue reading →

Posted in Annotation, Bibliographies, Files, Writing | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Collaborative writing with Papers

Posted on 2012/10/13 by

Preparing manuscripts with Papers in collaboration with other co-authors can go very well if you observe a couple of simple rules.  When I am the only contributor and use my standard writing workflow (OmniOutliner → Byword → Scrivener → Word) … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliographies, Collaboration, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Captions, cross-references, and lists in Miscrosoft Word

Posted on 2012/07/08 by

Microsoft Word is often used where other software would do much better. However, there are situations when Word’s unique functionalities are necessary for an academic workflow. Among the most important of such features is the ability to automatically number, cross-refer, … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged | 15 Comments