TOOLS OF MY TRADE: SmartEdit Update & Review

SmartEdit has had two product updates since my initial review of the product so I figured it was also time for an updated review. I had some PC issues so I never actually got to try version 2, so I skipped directly to SmartEdit 3.011 (released August 8, 2013) and opened  my current Work in Progress (due to the publisher in 4 days, while I leave for a convention in Savannah, GA in 2 days–fyi). The first thing I noticed upon opening the updated interface was the Word Processor feature and the New Document option, so you can write directly into the SmartEdit window. And where the first version I’d tried required I save my Word .doc as an RTF, the program now supports the Word .doc (and I read, also OpenOffice). This will save me a step and some time. The Adverb Usage List still remains my favorite feature and that’s the function I go to first to purge my manuscript of junk words. I usually end up cutting over a hundred unneeded words from a full length novel. The other things I loved in the original version–the Repeated Words, and Repeated Phrases, and the Proper Nouns checks are all still there […]

Tools of My Trade: StayFocusd

I’ve got a MacBook that apparently has gremlins in it. I was getting the spinning beachball of death and scripting errors every day, all day, whenever I had a Safari browser window open, even when doing nothing more than opening a simple email. It would crash the browser and sometimes the Word .doc I had open at the same time. So I tried switching to Firefox, and it didn’t take long for the gremlins to get Firefox too. So I tried one more browser, this time Chrome and wow! So far so good. Once in a while it’ll get hung up, but overall the performance is usable, while before the laptop was becoming unusable and I was one click away from buying that new laptop in my shopping cart. But I digress. The real point of this post is the world of extensions that Chrome opened to me. OMG it’s like being a kid in a candy store going to the Chrome store and installing all the fun free apps and extensions. I now have a Calendar on my browser toolbar that will also give me a countdown to any date I click on–invaluable for checking exactly how many days […]

CatJohnson.net 2012 in Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. The below graphic of search term statistics amused me greatly…apparently I need to write more naked firemen! There are a bunch more tidbits. Here’s an example: 19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 140,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.   If you’re interested and love these kinds of statistics as much as I do, Click here to see the complete report.  FYI- the page which is listed in the complete report as UNTITLED is the landing page or Home page for CatJohnson.net, which is why it received the most views. Enjoy and here’s to an even better 2013! Cat