Category Archive

I know that I’m overloaded with work because I’ve reverted to the ‘business card strategy’ that I used last year, when the tasks involved in running my business seemed overwhelming. Back then, I wrote each task on the back of one of my unused business cards, then sat on the floor with the cards around me, seeking inspiration. This time, …

I continue to be amazed by the power of the internet to answer computer questions. Today I needed to sort 15 Word files into three groups and then create a Word document showing the results. I knew there must be a better way to do this than copying and pasting individual file names, and there is. A quick search of …

I’m currently visiting the UK and will soon be heading to the south of France, to take advantage of the fact that I can (in theory) work from anywhere. So far, the main issue has been the change in time zones. Some of my clients are in Australia and others in Europe. Normally, I prioritise the projects from Australia when …

I’m enjoying a much-needed breathing space this week, after completing two major jobs, one of which has been going on for almost a year. Luckily, I have a great team of people helping me, and they pulled out all the stops over recent weeks to meet some crazy deadlines. Of course, I still have a lot to do, because I’ve …

Last year I discovered Dropbox and thought it was a great way to share files with colleagues and clients.  I then found SugarSync, which seems even better than Dropbox, because it provides a really simple way to share folders and subfolders, sync different computers, etc. However, I found that some clients had trouble with both these programs – getting confused …

This week I had to attend a meeting in Sydney, so I decided to try out my backup system by taking along my spare laptop along rather than my main computer. The spare is smaller and lighter, and is therefore better for travelling, but I don’t normally use it, so wasn’t sure that it would have everything I needed. There …

Last week I’d cleared the decks for a major project that didn’t materialise (thank goodness), and this week, three days of meetings have been cancelled, so I finally have a slight lull in my workload. Over the weekend I’ve been enjoying having the time to read the newspaper, get some work done in the garden and finish my application for …

I have just returned from a much-needed holiday – a delightful journey up the east coast in a camper van.  My laptop accompanied us on our 7-day trip, but I managed to leave it tucked away in a cupboard most of the time (not so hard given that we were out of mobile range for much of the trip). My …

My main computer had a meltdown this week – it started freezing for no good reason. The problem first appeared on Monday but was intermittent, and I kept hoping that the many disk repairs that the computer took itself through before restarting would fix the problem. However, that didn’t happen, so yesterday I spent several hours setting up the laptop …

I subscribe to an e-newsletter from the site I Heart Technical Writing, which last week focused on how technical writers could use Twitter. When the newsletter arrived in my inbox I went to the twitter page and found some useful links (at least, I thought I did, but now that I look at it again, all I can see is …