InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by jan_rifkinson on 2009/01/27 08:15

Frequently I have writing assignments, ie an article or an oped piece for the newspaper.

The process includes:

1. setting up a project name, ie "InfoQube Review"

1. gathering research from emails, newspaper or web pages & other such clippings

2. writing a number of drafts w word count to refine the article

3. sending it publisher & incorporate notes if any

4. final article with published date, Media, etc

I know how to do this is another program but I'd like to discuss the best ways to use IQ for this purpose.

It may be that IQ is not suited for this kind of work however i tend to doubt that.

I know many writers who use Zoot for this purpose and I know how to do it with UltraRecall but IQ is a different animal & I'm not conversant enough with the program to noodle this thru by myself.

Any thoughts, suggestions, comments like do it in word & link it to IQ would be very welcome.

Thank you.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

Comments

> I know how to do this is another program

maybe it would be helpful to give us an idea of how you might do this elsewhere?

Are you looking for ideas for a simple outline ?

( I started writing a simple outline but I guess you are looking for something else ? )

[quote=Tom] [snip]

deas for a simple outline ?

( I started writing a simple outline but I guess you are looking for something else ? )

[/quote]

Not necessarily. I'm just trying to start a discussion here about how others would approach it. I could -- on my own, I think -- create something that would work but I'm just curious.

For discussion sake, my structure in IQ would include

1. creating / using the following fields:

'Project_Title' as item

'Publication' (text list)

'DueDate'

'DoneDate'

'PubDate'

2. All research / clippings would be under 'Project Title'

3. Draft #s would be sub-items under 'Project Title'

4. All writing would be done in HTML or MHT (don't know which is better for final product)

5. If I could get Pierre to add some sercure SMTP options I guess I could email final product directly out of IQ

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

Dont' know how to get word count

I think IQ should include a spell checker; I find the one Pierre suggested more intrusive than useful + it's shareware

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

As Pierre says, another option would be to write in an external programme (word, whatever) & drag file to IQ to create linked item

I work with files but many of them so it's different situation but I'll throw it in here FWIW

I have various fields set up for marking status of file *

As I work on file, I use Filehamster to keep versions of files (it saves a backup every time I save the file & I can add a comment to the backup)

Re timekeeping, I simply ...

below each file I add sub-items saying how much time spent (using StartDate field) and what done

Likewise you could add feedback/comments as sub-items to the item with (or linked to) the main text.

If you want to keep track of time but mostly dont want to see that info, you could filter out StartDate field or Billing# in this example

OTOH if you want to look mainly at the timekeeping stuff you can create a seperate grid with StartDate as source (WorkDone grid in default file) and filter for relevant info using invoice/billing/job number, or project, etc.

* see here www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php

[quote=Tom]

* see here www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php

[/quote]

That looks like it would be a great sample file to have on this forum. Would that be possible, or is there too much personal stuff to clear out? Also, that donation coder forum page had this file with lots of colors signifying progress; do you still use those?

[quote=KeithB]

[quote=Tom]

* see here www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php

[/quote]

I've been keeping that dc page open in my browser & planning a blog post, - also about timetracking / preparation of invoices cause I dont use ... whachamacallit ... pivot tables

I think I can fairly easily do a sample file

Could always do it in two phases (+ time tracking in the second version) not that it's rocket science (although I got a few headaches trying to figure it out) but just to keep it simple. Thanks for the prompt!

As a first cut at it, I would:

create a new grid "InfoQubeReview" (which would create a field with the same name
Capture content and/or links to this grid
I'd create an item for the drafts. You could use many items (1 per draft) or use a single item, but store the HTML as MHT and use MSWord's change tracking to see changes
You could also create a separate MSWord document and link it to the item. The advantage is that .DOC can save versions
A hierarchy of items could be used, with the Gantt, to manage the project (tasks, due dates, links, etc)
If billing is hourly or daily, another hierarchy could compute these total