Human civilization has seen people expressing their thoughts on various mediums for thousands of years. The cavemen who started drawing on stones and cave walls gradually evolved into more evolved forms. They started using papyrus, then evolved to paper, and gradually moved to a digital era.
The modern world demands documentation of various things every day. For example, you need to write to complete your finance assignment help or for a story for your publisher. So, the scientists also worked tirelessly to improve the quality and ease of writing.
On that note, here are 8 techs that every writer must know –
1. Evernote
If you feel that your drafts are piling up with time, it’s high time you start using Evernote. It is software that you can install on your desktop. You can also install it on all your gadgets. There is also a website that enables you to log in remotely and monitor your stuff.
You can add anything to Evernote. It can be a photo, an email, a document, a website—and it’ll sync across all your gadgets. You can automate the entire writing process by creating folders on your computer. Evernote will monitor and make notes, take pictures, or record audio using the app. The best part is all your notes remain fully searchable, encoded with GPS, and easy to organize using tags and folders.
2. Ancestry
If you are keen on writing fiction or nonfiction about anything that happened between the 1700s and 1900s, you need to create an Ancestry account. You can search for draft registration cards, census records, family photos, ship manifests, city directories, and detailed records of asylums and orphanages.
You can put the name of any real character or fictional character on a family tree in Ancestry and find the details of some of their living relatives. Thanks to the website, you can also draw on Ancestry records to inspire fictional characters in the novel.
3. Freedom & Anti-Social
It’s time to write, but there’s something significant happening on Facebook right now. What shall you do? You can use Freedom for such activities. It is available for both Apple ecosystems and Windows PC. This software will kick you off the Internet for whatever period you want.
This software is like your own time machine, except you’re in full control. It also works well as a timer. It will force you to settle down and work for, say, a solid hour without interruption.
If you need Internet access to write, which you may not have, Anti-Social will keep you away from websites that compels you to waste time. That way, you will never get sucked into the Internet, but you still can access what you actually require to work.
4. Dragon
Many writers now use voice input technology to write. It may require a little time to get used to at first. But the voice commands are nearly flawless. This software also helps you to recover from the pains of tendinitis.
Even if you are not comfortable writing a novel with voice dictation, try using it to answer emails, compose listicles for PW, and do other less demanding tasks. This will leave you a lot of spare time, and your wrists will be free from the continuous pain that you endure while typing.
5. Das Keyboard
You will love the mechanical Das Keyboard if you are comfortable with typing. When you press any key on modern keyboards, you press down on a bit of rubber padding underneath the keys.
Das Keyboards are made with real metal. So, each key makes a connection with the circuit directly when you press it. This makes the experience satisfyingly loud, just like a typewriter from earlier times.
This keyboard will help you be a better typer, and you can type with enhanced speed and precision on this keyboard, which you won’t find on any other.
6. Varidesk Standing Desk
The most significant occupational hazard of writing is that you need to sit too much. You can’t stand all day either. Sometimes, you can slide onto a kitchen stool or drop into a chair while reading the actual research paper.
But with this gadget, even when you are standing most of the time now, you will love it. For example, you can pace around the room in between sentences. That is far more effective than staring at the ceiling. Not only that, but you can also use these extra steps to put some extra points in your fitness bands.
7. Google Ngram Viewer
If you are an inquisitive person and wonder questions like since when did people stop using the word ‘cellular phone’ and start using the word ‘mobile phone’? Or even if you wonder which was more popular in 1980: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or Jim Morrison? Google’s newest tech Ngram Viewer can help you with it. It can search millions of documents according to their publication date and helps you to compare and get information about anything you want. You can use these bits of knowledge to win arguments with friends or copyeditors.
8. Google Spellcheck Method
There can be times when you see the first drafts for a book, and you may miss or overlook spellings of the numerous scientific terms, foreign words, brand names, and proper nouns even after double-checking. There are some words that a traditional spellchecker cannot detect.
This spellchecker is inbuilt into Google Docs (found within Google Drive) uses Google’s search technology. So, it checks the spelling of any obscure European brand names or dictators from history. It even gives the users suggestions like the “Did you mean…” feature and suggests alternate words if it thinks you have used a wrong word.
So now you will never turn in a book without running it through Google first. Then, you can upload or copy and paste any document you want to, and the errors will be displayed automatically.
This is one tip that you must remember. Running the writing through Google Spellcheck saves everyone a lot of headaches and helps to get you through the first pass pages.
