once were journalists
Posted in writing on Apr 23rd, 2009
I was always happy with hitting Enter once and getting one carriage return – you knew where you were with the deal – but Word 2007 has better ideas.
If its default behaviour – which is to insert two line breaks each time you hit Enter – bothers you, here’s how you turn it off:
1 [...]
Posted in writing on Apr 22nd, 2009
I got given a new laptop at work, and had to go through the usual rigmarole of correcting the dictionary language, turning off AutoFormat, and fixing the default paragraph spacing.
I forgot to disable the grammar checker, but fortunately it’s set to nag you by being no bloody use whatsoever. In this case, by taking exception [...]
Posted in digression, freelance, writing on Feb 7th, 2009
I don’t think I’m putting it too strongly when I say that I fucking loves music. I listen to it all the time – mostly for pure enjoyment, but sometimes it goes beyond that.
I’m not sure what it is, but it’s a joy. Like smells, old songs can evoke the strongest memories. I can tell [...]
Posted in blog, freelance, journalism, work, writing on Oct 12th, 2008
We’ve been doing a nice line in lazy blogging lately. My excuse is I’ve been swamped with freelance at the same time as work went crazy. I was trying to work tonight, but (sorry Dave) it’s just not happening.
A couple of weeks back I wrote a post about the state of the economy, but when [...]
Posted in technology, work, writing on Sep 3rd, 2008
I’m hereby submitting a new support incident to every single helpdesk in the UK, asking that you each please make your monkeys set up computers for the correct country.
I’ve just noticed that Hackbash is one and a bit, having had its birthday on 3 August. The year’s gone quickly – far too quickly, and a lot’s changed for me in that time.
I wasn’t sure why we started Hackbash, except that it might be a useful dumping ground for the discussions Charlie and I [...]
Posted in technology, writing on Aug 18th, 2008
Word processor: job number one = display text clearly on screen.
Word 2007: fail.
Is that two spaces to the left of the dash, one to the right? One space left, no spaces right?
In fact, it’s a space on each side:
But of course.
Is it me? Is it Calibri? Has anyone found a way to fix it so [...]
Posted in marketing, technology, writing on Jul 30th, 2008
Now look, I’ve been turning a blind eye to this but enough is enough. Copywriters everywhere, please pay attention.
Iconic means relating to, or having the characteristics of an icon. An icon is something ‘that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it’.
I think one can, perhaps, describe the iPod as [...]
Posted in internet, technology, writing on Jul 29th, 2008
Click here to go straight to step-by-step instructions.
Anyone who’s used Word will know that, by default, it replaces bog-standard straight quotes (and here I’d demonstrate what they look like, but our theme will change them to curved ones) with curved ones. It also changes hyphens (-) to en dashes (–).
No big deal, you’d think. After [...]
You might have noticed I’ve been a bit quiet of late, sorry about that. In fact, it’s not just Hackbash that’s suffered, I’m feeling distinctly off-form at the moment, and I’m not producing the quantity or quality of writing that I’d like.
I’m not sure why. Like many writers I seem to go through phases, and [...]
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