Tag Archives: formatting

Apr11

Running scared part 3

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Having publicly admitted my techno fear (https://wendysteele.com/2016/02/08/running-scared/) I’m facing it by attempting to format my e-book.

I read the first two parts of Catherine Ryan Howard’s book ‘Self-Printed’, and made notes in my ‘marketing’ notebook (a new one as I seem to have misplaced the original!) I read the third part ‘Publishing your e-book’ …well, most of it. The more I read, the more alarm bells flashed in my head so I stopped…I needed to take this one step at a time.

The first job on the new laptop was to load Open Office, which I did and then spent a whole afternoon trying to open it. It transpires I have Windows 8 on my laptop and a wonderful friend kindly walked me through the opening process…who would have known I needed to access Windows (x86), via OSC:) as opposed to Windows!

I spent a further day backing up my old laptop onto my separate hard drive, with a view to transferring it all to the new one…I changed my mind. As both Windows 8 and Open Office 4 are new to me, I decided to keep it simple and so, on another day, I transferred the two documents I needed to format over the next few months…and then couldn’t open them! Another kind friend helped me round the problem and sent me a link to change the computer to recognise my documents…and I managed to do it without a hitch.

My confidence was growing, I had everything there in front of me ready and the book open at the correct page. I changed my document into draft, as recommended, and then the problems started…Catherine Ryan Howard uses Word on a Mac while I am using Open Office on a Dell. My attempt to make notes of her instructions so I would have bullet points to follow when I come to do it again, became a scrawl. With a user guide for Open Office 4 running on the old laptop, I managed to remove all the paragraph indent arrows but all my single and double line break marks as well! Then I read a section I disagreed with and knew I was in trouble…beginnings of chapters should start blocked, shouldn’t they? I text my friend as I bit back the tears…he was proud of me, starting this process and confirmed I was correct, giving me an idea how to solve it. I did but gave up for the day, feeling worn out and frazzled.

I’m a writer, a storyteller, a wordsmith but have yet to be a formatter.

Follow this blog to find out the next installment of Running Scared.

 

 

Feb29

Running scared part 2

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It was a lovely morning on my riverbank… DSC_0263 The new lambs in the field opposite were waking up. I set up my camp, ready to begin. DSC_0046 I began reading the book, recommended to aid me in formatting my own books. DSC_0259 I decided to read from cover to cover, book marking useful pages, and then return when I begin the physical procedure but the book is not just about formatting. Part 1 Welcome to Self-Publishing and Part 2 Building an Online Platform were interesting but wordy. The author explains in the intro that she will talk about her own experience and I took that on board but 130 pages in, the wind is picking up, my coffee is finished and I’m just at Part3 Publishing your E-books….riverbank abandoned for the day.

I made some notes about my online platform and was happy to see I was addressing the majority of issues she covered as well as using Twitter and Facebook. I’m hoping the formatting part is less wordy and more direct…come back and find out how I get on.

 

Feb8

Running scared

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I’m an author and I’m scared of technology. There, I’ve said it. I’m scared to switch over to my new laptop because I know the old one so well…and I’m scared I will mess up the change over! I back up onto a separate hard drive once a week yet every time, I’m scared I’ll delete everything.

As I’m  confessing, I only learned there was a selfie button on my camera last week…only ever took photos like this before…DSC_0224

I remember watching my children in awe as they accessed their computers with ease and confidence. I knew I would never be like them.

I’ve learned the basics and acquired a few new skills along the way but I’m a writer, a dancer, a healer and a goddess, bound to the earth and the living beings upon it. I’ve had to include technology in my life to share my stories and now, I’m faced with formatting them myself…and I’m scared.

Wendy Woo faces her fears, accepts challenges as gifts to learn about herself and believes every day is an adventure yet this obstacle leaves her wobbly and nauseous. Follow this blog to see how she copes over the next few weeks.