Premier Outlining with Tinderbox

I’m giving a five hour web-writing training session for a corporate client this week. I don’t think I could plan my talk as effectively without Tinderbox.

This multifaceted application is, amongst other things, a phenomenal outlining tool. Just to give you a hint of its capabilities here’s a slide of my (hotchpotch of) notes.

Tinderbox helps me to shuffle my thoughts around, stores the image clips I’m using in my Keynote to illustrate my talk, and happily handles all the urls I need quick access to. I’m workout what I’m going to say and how I’m going to say it before building my Keynote presentation. Because Tinderbox is so light and adaptable, all the hard work is done here figuring out the content of my talk before I fire up my presentation software and craft my slides.

I could do this on paper –possibly. But it would take so much longer.

The eclectic work I do as a copywriter, journalist and translator always benefits from this tool. It’s one of the reasons I love the Mac platform.

Writing Tools

I’m juggling a couple of projects right now and thought I’d give an insight into the tools I work with.  I was recently commissioned to write some more articles for Stockholm University’s international website so I’ve been scribbling away, interviewing academics most of the week.

Research

My first port of call is to clip source material into a Tinderbox file. I create a new Tinderbox file for each new project.

Getting started in Tinderbox. Everything goes here.

My notes include background material, contact details of people to interview, urls, pictures, my own sketches and outlines.

The useful thing about Tinderbox is that it allows me to visualize my material in a variety of forms. I find the outline view and map view extremely useful for thinking through my research and pulling the thread of an article around.

In the past I’ve tried using Scrivener to store notes but I like the fluidity of Tinderbox. It allows you to have lots of little windows and different view open simultaneously.

A Very Hot iPhone Story

Image:Emil Ahlén/Metro

Emil Ahlén had a shock the other night when he was woken up by the smell of burning. Glancing down at the floor next to his bed he saw that his iPhone was in flames.

Metro reports that Ahlén, who bought the phone from Swedish mobile operator Telia, had only owned the phone a month.

“They offered to repair the phone or exchange it,” Ahlén told Metro. “But I’ve said there’s no way I’m having another iPhone.”

The interesting thing about this report isn’t just the fact that the mobile overheated and caught fire. It’s that Telia wouldn’t let him exchange the phone for a different model. Or at least, that’s what they told him initially, reports Aftonbladet.

After the piece was featured in the press the company’s PR officer Irène Krohn admitted they’d be talking to Mr Ahlén again but basically dished out the usual “no comment.”

What a great opportunity for them to tell a different story about themselves and build their brand.

Here’s what I Irène should have said:

“We were very concerned to hear about this incident and are treating it very seriously. We’re looking into the situation very carefully and will be contacting Apple about the matter. In the meantime, I’d like to reassure the many happy iPhone users in Sweden that we’re doing all we can to assess the situation. Naturally, we’re shocked about what happened to Mr Ahlén and will be happy to help him select another phone that he feels more comfortable with. Telia’s commitment is to ensuring perfect mobile solutions for all its users, no matter their requirements.”

Well, or something like that. Remember Telia, when you mention Apple the whole world tends to look so you have to treat your PR with a little care. Even if you’re talking in Swedish, stories can still get out in the world’s global language.

Website Redesign

I’ve changed the design of the the site this week as I didn’t like the colour scheme of the last one. The layout was nice but it just wasn’t working colour-wise. Plus, I wanted something a bit more flexible.

As of right now the CSS is 100% Brian Gardner’s Revolution Pro Media theme, which I recently purchased. Brian’s templates are purely for WordPress, which I don’t really like so I converted the theme to to ExpressionEngine. I simply don’t like using WordPress. It’s not as flexible as EE and I just find it so much easier to build complex sites with it.

I’ve done quite a bit of testing but no doubt there are a few glitches in the system as I write. Over the next few days I’ll tidy up any remaining problems and customize the design a bit more to suit my tastes.

I’ve been meaning to update the design of my site for quite a while but I’ve been busy finishing a few projects the last month or so.

Top Web Writing Requires a Top CMS

Expressing yourself on the Net might be as easy as a 1-2-3 these days what with an abundance of content management systems available to choose from.  But if you want a system that’s rock solid, easy to install and use, I can’t recommend ExpressionEngine enough.

Sure, EE doesn’t have such a variety of site themes to choose from like its Open Source cousin WordPress, so if you’re looking for a personal blog, you might want to go with WP. If you’re a business user, however, with the resources to get a designer into help you make your site sing, EE won’t let you down.

With more and more news emerging about the coming release of ExpressionEngine 2, I’m getting really excited about its capabilities. The folks at EllisLab are really raising the bar and I’m eager to get my hands on a copy. There’s no release date announced yet: all they’re saying is Summer 2008.

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