WP Writing Academy 401 Prepare to Write Your E-Book

Aware is a meta-search desktop application that has a unique technology that "learns" what the user is looking for and helps them find it. An ideal tool for researchers, it enables users to rate the results search engines bring back in order to hone in on their topic of interest. The ratings teach Aware what's "good" and "bad", and Aware uses this to target subsequent results.

Collect Information and Media

To collect information and media--text, images, video, etc.--from the web for research or for inserting in your e-books one of the products you may need is screen capture software. An example is SnagIt which allows you to capture text, images, video and more from the web for use in your e-books. Collect images including an entire Web page and digital camera photos. Grab text and save as editable text. Capture video and save as AVI. Immediately send your captures to the clipboard, programs, or save as one of 23 file formats. Use the Editor's features to modify and enhance your images, or use the Studio to mark up images with arrows, callouts and text boxes. The Catalog Browser is perfect for organizing your files, including converting in batches. Included in SnagIt are add-ins for all the programs in the Microsoft Office suite, a Firefox extension is available for download from www.techsmith.com. Easily increase your productivity while quickly creating professional presentations. SnagIt includes clear documentation and advanced training. SnagIt's user-friendly interface makes it easy for beginners to use, while still providing maximum flexibility for screen-capture experts. The company claims there are seven million users. The winner of PC Magazine Editors' Choice award for screen capture in 2003 and 2004. If you need to capture anything from the web for your e-book research or to include in your e-book, SnagIt is the perfect companion to DeskTop Author for your digital book writing. SnagIt Free Trial Download

Web sites and software programs are two sources of media clips including clip art and photo, audio, and video clips. Information about these is included in WP Writing Academy 5.

Organize Your Information and Resources

Tips and tools such as MS OneNote, QuickNotes, StickyNote, and ClipMate

Microsoft OneNote 2003 is one of the best tools to capture, organize, and reuse your notes. OneNote 2003, used extensively and highly recommended by WP, gives you one place to store all your notes and the ability to work with them the you want. It helps you capture information in multiple ways and then organize and use it according to your needs. OneNote 2003 combines the freedom and flexibility of paper notes with the efficiency and power of digital organizational tools.

Capture Information in Multiple Ways
• Take notes anywhere on the page and put information wherever you want. You can move your cursor to any place on the screen and start typing.
• Record audio notes that are synchronized to your written notes to make sure you don't miss something important.
• Handwrite your notes or draw diagrams and pictures using a Tablet PC or a pen input device on your laptop or desktop computer.
• Put pictures, text, and other information from a Web site directly into OneNote 2003 using the drag-and-drop operation. OneNote automatically includes the Web address for you so that you can reference the information later.
Organize and Use Information Easily
• Create as many notebooks, folders, and pages as you need, customize them for how you work, and keep them all in one convenient place.
• Search your notes quickly and find what you need without having to know in which notebook, folder, or file you saved that information.
• Create and search Note Flags to highlight urgent action items.
• Combine, format, and rearrange notes by using a drag-and-drop operation to organize your notes in a way that makes sense to you.
Access Information Quickly
• Immediately find your most recent notes without having to search through your folders or files. OneNote 2003 always opens at the page and notebook where you were last working.
• Write down pertinent information or leave yourself reminders with the OneNote Quick Pane, which can "float"—or stay open on top of the other programs you are using.
• Move, reformat, or combine notes from previous notebooks so that you can use them for other projects.
• Use your notes in other Microsoft Office System programs such as Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003, or Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003.
• Use your notes in other programs.

Free MS "Power Toys" for OneNote: Send web pages to OneNote from IE and send mail to OneNote from Outlook. Both of these are very useful additions to OneNote and can be found on the Microsoft site.

Quick Notes Plus is for creating virtual sticky notes on your windows desktop and set alarm reminders to each of them. Memoboards, a unique feature, allows you to arrange notes in a separate window. Memoboards avoids desktop clutter. With skins support, sticky notes can have different textures. You can stick notes to documents or websites so that the notes pop-up only when you open a document or visit a particular website. Format text of notes such as font, color, f bullets and numbering. Other handy features include tile or cascade notes, sort by title, find, roll up, hide, print, and restore deleted notes.

StickyNote lets you create 3D notes on your virtual desktop. You can use whatever colors and fonts you choose, and change the texture of your notes to things like construction paper or silk. StickyNote makes it easy for you to organize your notes. Its Manager lets you put notes into folders and manage them in groups. Finally, you can synchronize StickyNote with your Palm handheld, Microsoft Outlook and with other PDAs. StickyNote Free Trial

ClipMate enhances the Windows clipboard, making it a true power tool. The cut/copy paste capability of Windows works well for transferring single items of data, but is not useful if you want to move a lot of data or keep data longer than until your next cut or copy. ClipMate works alongside the Windows clipboard and stores every piece of data (both text and graphics) that you cut or copy. Once your data is in ClipMate, you can select an item and it is automatically placed back on the clipboard or directly into the application you were using. You can view, print, edit, reformat, convert to upper/lower case, search, rename, and reorder clip items. There is even a built-in spellchecker. You can create an unlimited number of collections to store your data. ClipMate's PowerPaste allows you to rapidly paste large amounts of data with ease. Shortcuts help you retrieve your clips and screen capture round out the new release. ClipMate Free Trial