Academic writing, task management, and OmniFocus
Task management systems, invented to increase focus and productivity, may become a source of distraction and procrastination. I certainly learned that when I tried to integrate my academic writing with...
View ArticleMicrosoft Word: 5 misuses and 7 alternatives
If you work on a Windows PC your life most likely revolves around Microsoft Word. It does not need to be so on a Mac. I still need MS Word to exchange files with Windows-based colleagues and also...
View ArticleThree stages of the academic workflow and Mac software
The’academic workflow’ is a representation of scholarship as a series of stages or steps connected to each other without gaps or duplication. Although simplified, the idea of the workflow helps to...
View ArticleOvercoming OmniFocus’ myopia: OmniOutliner and the yet-to-be-discovered...
One of the five things that should be kept out of OmniFocus are project plans. There are several good reasons for that. OmniFocus is designed to provide an unambiguous list of concrete things that both...
View ArticleCollaboration in academic writing: software and beyond
Unfortunately, collaboration in academic writing often causes frustration. Academics are used to think that co-authoring a manuscripts means emailing back and forth Microsoft Word documents with...
View ArticleAcademic presentations: ideas, workflows, and a Mac
I recently commented on the declining quality of academic talks driven by the logic of conference organizers, for whom ‘a presentation’ often means nothing more than a set of slides. We can counteract...
View ArticleOmniFocus 2 and OmniOutliner 4 on their way … at last!
The OmniGroup announced its plans to release OmniFocus 2 and OmniOutliner 4 in the first quarter of 2013. Both are very welcome and some would say long overdue. In the last couple of years the group...
View ArticleDisciplining the mind with software
One of the challenges with writing is switching between different mindsets. Theoretically it is possible to switch between these mindsets within a single writing environment like Microsoft Word or even...
View ArticleShould PowerPoint be banned?
Aleh Cherp:I have recently spoken about inappropriate uses of Microsoft Word to my students. The slightly scared students started to fear that I downgrade everyone who dares to use any Microsoft...
View ArticleWhat software do I really need for academic work on Mac?
A reader has just challenged me to re-think the software I use for academic work on Mac. Well, there are over 250 items in my Applications folder, but how many do I need to remain productive? So...
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