PC World: An Issue Rich For Writers
So many times, I stand at the newsstand browsing through computer magazines and walk away with PC Magazine, rather than its competitor PC World. That has changed.
I normally choose my magazines — computer, cooking, writing and travel — based on their contents. PC World, with its September issue, presents a re-conceptualized and re-designed magazine so well-targetted at general users hungry for clear “how-to” content that it vaults ahead of the pack. The re-design emphasizes the magazine’s organization into a handful of fully packed sections. Even the writing seems more centered on helpful “how-to” commentary. If the current issue is a true bell-weather of what’s to come, PC World may become the first computer magazine I’ve ever subscribed to.
PC World’s September issue turns out also to be packed with information of interest specifically to writers. This issue earned 16 dog-earred bookmarks, two of which lead into multi-article sections with several items of interest.
New to the magazine is its “Business Center” section. This month’s lead story “10 Great Freebies for Your Company” pinpoints six freebies which can be helpful to writers, including two online contact and project managers ideally suited to free-lance writers, two mass-mailer programs for writers who actively work their mailing lists, an easy-to-install online shopping cart who writers with, say, e-books to sell, and a facility to easily create a website. All are worth a look.
While there are several items of interest among the 18 articles in the “Reviews and Rankings” section, two stand out for writers. Zoho Notebook, a program I’ve mentioned before, receives well-deserved attention. And the “Download This” column this month offers “Freebies for Writers and Readers,” pointing to three programs which, though none are earth-shaking, may appeal to some writers. One of them, Book Collector, conveniently catalogs your book collection, utilizing online search capabilities to fill in the details. If such a catalog interests you, I suggest that you also check out BookCAT, with similar features.
The “Here’s How” section offers very specific guidance that can help you get more things done more easily. If my blog posts about podcasting yesterday intrigued you, you may wish to check PC World’s article about podcasting and the free audio-editing tool Audacity. Writer Scott Spanbauer gives a remarkably concise tutorial, which may reduce the anxiety of newcomers to podcasting. Steve Bass’s “Hassle-Free PC” column offers several useful hints, but his remarks about AnnotSX, a small tool that allows annotations to specific files on your computer, was worth the price of the magazine to me.
Most important of all for writers, however, is the feature article “Your Data Anywhere and Anytime,” which provides an overview to many online facilities that can be very useful for writers. Covered are the online office suites and online storage, along with guidance about how to everything you need right on a tiny USB memory stick. This article is available online HERE.
A member of my writer’s group in Puerto Vallarta recently ridiculed my interest in online applications. “If you have a laptop, why do you need web-based applications?” he asked scornfully. I can now give him a concrete example. I’m travelling in Asia and urgently needed to download, view and work on a Word document attached to an email. With no wireless hotspot around, I was able to use an internet cafe and do all my work online, then save it for download to my computer once I can a connection. Thank goodness I understood the facilities available and knew how to use them.
Some final words: The magazine and the internet are almost seamlessly integrated. PC World provides countless internet links that provide additional information and direct access to program downloads, perhaps difficult to find through internet browsing. And, finally, as a writer, study the magazine’s new design and style of writing within — some useful lessons there.
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