If you write a lot, you need History Explorer.
There’s nothing more troublesome than keeping a version history of your major writing projects. I’ve written about that challenge from time to time in this blog and some months back even recommended this program when it was offered for free on Giveaway of the Day. Those “giveaways,” however, are good for one-time installation only, and I lost my copy when my hard drive died. I’m so glad that Bits du Jour is the one offering it now, at an unbelievable 70 percent discount. The discount is available TODAY ONLY — that’s all day Sunday in the US. And the program can be re-installed, if necessary — just save your installation file and the user registration code.
The download routine is a little bit quirky. Once you’ve downloaded the file and click on it, one is asked to download it yet again via the Digital River Download Manager. Stick with it, and do as instructed. From this second download file, installation is straight-forward.
The program is added to your start up routine; it adds an icon to your task tray. It does this so that it can automatically monitor files that you wish to save automatically as the versions progress. Monitoring can be temporarily disabled by clicking on the tray icon.
The version offered for sale today is 2.1. Purchase qualifies one for free upgrades for all subsequent 2.x versions. This will be valuable, as some important new features are scheduled for release as early as this fall. This program continues under serious development. Another nice feature: it can be installed on multiple computers, as long as it is not used simultaneously on two machines. This is ideal for writers who work on both laptop and desktop — or at office and at home. The developer is very vigilant about product support, always a plus.
For writers who insist on using freeware, there is a somewhat similar program available called File Hamster. This program, while designed with graphic designers in mind, works equally well for writers. As it happens, I just installed it yesterday for evaluation. The free version, however, will not be upgraded any more. For upgrades, as well as for some useful plug-ins, one has to pay — so the program turns out not to be as “free” as it looks.
I’ll play around with both over the next few weeks. At first glance though, I’m likely to give the nod to History Explorer, which has an interface that I find more useful.
Sorry, comments are closed.
Pingback by
Great Value for Writers: History Explorer for $5.99 — TODAY ONLY | Adobe Tutorials
28 Jun 2009
[...] If you write a lot, you need History Explorer . There’s nothing more troublesome than keeping a version history of your major writing projects. I’ve written about that challenge from time to time in this blog and some months back even recommended this program when it was offered for free on Giveaway of the Day . Those “giveaways,” however, are good for one-time installation only, and I lost my copy when my hard drive died. I’m so glad that Bits du Jour is the one offering it n View post: Great Value for Writers: History Explorer for $5.99 — TODAY ONLY [...]