#THE PLAIN TEXT WORKFLOW CODE#
Underneath what you can see in Word, there’s a huge amount of code that you don’t see. For example, a very simple sentence in Word, such as: This is a simple sentence typed in the Word.
But consider this: have you ever had a problem with Word where some strange formatting seems to have sneaked into your document and you can’t get rid of it, no matter what you do or what settings you change? Have you ever had a Word document behave in infuriatingly odd ways for no apparent reason? Well, there is a reason, which is that Word documents are actually extremely complicated beasts. If you’re like most, you default to a traditional “word processor” such as Microsoft Word. To understand how working in plain text is helpful, think about the tools you normally use to write on a computer. For the same reason, however, they are also more stable, more sustainable, and (with a little practice) faster and easier to manage than traditional electronic writing with a word processing suite such as Microsoft Office. One thing scholars in the humanities do all the time is write, and taking my “medievalist mind” to the available technologies for doing that has helped me light on some tools for supporting my writing that are in some ways older and less “high tech” than other options. This approach allows us to ask not “what’s the newest thing?” but rather “what’s the best technology for the job?” in an awareness that the best tool for the job might potentially be a very old one. Or, at least, as much of a tech nerd as one is likely to find in an English department.Īs I mentioned in my previous post, I think medievalists bring a kind of historical awareness to tech that allows us to see it more as a collection of useful functions–where novelty isn’t necessarily the only value–than a progressive march toward perfection.
By the end of the series, you’ll be up and running with a digital writing process that gets the technology out of your way and puts your creative process first.
The lessons are desgned to to be extremely simple, even if you’re a technophobe, and take only five to ten minutes to complete.
#THE PLAIN TEXT WORKFLOW SERIES#
Unlike most of the online resources on this subject, this series of tutorials is designed for the non-techy writer who doesn’t have a lot of time. Inspired by a conversation with some of my advanced literature students, I offer, here, a short set of tutorials for writing productively (especially as an academic) using plain-text tools.
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