Writing Tools

[LtBroccoli]

The moonlander is amazing, I have mine mounted to my arm rests on my chair, so it is a bit of a writing throne, feels nice to be able to lean back fully relaxed and write it takes a while to find key mappings that work for oneself and I still find myself tweaking them every so often when something feels clunky and I feel the need to adjust something, but it is very convenient I hope it will work great for you too I recently replaced the keycaps on the thumb cluster to same size profile keys as the rest of the keyboard and I like it better than the larger keys, stole the caps off an old corsair keyboard that also has mechanical switches with the same style keycaps as the kailh coppers I chose for the moonlander, have yet to get into the fancier key switches that are available though, not felt the need yet, coppers are for me better than cherry red and brown though It saved me from a lot of wrist, neck and shoulder pain, so for that alone it is worth it and I type pretty much at the same speed now as I ever did on the other mechanical keyboards, except I no longer can do one handed typing and dance my hand over the whole keyboard while using the mouse, in a game or such, so that is still not as convenient as it could be, of course for non speed non detail related mouse work you can configure mouse keys on the keyboard so you don't have to reach for one of them

I do find it nice to put one shot toggles for shift etc, though they don't work perfectly for hotkey use, but I can just type shift then the letter I want to make big rather than needing to hold the key down, also works for other single modifier hotkeys, but enough of me gushing over the moonlander, it is stupidly expensive, again though, the pain reduction is worth it for me, there are options to make one yourself if you solder and stuff, that will be mostly the same or even better than the moonlander is, but for me that don't solder this was a win

Thanks. I'm like a week or so in and really liking it so far. I hadn't even thought of the whole armrest thing until now, but that sounds amazing.  I went with the Cherry Blue's because I like the the clickiness and work from home, but if I ever return to the office, I know I'll have to switch to something like the coppers.  I haven't had to put on my wrist brace since I got this keyboard.  I'm nowhere near as fast as I'd like to be, but that is coming along.  I have to stop and breathe to slow down and skip the mistakes, or think about where the keys should be.  Same stuff I did when I learned to type, but slightly different.

How did you set up the one shot toggles?  Not having to hold down all of the modifiers would be nice. 

Right now I set up one layer for my work setup on Windows, and a couple others for my Mac.  One of those has all of the keys set up with a tap and hold for their modifiers, but I only use that for heavy editing.  For typing I have a regular layout, and made sure the keys for Windows and Mac are logically the same.  For example, the Mac layers have the Command button where the Control button is on Windows because all of the keyboard shortcuts are the same, like ctrl+v and cmd+v are both paste.  I also made a key for my work laptop login, so one keystroke in the morning is ctrl+alt+del and I'm logging in.

You're right that it is crazy expensive, but if it means I'm not scheduling surgery for a couple more years for RSI, I'm fine with the cost.  Plus, it is my big gift this year.  Last year was a gigantic tool box, this year a crazy keyboard.

[Vela Nanashi]

My arm rest mounting is very ghetto, I have basically tied the wrist rests on the moonlander to the arm rest there are better mounting solutions available now, but I have yet to afford to invest in those, probably will in the future though

I have dedicated keys for left and right: shift, alt, control and windows, a waste kinda but it was easier for me, in the bottom outer corners where my muscle memory says they should be. The way to make them one shot modifiers is to search for OSM or one shot mod in Oryx, they won't let you use two at once though just one modifier, as when you click the next one that one shot triggers. If I have time and coding energy at some point I may try to alter how that works though (the firmware running on moonlander is open source so one can do some more advanced things there), so that modifiers optionally don't trigger one shot modifier's, that way one could just tap ctrl then alt then del to get that, but again that is not how they work right now

I don't think you can combine one shot modifier with having them overlap a key though, but if you compose one of those special keys that can do four different things maybe you can get something similar to happen.

I think but don't know for sure, that if you plug in a windows keyboard in mac its ctrl maps to cmd automatically, again I don't know that for sure.

Also I do like both one shot layer OSL and toggle tap TT for my layers, they work a bit different from each other, OSL if tapped let's you press one key on the layer and then jumps out, and if held acts like a modifier key that stays on while you hold it, so you can do things on the layer, while TT instead on tap switches to and from the layer, and on hold acts like a modifier to let you do things on the layer.

I think it is worth it to go through the list of options and try to figure out what each does and then also do check the options to see if there is something else you want to do too. OSL and OSM can both be made to toggle to a layer if tapped X times quickly, and then are supposed to let go when tapped once more.

Also I have set up layers with home row arrow and navigation keys, and mouse and wheel keys, so when I want to do navigating and editing I switch to my arrow layer, and when in no need for detailed mouse movement switch to the mouse layer, that latter one is very nice while reading articles/forums, as I have mouse wheel up down and left and right set up easily, no more reaching for trackball when not needing its precision and speed. Also home row on both sides, where for me both middle fingers move the cursor up ring fingers down and the left most and right most keys move left and right mouse 1 over index finger, middle mouse for middle finger and ring finger right mouse, wheels are on row below with same direction as home keys. Wheels on arrow layer do home (left) end (right) and page up and page down for the up and down direction also it is on those layers I hide some other seldom used keys like num lock, scroll lock, caps lock and pause break

Also my symbol layer also is my numpad layer where the numpad sits under the 789 keys. Then I have a function key layer with F1 to F10 under number keys and then further Fkeys on the rows below All very nice things to have when needed

Also yeah agreed on the saving me from RSI thing, I was crying typing on my old keyboard, so I had to stop writing... that was when I pulled the trigger on moonlander as last hope to fix it, and it did, at least for typing

I also have the pdf on my computer with the 'printed' keyboard layout, and bookmark to it in my browser, so I can easily bring it up when I forget something don't use that often though, but it happens.

But that is quite enough babbling from me for one post

[Hilda]

A few days ago I returned to an online publishing site that I haven't used in a long time. I was greeted with a notification that the site now offers an AI tool to jump start your writing when you run out of inspiration.

You can use GPT text completion to help you keep writing, even when you're not sure what to write next. It can also help you write more quickly, by suggesting words and phrases that you might want to use.

You have to activate this tool in your user settings, and when you publish your book, some kind of disclaimer is added to the verso page.

I'd rather not experiment with this function, but I wonder if anyone here has used something similar?

I'm in two minds about the recent flood of porn and non-porn images generated with Stable Diffusion and uploaded to image hosting websites. Impressive technology, but I find the results less than compelling. The only thing that keeps me scrolling through galleries of such images is finding the occasional error. A lady with three nostrils, or a guy with a back-to-front dick.

[Pornhubby]

The only thing that keeps me scrolling through galleries of such images is finding the occasional error. A lady with three nostrils, or a guy with a back-to-front dick.

[Hilda]

Steampunk lady who can count up to eleven. 

[Lauren]

Most of my writing requires documentation.

I've tried numerous reference managers and have settled on one called Bookends. It maintains a database of publications and, used in combination with a word processor, inserts citation markers that can later be converted into any format, or can be amalgamated into a bibliography.

It works smoothly enough, but I have one major gripe that makes me think twice about the cost of the regular upgrades.

There's a function that allows you to search library catalogs for publication data. That function worked well for many years, but recent searches of the Library of Congress, or the British Library, or major university libraries return fewer and fewer results. I end up having to scrape the data myself and then input it manually.

Perhaps the libraries are limiting the rate of requests, or perhaps they've changed their APIs. Google Books and Google Scholar appear to be returning results as before, but I don't trust the data.

For most heavy-duty writing I use a combination of Mellel + Bookends. For lighter and less critical stuff I prefer to use Apple Pages because the on-screen display is so much crisper, and that crispness helps my ideas to flow more naturally. It also emphasizes typographical errors and erratic punctuation.

[Raceway]

Renni Browne & Dave King. Self-editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

Nothing new, but it makes use of excerpts from famous books to illustrate how professional writers solve tricky problems.

[Rajah Dodger]

Steampunk lady who can count up to eleven. 

How come AI can manage nipples but not thumbs?
or is it that all AIs are male so those are the attributes they focus on?

[Pornhubby]

Steampunk lady who can count up to eleven. 

How come AI can manage nipples but not thumbs?
or is it that all AIs are male so those are the attributes they focus on?

Since AI images are created from a database that has scanned tens of thousands of photos, I think fingers are more difficult than nipples, because there are more of them. And in various positions.