Writing for Web and eBook Drafting on the iPad

This article is part of the "How to Get Real Work Done on an iPad" series. To go to the start, click here.

The iPad is a superb writing tool. I use it several times a week to draft and edit articles. I also use it with longer written documents, mainly eBooks, that are sold in the PitchVision Academy paid section.

The hardware, especially in the iPad Air (I currently use a 2013 model), is perfectly built for writing. The Retina screen is so good you won't want to look at text on anything else. It's also got a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than widescreen (16:9) which suits writing tasks much better. Put it in landscape and thumb type or put it on a desk in landscape. The on screen keyboard is big enough, and customisable enough that you can use it for long typing sessions. If you need a physical keyboard, Bluetooth is supported.

But for it to work well you need to set it up right. I think that's where a lot of people get frustrated.

The out of the box app experience is not as powerful or as easy when you want to get longer form writing done and published online. So I turn to Editorial.

Better than desktop: Editorial

The behemoth of iPad writing is Editorial.

Rather than a straight up word processor, Editorial is a text editor. It uses plain text and the very simple extension to text: Markdown. This simplicity is powerful because you can just focus on getting the words out and making a draft without distraction. Plus, when you need to, you can use Editorial as the hub of your writing. You can pull in resources from elsewhere, make it look good and then push out the end result to anywhere you want.

Let me give you an example: I write a daily article 400-800 word article on PitchVision Academy based on something I have researched. So I look up my notes in Evernote for the basic idea, then open Editorial and start writing. Usually I do a quick outline using subheaders as a guide to where I want the article to go. The markdown syntax allows me to create a subheader easily by hitting "##" on the keyboard. It's fast. Then I fill in the gaps with a first draft. The whole thing takes less than 30 minutes to have a usable draft.

Basic formatting is simple. Apart from subheaders, bold, italics, block quotes and lists have simple markdown codes, so can be handled by any text editor. Why Editorial then? Because it excels in two areas,

1. Text correction and expansion.
2. Workflows.

Text expansion transforms how you type and makes it faster to type on the smaller iPad keyboard but you need to buy into it a bit because best practice text entry is different on an iPad. First there is good old autocorrect. It's imperfect, but once you get the hang of it you can blast out a lot of text without worrying about typos. I find that the more I use it the better I get at noticing where it's put the wrong word in place and correcting autocorrect. Overall it's much faster, especially if you work a lot in portrait mode with your thumbs.

Second is TextExpander Touch. This app is a custom keyboard that allows you to define a small bit of text (snippet) that automatically expands to longer text. It's a huge time saver. Editorial supports snippets whether you have TextExpander or not. One I use every day is ".pva" which expands to "PitchVision Academy". If you find yourself typing the same thing repeatedly then make a snippet for it and save yourself more and more time as you add to the list.

For more complex tasks toy can use a unique feature of Editorial called "workflows". I use workflows every day. Workflows are extensions to the basic functions that make it fast an easy to get a document presentable. One of the best ones is the link function: When I tap the "Search PV" button in Editorial, a box pops up. I enter the term and an taken to PitchVision Academy article search results from the browser inside Editorial.

All good so far, but it gets super slick here,

• From this article slip back to the document.
• Highlight the link text with a double tap.
• Tap the "Link" button and a formatted link pops into place.

Three taps and the link is in place.

Compared to using the web interface of my company CMS (Content Management System) it's about 10x faster. It's also noticably faster than the text editor I use on my PC.

Speed is not the only benefit though. Unlike Word or Pages, it's simple to get the article out onto the internet when you are done. Plain text in the markdown format can convert straight into HTML for putting on the web. With a single tap of the HTML workflow in Editorial your words are reformatted and copied to the clipboard ready to be posted online. If you are writing in Word and have to post online, you probably find that you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to the same place. I know I used to pull my hair out with formatting issues, but with Editorial that's a thing of the past.

With your fresh baked HTML, You can upload the article. Editorial supports FTP and Wordpress and I'm sure some other ways that I have not discovered. In my case, I use a web based interface. I have set it up to post like this:

1. Tap the "+Story" workflow, which opens the Editorial browser on the web based text entry page of the site.
2. Swipe back to the editor, tap "HTML".
3. Swipe to the browser and paste the code straight in. No messing with formatting.
4. Save and the article is live.

Through no fault of the app, this part is a little less slick. The web form style of the CMS means a couple of extra taps to add the title, the url and the formatting type. There is no way around those fiddles and I happily admit they are designed for bigger screen, keyboard and mouse. I have been known to quickly change to my desktop for this last stage if it's handy. Even here it's Editorial to the rescue, because the app can save files to Dropbox. I just open my PC Text editor and the document is ready to go.

Speaking of easier on the PC, there is also the issue of images in Editorial edited web articles. Images are not as easy as words. You can insert images but to get them in shape you need to,

1. Find or design the image and save it locally.
2. Resize and crop the image.
3. Upload the image.
4. Place the image in the right place in the article.

On the PC you can open multiple windows and use copy/paste with the keyboard to get it done. The iPad needs a bit more work because it's not as good in this situation. Let me show you how I do it for an article that looks like this,

You can see the image on the left with the words wrapped around it. Here is the process. Be warned, it's ugly, but you may have a more forgiving CMS to work with.

I'll start with an image already designed, cropped and resized because I'll go more into the process for that in the Graphic Design section. Once the image is ready to go I'll make sure it's on the Public section of my Dropbox then,

1. Open the Dropbox app to the image, hit the share sheet, then tap the Clips option to copy the unique link.
2. Return to the article and use a TextExpander snippet that generates the right HTML code for the placement of the image and pastes the image link in the right place (in this case it's aligned left with a 10px space, but I have other snippets for different positions). Just for completeness here is the snippet,

<img align=left src="%clipboard" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" alt="" />

1. Unfortunately, there is an extra step to make the image work. That's because Dropbox image links need to be converted from "www.dropbox.com" to "dl.dropboxusercontent.com". So I highlight that part of the code and hit another TextExpander snippet that replaces the text.

The reason I use Dropbox is because the image hosting tool on our custom CMS is web based and won't work on the iPad. I'm sure there are more elegant ways that I have not examined,

• Use a CMS with a native app where you can insert the image.
• Upload the image using FTP or Wordpress (Editorial can do both from within the app using workflows that are on the Editorial website).

Other than web articles, I do some other writing on the iPad. I'll talk about these more in their relevant sections: Writing and editing eBooks for eLearning courses, Reference material notes and posting to social media.

Researching Articles on the iPad

This article is part of the "How to Get Real Work Done on an iPad" series. To go to the start, click here.

My job is about spreading ideas.

I don't want or need to keep up with the news because I don't cover that, but I do want to find new ideas that can be applied to cricket to help players and coaches. Eventually the best of these ideas will become content on PitchVision Academy, mostly as articles. That means I need to do a lot of research.

The iPad is just about the perfect tool for the job.

Feedly: The morning sweep

It starts with a daily sweep of the net for ideas courtesy of Feedly. Feedly is an RSS reader that you can load up with sites. In my case this is mostly cricket, fitness, technology and self-help. I have about 80 sites on the list at the moment including those I am interested in personally as well as professionally.

Feedly lets you quickly sweep through dozens of articles a day in no time. My process fr this si simple: Armed with a morning cup of green tea (yes, I'm that guy), I take about 20 minutes swiping and reading headlines. If anything catches my eye I will tap the article and decide what to do with it next:

• Read it
• Save it for later
• Share it

In my experience it works better to avoid getting sucked in to articles that take more than a couple of minutes to read because this part is all about speed.

There are other newsreader apps that you can re-purpose as idea finders: Nuzzle, Prismatic, Flipboard and Random are all good. They all have interesting approaches and certainly broaden your horizons. That said, I have had limited success in finding usable ideas. Feedly remains the cornerstone.

Pocket: The personal newspaper

If article is one that needs proper consideration, tap the single tap it takes to send the article to Pocket.

Pocket is a personal newspaper filled with stuff you want to read. In my case, I am not a completionist. There are dozens of articles in there because I always put in more than I make time to read. That's fine, because it's the place for that stuff to be. I won't read it in the morning sweep because I would still be reading hours later. Instead, I drop into it at down times throughout the week; on a train, in a coffee shop and so on. It's there when I need it and it's not bothering me when I don't want to or can't read it.

Linked apps: Getting it out there

The ultimate aim of Feedly and Pocket is fully fleshed out articles or conversation topics on the weekly podcast. That means getting the germ of the idea out of my reader apps.

I use the PitchVision Academy Twitter account to throw up quick quotes and links alongside general ideas that pop into my head. I want to see how popular an idea is with PV fans because ideas that get read, retweeted and favourited will be popular articles.

It used to be a pain to put a quote, title and link together for a tweet. Copying, pasting back and forth between apps was a lot of friction. But with the latest iOS it's a breeze:

1. Hitting the tweet button in Feedly (after highlighting the text)
2. Hitting the tweet button in Pocket
3. Opening in Safari, and using Linky in the share sheet. With this option you can track clicks on the link.

If there is too much text for twitter and I don't want to edit it down to a tweet then I have a couple of options. I'll send it to a set of friends on Facebook called "cricket" using the built in Facebook share sheet. Or I'll open it in Drafts, edit it, and send it to Google+. These are lesser option as G+ and my Facebook list has a fraction of the audience of Twitter.

Twitter works great as public idea repository. You can use it to refer back to things you have read for stuff to turn into articles, graphics and podcast discussions. You can also use it track the popularity of the ideas, when deciding what to write about in more detail.

Evernote and Drafts: Idea storage

Which brings me onto using Evernote (via often via Drafts).

Evernote is a digital Swiss Army knife, more on that later, but one big use is for storing article ideas that don't need to be put into public. It's a smooth process from the iPad:

1. From Feedly, Pocket or Safari, copy the details (usually with Clips),
2. Paste into Drafts (via the iOS 8 notification centre widget)
3. Tap to append it to an Evernote note called "Post Ideas".

Drafts makes moving text around easy; in the past that was difficult and annoying and would have driven me back to my desktop to do the work. Now its a seamless flow of information from consumption to sharing. I'll provide more examples of how to use it later.

You don't have to use Drafts to store stuff in Evernote. If you read an article that you want to keep for reference but not for an article, use the share sheet in Pocket to send it into the bowels of Evernote with a tap. It saves the entire article in a searchable database.

Kindle: Deeper dives

Sometimes you want to forget speed and get deeper into a topic and that's where to use Kindle.

The common advice is to read widely as it give you a broader outlook. So, keep a long wish list of books on Amazon on a range of topics. For me the range is from fiction (currently reading The Stand by Stephen King) to self-help to straight up cricket coaching manuals. Having everything on the iPad means your books go where you go and you can take a few minutes in the doctor's waiting room or other interstitial time.

Highlight key points as you go through any book so you can easily find it later. Digital reading means searchable, and that means a source of ideas for content. It is possible to get your notes into Evernote, but it's a bit of an inelegant hack. You can make a reminder to go through your notes instead.

Of course, reading is not only for iPads. Use dead trees books for both enjoyment and information too, but that's outside the scope of this article other than to say that you can easily keep book ideas and notes in Evernote.

I'll also quickly mention Audible here. Audio is a different way to consume content when you can't read a book; the gym, washing up, walking around and so on. For that reason, I don't use the iPad for audio books, although I do "read" them using my phone.

How to Get Real Work Done on an iPad

One of the main criticisms of the iPad is that it can't be used for getting stuff done in any real way. I want to prove that wrong.

I believe there is a place for the device beyond the "big phone" uses of games, photos, email triage and social media updates. I use it for a lot of things that even two years ago I would have needed at least a laptop. That said, it's still not the perfect solution in all cases. So, the question is, can you use it to do real work?

I can't answer that directly, but by showing you the nuts and bolts of how I use my iPad to do real work every day, maybe you can get a better idea of the devices strengths and weaknesses.

iPad Use Case

I have an orginal iPad Air in Space Grey.

As you know, I'm a cricket coach for a living, but most of my days are not spent directly coaching players on the field. Day to day I produce coaching material for PitchVision Academy, a website for cricket advice and eLearning. That puts me in a unique position to do lots of different kinds of real work: I write and edit articles and eBooks, I shoot video at locations around the world, I edit photos, audio and video, I create graphics, I maintain social media, I research ideas, I do spreadsheets, I upload a heck of a lot of files to work servers, and I communicate with my work colleagues - and other contacts - across the globe.

I also do actual cricket coaching that is mostly free from technology directly because I deal with players playing for fun over performance aims. Even there it is leaking through more often.

In short, my real work digital demands are very high!

So, the rest of this article will give you a snapshot of how I personally get stuff done and make real things using the iPad. It will also show you the limits of the device in my experience. I hope it will help you, if you are in a similar position, to get the most from your iPad. Perhaps it will help you decide if you should buy one, or something else instead.

As always, your comments, flames, feedback and questions are welcome.

Home Screen

As is customary with such articles, here is my home screen for you to get your bearings:

As a small sidebar that acts as an insight to my personality I'll tell you that everything on the screen has a role and there are few distractions. Yes, that even extends to black wallpaper. The choice is effective and dull over a world of fun distractions.

Lesser-used apps are on page 2 in folders. They are enough of a pain to get that you have to consciously decide to go there (rather than fall into Facebook on accident). You have to move past more productive distractions to reach the unproductive ones. It gives you a better ability to focus on the real work. To help with this, use spotlight search a lot to get to occasional apps. The XE currency converter is a good example. It's needed about twice a month so it's pointless on the home screen, but with a swipe, search and tap it's fast enough.

Using springboard in combination with spotlight search in this way is a fast jumping off point.

Over the next few articles I will go into details on what other work I do on the iPad:

• Research
• Writing
• Image Editing and Graphic Design
• Productivity
• eLearning Course Production
• Communication and Social Media
• Cricket Coaching
• Everything Else

Debunking "Going Quiet In The Field"

One of the popular mantras from the "old heads" at my cricket club is,

"The problem is that you all went quiet in the field. You have to back the bowler!"

Every time we lose, especially batting first, that line comes out in some way or another. And it certainly seems like sensible advice. 

But is it really?

Let's look at the evidence.

Everyone knows that these days a good fielding side work together to back the bowler. You clap, you cheer. You "ooh" and "ahh" when the ball beats the bat. You use well timed sledging to make the batsmen feel like he is taking on a beast with 11 heads.

When I coach I always throw in a line to the boys about encouraging the bowlers. 

And as a 'keeper I am often the last to shut up with the encouragement myself. I feel like it's my job to be team cheerleader so the captain can hatch his plans in peace.

The idea behind this strategy is two-fold:

1. It intimidates and distracts the batsman.
2. It keeps the bowler going.

I have little doubt that a fired-up, enthusiastic side is capable of one or both of these. Think back to a time when you were on top. Wickets fell. The bowler was charging in. You felt like something was going happen nearly every ball. As a result you naturally had greater energy as a team.

But that is also the problem: The noise and enthusiasm came from the fact you were on top. Not the other way around. You can't pretend to be on top when the batting side are blasting you to all corners. So you "go quiet" and the sages on the sidelines make a mental note to criticise your efforts.

That's why you have to know there are times when "going quiet" is a right and proper response. It doesn't mean that you have given up on winning, simply that you are focusing on something more important than making a pointless noise.

When to Go Quiet in The Field

The best teams in the world don't win games through passion.

Passion is important, but it can also cloud the mind. The better teams know that winning is about making a plan then, without distraction, putting it into action.

And that takes a cold, calculating and icy approach that goes beyond shouting "come on lads" after every ball. 

Say it's your strategy to squeeze a side out of the game bowling second. You are less interested in bowling them out than you are in drying up the runs so much that they can't keep up with the rate. What do you need to achieve that?

• Accurate bowling
• Well set fields
• Efficient fielding
• A touch of luck

Which one of those is improved by being loud in the field?

I'm going to go ahead and say that none of them. 

Sure, a bowler might feel encouraged by hand clapping, but he will also feel supported by fielders who take catches, throw themselves into dives to save boundaries and back up the back up fielders: The unspoken code of teamwork.

My point is simple; it's far more important to be well drilled, calculating and efficient than it is to be loud. The latter springs from the former.

Of course, it's also possible to go quiet because you have indeed given up on trying to win. That is not acceptable unless you are truly out of the game (a rare moment). In this case, the team do need to do some artificial encouragement to each other. Remind everyone that it's not over until "the fat lady sings". Even if she is in the wings warming up, she's not showing her pipes yet. Let's get on with it.

The job of the captain, and coach - and even the old heads - is to recognise the difference between getting on with a job and giving up. Then to decide whether going quiet was a symptom of poor team support or just a matter of being focused on the important task of trying to win a cricket match.

Cricket Coaching Lessons I Learned After Passing Level 2

I have been coaching cricket since 1993, taking the "new" level 2 in 2008 and so I have a lot of miles in my coaching engine. I have learned a huge amount in that time and now I want to pass on some of my thoughts.

In many ways it's my open letter to the 18 year old David Hinchliffe about what to expect as a coach. Whether you are newly qualified yourself, or have years of experience, I would like to hear what you think.

Respect Will Make or Break Your Coaching

I'm a total cricket badger. I always have obsessed about technique, tactics, fitness and the mental game. I devoured everything I could about the game because I wanted to improve myself and be able to coach others with the aid of my encyclopaedic knowledge.

What I know now is that knowledge is just the start: Real coaching is about developing respect.

Of course, you still need to get the information right. You will never get respect or results if your abilities to observe, identify and correct are lacking. But players who respect you will listen to you. Players who listen to you have a chance of improving.

That may seem simple, but just because you have a hoodie with "COACH" emblazoned on the back, doesn't mean you will garner respect. That takes a whole different set of skills that are not taught to you on Level 2 because they are highly individual.

How to Win Respect of Anyone You Coach

I've noticed that this is one reason why there are fewer coaches at senior level that at junior level. It's much easier to have respect of a group of 12 year old cricketers than it is a jaded bunch of 20-40 year old cricketers.

But whoever you coach at whatever level, you can gain their respect.

It starts by having the confidence to know what you are trying to achieve. You have to be a very different coach with a very different goal if you are only able to run senior warm ups compared to coordinating a junior rep level side.

And to know what you are trying to achieve, you better damn well know what every individual player is trying to achieve too. I learned pretty fast that my goals rarely matched most of the people I coach. So I learned to adapt. I changed my approach to help players get what they wanted, even if it wasn't the image of perfection that I had in my mind.

Perfection is in the eye of the beholder.

It was obvious that this worked for me. Players respected me more because they saw I was working for them and not trying to force things.

For example, when I started at a new club a few years back I was quickly developing a reputation as the "drills guy with all his cones". The players would rib me for it. I could have given up and fallen in line with the old way of warming up with a few catches before play. Instead, I talked to players. I found out what they wanted to do:

"We drop too many catches in the deep"

So we bought a skyer and made it a challenge to catch as many as possible before play.

"I bowl too many bad balls"

We marked out an area for the bowlers and put flat markers down for target bowling.

You get the idea.

I still go my precious drills, but the guys felt like they were doing them for a reason and so they respected my ability to come up with things that did what they wanted while also keeping them interested.

Better Sessions are About People Not Drills

There is a comedian called Pete Holmes who talks about the idea of the "$10,000 statement". It's the idea that a very simple statement is very difficult to really learn. So it takes $10,000 of therapy to really get it.

My $10,000 statement about coaching is this: It's about people, not drills.

I know it's obvious, but it took me a lot of years - and a lot of sessions - to really understand that fact. I would rather have a few drills and have a real connection with my players than hundred of drills and a bunch of players who are closed off to new ideas.

When you connect with players, they not only learn from you, they learn from themselves because they are open and mindful.

Maybe that openness and mindfulness is only for 15 minutes before your matches in the summer. Maybe it's part of a year long programme of talented cricketers. It doesn't matter because either way you are making a difference.

And that is what it's all about.

Why All Coaches Should Hate Draw Cricket

I love draw cricket, but these days it seems a little pointless to flog the dead horse.  In my latest vlog I take the view as a coach and as a player.

How to Build a Standing Desk for Free

The modern cricket coach at any level spends a lot of time at a computer. From writing reports to working out averages to keeping up to date with emails from players and parents there is always something that needs you to be tied to a desk.

I've wanted to use a standing desk for a long time now. I have been convinced by the research that says sitting is killing you. My job involves a lot of sitting down and I knew that an hour in the gym 3 times a week was not cutting it.

Thing is, I didn't want to pay the hundreds it costs to get a standing solution. Desks can be up to £800 and even cheap desk adaptors are a couple of hundred.

Then I found a site that showed me how to do the same thing for about £20.

It was reading that elegant solution that got me to thinking that I could do it for even less.

Here is how I did it for free. And you can too if you have stuff found in most homes or offices.

Free Standing Desk

You will need:

• A normal desk
• A sturdy box that is about 14" (35cm) high

Instructions:

1. Put the box on top of the desk.
2. Put your laptop or monitor, keyboard and mouse on top of the box.

That's it!

Is it beautiful? I guess it depends how nice the box and desk look to you. But the fact is that it works.

Here is how I laid out mine:

I have been using the desk for a few days now and I can tell you that I can work for long periods standing up with no discomfort.

Customising Your Standing Desk

I was lucky enough that I had a box that was the right height. I can stand with my elbows at 90 degrees and use the keyboard easily. I had to slightly raise the monitor to get it up to my eye line using a smaller box, but I had that lying around.

It's important that the desk is comfortable to use, so bear in mind those factors when setting up your standing desk. You might find that the investment of a a few pounds is worthwhile to get a box that is the right height. Only you can know, but you can still do it for much cheaper than a real standing desk.

I also have a laptop I can put at sitting height. I have found that standing all day is a little tough, so a couple of times in the day I will sit at the laptop and do a specific piece of work like checking email. This has had the added benefit of stopping me idly checking email through the day instead of making awesome stuff for PitchVision fans (more on that topic in another article).

My Standing Desk Experience

The question remains, would I recommend a standing desk?

If you work at a desk quite a lot I would heartily say yes. With a free standing desk you can try it out and see how you feel spending more time standing. My experience so far has been positive, but if I change my mind I can always just take the box off the desk and go back to the old way.

However, when I am standing up I feel more focused and energised. I am able to work at things with less distraction. Sitting down feels like a little treat to myself, and because I have a specific job to do when I sit (email) I can get on with it while feeling good.

It's too early to comment on the actual health benefits, but I certainly feel better about myself for doing it after all these years.

Give it a try and let me know how you go!

5 Tech Devices That Help Cricket Coaches

One of the themes of this site is how new technology can be integrated into good cricket coaching. This video shows you what I am using to balance things out.

About

As this is the first article, you are going to get an introduction to the site. I reserve the right to change how I do things as I go along, but for now here is the past and my ideas for the future at david25.com

What's with the name? 

It's one I made up in 2001 when I joined a web forum on a whim. I ended up working for the site full time and by then the name had stuck. Over a decade later I bought the domain because I figured it would be easy to say out loud to people. Wars have been started on less.

How did things start? 

 After leaving the forum for a networking tech job, I started a little site on the side about cricket coaching called harrowdrive.com which merged with PitchVision Academy in 2008. I became Director of Coaching there and have been living the dream ever since.

 PVA is a huge archive of material written, collected, recorded and edited by yours truly.  I'm super-proud of it and if you play or coach cricket you should absolutely go over there and do a deep dive into the pool of content. But there is also a corporate image to maintain. There are dependencies on other people. I can't always make stuff the way I want to make it. That's not a complaint, far from it, but it means I needed another outlet.

What to expect

So I created this site to be more personal, to put the stuff I would never dream of putting on the "day job" site. Equally, I won't be adding articles and videos that are better suited to PVA. This site is my place to play with formats, take longer to make things and to be more personal.

Franky, its also to show off, to have a lark about and to connect with like minded souls.

 Of course, as a cricket coach with over 20 years experience, and total cricket badger, that means I'm often going to be talking about cricket.  There will be advice and experiences,

So if you want a kind of personal sidebar to PVA, this is the place for you.

And if you want private coaching from me (as a speaker, coach or consultant) you can hit me up without my work cap getting in the way.

I'll also be talk about fitness, food, technology and anything else that swings across my life. My aim is to do it in an interesting and entertaining manner, but also to give you something practical from the site. My first bit of advice is to subscribe via email so you get the site updates when the come out. If you don't like it you can opt out. If you do like it, then let me know!

What's next? 

Honestly, if you subscribe via email you will not miss out. My plan is to update once or twice a week with long form articles, video blogs, how to guides, analysis of trends in technology relevant to cricket coaching. I might change that depending on how well it goes, but I guess that's up to you as much as it is me.

Join me for the ride and we might have a little fun.