Mike Fleming

Random Locations by Continent

Short and Sweet(TM): You can now generate random locations by continent in Hiveword’s random place generator: The Country dropdown lists all countries (like it always has) but now the continents are included at the top of the list for easy selection. The screenshot above is from the public generator but the in-app version allows you to quickly add locations to your story (as always). Selecting random places from a continent is great because, while you may know the region of the world you’d like to source from, having to choose one country at a time is quite limiting and is less conducive to the joys of serendipity. I hope you… Read More »Random Locations by Continent

Track and Search Your Web Page Bookmarks

If you’re like me, you currently have dozens of browser tabs open for reference. Or, perhaps you make browser bookmarks of the web pages you’ll want to refer to later but will never find again. Sound familiar? Hiveword Plus now has a better solution with an uninspiring name: Bookmarks. In Hiveword, you can now attach bookmarks to your settings, characters, items, custom types, or whatever. As a result, the bookmark is right there with the thing it’s relevant to. You can also name the bookmark and add tags and notes to it. The name is optional and will default to the web page’s title as it is in the screenshot… Read More »Track and Search Your Web Page Bookmarks

Filtering with Text Search

From the beginning, Hiveword has had a filtering mechanism for quickly isolating/highlighting scenes and chapters by certain attributes such as POV character, setting, etc. It’s a very powerful feature by itself but today I’m excited to announce that it’s now even MORE powerful with the addition of filtering by text search. Hiveword Plus users can now filter based upon words in a scene, character sheet, journal entry, or anything else in Hiveword. As a Hiveword Plus user, you’ve long had the ability to search all of your data for certain words by using the global search mechanism. This type of search returns hits against everything so you could see results… Read More »Filtering with Text Search

Head-to-Head Book Club

I’ve never participated in a traditional book club. However, my wife has and this is what they seem to be from my third party perspective: Someone picks a book that inevitably some people don’t want to read Everyone reads the book before the meeting date. Some people will finish well before the deadline and move on to other books and others will finish close to the due date (if they finish at all) At the meeting, conversation and wine flow The book might get talked about. Unless the readers took notes (who wants to do that while reading for enjoyment?), participants will be discussing the particulars of a book well… Read More »Head-to-Head Book Club

Short Stories Rule

(This post first appeared many moons ago in the Hiveword newsletter.) I’ll just mention a quick tidbit from the Hive because I want to get right to the interview since it’s so amazing. The Writer’s Knowledge Base (WKB) has articles from over 4,000 websites. All hand-picked by Elizabeth Spann Craig. 4,000! Crazy, isn’t it? I thought it would be fun to list the top ten sites with the most content in the WKB. You’ll find them here. A new one is added to the list every day until we get to the top spot. And don’t forget that you can get daily or weekly emails with categorized links to great articles on writing via… Read More »Short Stories Rule

Hiveword Redesign

You may have noticed that it’s been unnaturally quiet around here. There’s been a dearth of new feature announcements, tweets, blog and Facebook posts, etc. What’s going on? Hiveword newsletter subscribers know what’s going on. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter if you want the freshest news. I suppose the title of this post is a spoiler but today I’m going to talk about the long overdue Hiveword redesign. What follows is the content from a past newsletter describing the changes.     In the last newsletter I mentioned the Hiveword redesign that is underway. In this edition I have some screenshots for you! My goal with the redesign is to… Read More »Hiveword Redesign

Higher Gear

  In biking, the lowest gear is called “granny gear” or simply “granny.” This gear is so easy to pedal that it pretty much requires no work. However, you won’t get anywhere fast when you’re in granny gear even though your legs are spinning like mad. (Now, my apologies if you are a real granny but this term did not come about because of grannies like you, of course! 😉 ) Since I got my new bike last year (pictured), I find myself riding a higher gear than I used to on my previous bike, Old Yeller. Old Yeller was a much harsher ride than my new bike, Black Betty… Read More »Higher Gear

Right Now, Now, Now

The following is part of my Mountain Biker Musings collection. I use a biking metaphor here but I think it applies to any endeavor. I hope you like it. You’re slogging up a long hill Notice your heart pounding You’re alive Right now Right now you’re on the hill The next now you’re still on the hill but a little farther All of the little nows add up to… Now Keep plugging away up that hill Every position is right now Hey, you’re doing great right now! How about one more now? It’s not so hard to be there right now One more pedal stroke and, well, look at that,… Read More »Right Now, Now, Now

“My Types” Menu Improvements

Things have really been buzzing in the Hive of late. My previous posts described several new features: List page details toggle for reduced scrolling Hiding default (aka “factory”) fields Optionally showing custom field descriptions In this post I’ll describe some improvements to the “My Types” menu. It’s not terribly exciting like the last two features but I think it is a nice usability change. Here’s what’s changed: The number of custom types is now in parentheses Types are sorted The list scrolls (as opposed to having one long list) There’s a quick link to manage types Removed the submenus in favor of inline icons If you have Hiveword Plus (the… Read More »“My Types” Menu Improvements

Custom Field Descriptions

In my previous post I talked about the icon on the right below and that it toggles the default Hiveword fields off and on if you have custom fields. I also teased the new icon to the left of it. These new icons appear on the edit pages for characters, scenes, etc. This post is about the icon on the left. This icon toggles the display of custom field descriptions if any are provided. The icon won’t appear if there are no custom fields with descriptions. The show/hide description toggle works like the show/hide custom fields icon next to it: namely, the setting is remembered across sessions. Here’s a screen of custom… Read More »Custom Field Descriptions