Tools, Guides, Resources


 


 

"Browsing" the web is certainly different from reading a book, and so browsing the web would seem to be a long way from actually composing. However, tabbed browsing can accelerate your browsing into percussive activity that can lead to writing, if you let wiki into your plan. Because, once you get rrrrrrollllllin' with tabbed browsing, you're ready to roll on into the wiki, where you can click the "edit" button or "new page" button. Go ahead, open up a wiki window, to the infinite! Do this--slow down, and write it down. Dissolve all this tabbed energy. Just place your cursor on the wiki and type a little bit about all you've seen and heard and felt on your journey. Sustainable composition practice depends on tabbed browsing, folks, so before you experiment with the online tools and resources listed on this page, and before you go any further in your wiki itinerary, be certain to install Firefox and familiarize yourself with tabbed browsing. Grab yer cheatsheet, add your addons! Repeat: to avoid unnecessary difficulty, browse with Firefox.

 

mechanics and style

 

Firefox Addons

 

Open Office and Neo Office - free open source software that replaces Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.

 

speed up open office tips from lifehacker.com

 

koffice also like Microsoft Word, but free

 

Craig Waddell's free prose mechanics this free grammar guide and style manual covers the basics

 

Elements of Style, a classic

 

3 modules on clear writing style at Rice's Connexions, a creative commons of learning modules, online texts, and courses.

 

nonlinear adding machine got writer's block? Chisel it up, find your "un-voice"

 

Widget Library! this "scriptorium" shares (java) scripts for making our wiki sizzle. F'shizzle!

 

html color codes

 

Textism quick textile html converter. Very cool!

 

free expertise the official pbwiki community forum

wiki formatting

 

zamzar free online file format conversion

 

zoho free online (no downloading necessary) word processing, spreadsheets, and more

 

compose with sound

 

pandora the "music genome project"

Freesound- just what it says...and so much more. Tab out a sound, play, play, play

 

musipedia by mouse or by mic: "draw notes," perform "rhythm searches," match melodies, and more

 

soundtransit collaborative online field recording and phonography

 

CCMixter a place to share and remix sonic productions.

 

Audacity - free and open source multi-platform audio editing and recording software. Great for making compressed (i.e. podcast-able) .ogg and .mp3 files.

 

legaltorrents creative Commons-licensed, legally downloadable, freely distributable creator-approved music, movies, and books. Explore the issues on a tight budget.

 

Odeo and podomatic - it's so easy to host podcasts at these sites.

 

phlow magazine freeculture! a hub for netlabels, netaudio artists, mp3s galore

 

jahtari streaming mixtapes

 

compose with images

 

You Tube There's also Medicine Films. Free video upload--once uploaded, videos can be embedded on this wiki.

 

The GIMP - free and open source graphics editing software.

Grokking the GIMP - free online GIMP user's manual.

 

Cascading Style Sheets by John Monroe for ENC 3310. John's CSS example and tutorial will help you work with colors and codes here in 1101, too!

 

dipity a timeline visualization tool

 

rhetoric

 

rhetorosaurus largest online rhetoric glossary in the world

 

kartoo visual meta-search engine

 

Aristotle's Rhetoric

 

Silva Rhetoricae the forest of rhetoric

 

TV Tropes Wiki amazing tool for twisting, turning, tweaking, and otherwise patterning language.

 

jyte claim-tester

 

composing in common...

 

getspace send large files over gmail

 

ning create your own social network for anything

 

etherpad real-time collaborative text-editing

 

The Creative Commons - Learn about how to share and protect your compositions. Shareable images, books, sounds, software, and more

 

filedropper store files, link them to the wiki

 

RSSinclude mix your own rss feeds into this wiki

 

tiddlywiki free wiki composing tool

 

From tabbing to tagging: TagSearch. Find and make patterns, in wiki, using brief descriptions, or "tags."

 

Unblock sites

 

How to... instruction and revelation

 

Instructables how to collaborate...

 

 

the Public Library of Science

 

Nelson Poynter Memorial Library USFSP Library

 

slashdot

 

digg

 

slashdot + digg = slashdigg!

 

-->Open Source screen capture tool<--

 

-->Scribus Desktop Publishing<--

 

-->\"Newsletter\" - "Newsletter" Scribus file <--

 

 

 

Even more instruments for multimedia composition