digi-quest

Published: 12:00am, 14 Oct 2007

I have recently become interested in blogging but have no idea how to do this or even where to begin. Is there a simple way to do it? Will it cost a lot?

Name and address supplied

DQ: There is an easy and painless way to get started. Blogger (www.blogger.com), a blog-publishing system, will allow you to set up a site in minutes. Blogger is credited with helping popularise the Web-log format since the service was launched in 1999. Its creator, Pyra Labs, was bought by Google in 2003. Blogger explains everything you need to know in a straightforward manner. In three easy steps - create a free account, name your blog and choose a template - you're all set.

However, free publishing tools may not be the best route to take if you want to get serious about blogging. You may want to host your blog properly with serious software. Visit Blog Software Breakdown (asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm) to check out the software you may need. The EatonWeb blog directory (portal.eatonweb.com), which has links to plenty of blogs, will also give you an idea of how other people go about this business.

But technology is probably the least of your worries. Blogging is not easy. To do a proper blog, you must keep it up to date and respond to those who write to you. If you have something truly interesting or entertaining to say, you may discover your blog becomes a second business. Most blogs die a tired death within a few weeks of their creation, so be prepared for a lot of work.

I am preparing a paper for the Journal of Chinese Linguistics but its requirements have me stumped. Requirement No 4 from the journal's Web page states: 'A computer disk, containing both the contents of your paper and abstracts, prepared in Word (Twinbridge 4.x or RichWin also if Chinese characters are presented) for Windows should also be enclosed.'

I use a Mac so I am uncertain what to do. I do not understand what all that means. I have also not used a floppy disk drive for many years.

Henry, Bangkok

DQ: The first thing you should do is send the journal an e-mail and ask them if they would like to join the 21st century. I suppose, however, such a communication would hurt the possibility of your paper being published.

You may be able to get around this if its publishers are as ignorant about technology as they seem to be. MS Word on a Mac gives you the option to save a file in Windows format for older versions.

You could save your document in that way.

As for the disk, you could copy your file to a USB Flash device, take it to a friend with a Windows machine then copy it to a disk. You may want to get somebody else to write to the editors and tell them we all use Unicode today and there is a thing called e-mail that works rather well.

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