hipster pda downloads for writers

AV’s first writer-optimized downloads — templates for the Hipster PDA (hPDA) — are now available on the Downloads page. Using the same soothing, minimalist appearance as the new Active Voice website, these templates take maximum advantage of the limited real estate of the 3×5 card by favoring writing space over boundaries.

Because all great hardware needs equally great software. And when the hardware is paper, the software must be ink.

The first set of templates includes:

• cover sheet
• 2007 calendar
• address book
• blank page footer
• two kinds of lists
• map and mileage trackers
• four types of research and note-taking aids

And for knitters:

• Yarn identification and sorting cards

All the cards in this set have been extensively field-tested and refined in my personal hPDA (or, in the case of the yarn cards, by my wife Mary Jo to organize her yarns). Created using OmniGraffle and saved as .png files, they can be stretched to fit virtually any size personal organizer with no resolution loss.

If you’d like to modify a template to better suit your needs, please e-mail me and I will be happy to send you the appropriate OmniGraffle file. If you have any ideas for templates that you think that no writer or editor can live without, let me know and I’ll get to work on them — and don’t forget to check back periodically for new additions to the set as well.

Also, I’d be happy to host your new and modified templates that use the AV theme, or link to them on your site. Just let me know!

Coming soon: writing and editing templates optimized for the brand-new PagePacker from Big Nerd Ranch. Stay tuned!

Author: Paul Lagasse

Paul Lagasse provides expert-to-expert communications services to nonprofit, business, and government clients in the metro Baltimore-DC area. Specialties include science and medical writing, technical report editing, and content marketing. View all posts by Paul Lagasse