Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: I’m paranoid of losing lesson plans, report card comments, and other school work. I back up, but is that enough?
A: Truth, I am the most paranoid person I know about technology. I have an external hard drive for back up, Carbonite in the cloud, a 512-gig flash drive for my ‘important’ stuff (which turns out to be everything), and still I worry.
Here’s what else I do: Every time I work on a document I just can’t afford to lose (again, that’s pretty much everything), I email it to myself. If you’re using MS Office, that’s a snap. Other programs–just drag and drop the file into the email message. I set up a file on my email program called ‘Backups’. I store the email in there and it waits until I’m tearing my hair out. I’ve never had to go there, but it feels good knowing it’s available.
There are some documents that are too large to email. Those I add as an attachment to an email and save it to the ‘Drafts’ folder. It isn’t sent out so doesn’t get bounced due to size limits and still is saved for an emergency.
How do you back up your work?
More tech tips for writers:
Auto-add a Period, Caps Lock, and More on an IPad
10 Bits of Wisdom I Learned From a Computer
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman
worddreams.wordpress.com 
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Terrific tips as always, Jacqui. It might have been you who told me about emailing files years ago. 😀
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It’s a favorite of mine. It doesn’t work for my massive 60 MB non-fic books–those I have to save to the Drafts file. All my fiction is small enough, it’s a perfect, fast solution.
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thanks very much,you too madam enjoy
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E-mail may not be 100% on point if you access the document on another device and all you get is @$fdufh%^$#&@* when you open it. If you’re going to e-mail your work to yourself I was also told to save it as a rtf document. doc. and docx. won’t open on computers that don’t have microsoft so say you e-mail it to yourself and can’t open it! Yikes! I was always told to back up in multiple places (your own computer, USB flash drive, dropbox, whatever).
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That’s a good idea, though it’ll take more than my promised 5 seconds! Well, some of those techies out there could do it!
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I also email things to myself all the time so I can save later. I also backup files once a week.
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I’m not surprised you do, Medeia, because it’s about the fastest way to back up work. You have too much to do to waste time.
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I’m so shocked that you recommend my choice of document insurance (emailing it to myself or to someone who knows that the email is my back-up, back-up!) Who knew that I could be tech savvy?
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Of course you are–you’re a problem solver. This is pretty much common sense and you’re chock full of that.
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Ah, thanks. I’m so much a technophobe, that if you hadn’t posted it, I would never have admitted it.
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I guess I don’t have the fear for some reason. I used OneDrive and Google Drive. That’s it. If the document is especially important to me, I print it. However, something like that would have to directly involve money or the law.
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I’m a paranoid person. I have a copyright attorney, too, who I am in regular touch with–just can’t get past the worry.
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Sorry, I posted when I wasn’t finished. Great tip, Jacqui, as always. Thank you.
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Thanks, Tess. Always nice to end with that!
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XX
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E-mailing your MS to yourself or other important documents sounds terrific. I have a question. What if you have documents you keep adding to. Do you save those and delete the ones before?
I have an external drive and OneDrive. Don’t backup to external drive on a regular basis though. Keep saying I will…o_O
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No–don’t delete them. This is a running history of your work on the document. If anyone tries to steal your creativity, you drag out the hundred+ back-ups you created over the years. I have back-ups from a decade ago on several of my stories.
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Okay. I’m good to go, then. 😀
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always nice tips Jacqui!
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Thanks, Lynz! A quick way to get back to cooking, innit?
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Jacqui, this is a GENIUS solution. And easy easy easy. Even one I can master. In a year of great tips you’ve offered, this may be the very best.Thank you so much.
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I got all excited when I discovered this solution, too. It’s wonderful!
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I use Dropbox and several USB sticks. Now I will add the email option as well 🙂
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I like Dropbox and lots of my teaching colleagues use it. I don’t have enough space so I end up saving in different places.
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Excellent back-up tip. Thank you!
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Pretty cool, innit.
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On the MAC, I am using Time Machine to back up everything to a USB drive. For very important docs, I do the ‘gmail’ back up thing like you mentioned, email it to my gmail account. I also recently starting use Google’s, “Google Drive.” for in the cloud backup of things. Haven’t decided yet if I like this enough to recommend. I’ve used Google docs a few times, but haven’t like that enough to recommend as it can be slow and you need to be connected to the internet (which I am not always connected to).
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Google Drive is OK–though slow–for back-ups, but the space is limited. My non-fic books are up to 100MB each (which amazingly compresses to under 10MP as a PDF) so the upload is slow and there’s no hope of editing because Google Docs has a max page limit. In Gmail (or Outlook), I simply attach the file and save the email as a draft. Pretty quick.
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That is genius! It never even entered my mind, and it’s such a simple solution. Thanks for the tips, Jacqui. I’ve missed a few posts, but hopefully I’m back on track 😀
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I learned this in researching my novel–finding clever ways bad guys communicate. They share an email account and put messages in the draft file. Since they’re never sent, there’s no digital trail. That’s a good approach even for us non-bad guys.
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Being of the ‘non-bad’ variety – I have to agree 😉
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I’m the backup queen. With important documents, I’ll save them on two different thumb drives, and then I email it to myself. Good stuff, Jacqui!
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Oooh I love it. Redundancy is your friend.
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I wasn’t so careful with saving before but now use the time machine on the iMac (yep, I check it’s actually on and working!) and email work to myself as well. Good hint for putting larger unsendable documents in drafts – many thanks for that idea, Jacqui.
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I think most writers have manageable files. Even a 400-page novel is less than 10 MB. Most email servers accept that. I’m not sure about Hotmail or Yahoo… Is Hotmail even around any more?
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Hmm…well, I couldn’t email my book in its entirety! But that is ex-yahoo, btinternet. Yes, hotmail still exists – my son has an account with them.
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Do they accept over-10-MB files? Gmail lets me go as high as 20MB–and then more through a link to my Google Drive.
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I follow the email routine for the un-loseable stuff as well 🙂
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It’s good, innit? The only downside is my hard drive fills up so I have to remember to empty that collection spot.
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What a jolly good idea of emailing docs to self, and having a back up file expressly for that purpose, those docs that are so NB thanks Jacqui! Re: my own method? I don’t really have one … I just hope that the Cloud will find if and when necessary .. and my son when whatever hits the fan …
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A nice side benefit is if you keep those emailed files is you have proof that the novel is yours if there’s any question. Not quite as good as FedEx-it-to-yourself solution, but pretty good.
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