WordKeeperAlpha Update – August 2015

Screen shot of the new goal page

Oif. I promised an update a week ago, but then life happened.  Life happened all over me.  Long story short, we’re buying a house! Woo! Yay! Huzzah! Really, both Katie and me are super excited and we can’t wait to get the move over with and start making the place our own, but its going to be a lot of work.  Unfortunately, my work on WordKeeperAlpha is going to take a little hit while we’re in the process of packing up all our stuff, cleaning, moving, so on and so forth.

It won’t take too much of a hit though.  I’ve been doing some really exciting work on the Goals and Projects lately.  I know, I know.  Didn’t I just get done revamping the Goals? Well, yes.  And aren’t they displaying a lot better now?  What I’m doing now will give you much more control over your goals, and give you more information.  Here’s a sample:

 

Screen shot of the new goals page The new sexy

 

Some people will go “Whoa! That looks cool!” while I’m sure other people are thinking “So what? How does that help me?”  First off, the keen eye will observe the goal graph on the right side.  This is the graph that you will be able to display on the home page, and eventually your author page.  You will be able to choose what graphs you display on your home page (to a certain point) which has been a major request.

Also, this page is being built completely in Angular.  What’s that mean? It means that the whole thing is going to load faster, AND required a new backend be built to support it.  That new backend is going to be used for a whole slew of new things, including blog support, writing groups and plenty of other nifty features.

The next update isn’t coming for a while yet.  It’s going to be pretty big, though, so very worth the wait, at least in my opinion.  Lets break down the features that are coming (hopefully) before NaNoWriMo kicks off in November.

  • New Goal page, featuring new stats, graphing and increased performance.
  • New Projects page, featuring more stats, graphing and increased performance.
  • Updated About page, featuring easier navigation to find the information that you need faster.
  • Updated Home page. Maybe featuring Angular for increased performance, custom graphs, word logs now editable from here.
  • Full API support. Want your WordKeeperAlpha goals and projects on your blog sidebar? This is the first step.

After all that is done, the next big update will be Social! My plans for social are coming together and will include:

  • An Author page, featuring goal and project progress.
  • Friends! Everyone needs friends and wants to see updates.
  • Writing Groups!  Share goals!
  • Events! I don’t know how this will work yet, but they will be short term little contests to get people writing as much as they can in a short amount of time.

WordKeeperAlpha is going to keep growing, keep getting better and its going to be because of you awesome people.  Are there more features that you want to see?  Leave a comment here, or give me a shout out on Twitter or Facebook.

Would you like to support WordKeeperAlpha?  Consider telling your writer friends about it.  Spread the word and get more people participating!  I’ve seen some really awesome growth over the past year and it makes me just want to push it more and make it even more awesome.  Anything helps: give me a shout out on Twitter or Facebook.  Write a blog post!  Send me your ideas / comments / complaints.  Social isn’t here yet, but we can still all get to know each other.  Has WordKeeperAlpha helped you finish your novel or story?  Let me know, I’d love to hear what you found the most useful.

Thanks for using WordKeeperAlpha!  I’ll keep you updated as to the status of the next update.


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