When a prep football game butts up against deadline

While first conceding that I don't genuinely know, I would imagine that the major hurdle would be getting the iPhone's notes app to recognize whatever file you had just sent across, since I would bet folding money that the file the iPhone uses isn't a .txt file.

You'd probably be better off finding a free or nearly free app that you know reads .txt files. Then in theory it should be as simple as transferring the file as though the phone were a USB stick.

Of course, in theory Communism works.

 

I'm much more likely to be the one editing freelance football copy on Fridays than writing it. Here's a few things I've picked up in the past few weeks.

Communicate with the desk.
Yes, it can be annoying when everyone's on deadline, but the editors are better off when they know the reporters' situations as early as possible. If the expected wifi isn't there, let someone know (preferably before kickoff). Same if your game starts dragging. Hopefully an editor will give you a plan if you don't suggest one. (We've had some guys filing straight running stories and coming back -- or not -- with quotes, and others winding up web-only depending on the situation.)

Hit your marks.
If you're assigned 400 words, don't write 200 or 500. If you're given an inch count and you don't know how that translates to a word count, ask ahead of time.

Get the basics right.
That includes totally obvious things like your byline, dateline, tagline, etc.

Proofread your story before you send it... and then proof it again afterward.
Hopefully you know more of the basic rules of grammar than our freelancers do. That said, the editors might not know all the names or have time to look them up. If there are weird spellings, make a note at the top of the story (or if you've got a proofreading mode in your system) saying it's CQ or OK or whatever term you'd like so it doesn't get changed accidentally.

 

Some great advice on the thread.
Following up on one of the tips PaperDoll shared about inches: I've always gone by the general rule that 1 inch is about 30 words. Is that still pretty close? In other words, a 10-inch story would be about 300 words.

 

Good idea, thanks!

 

Oooh, that really varies between newspapers, given web size, column width, etc. You probably want to ask your desk for a conversion variable.

 

In the Android phone world, I use a USB cable to connect the phone to the laptop. Now, you have to have the right software installed on the laptop so the phone can communicate with the computer. After you choose your method of USB communication on the phone (this really doesn't matter all that much), then you have access to the SD card or the internal memory. Just slide over whatever file you want to send into the folder you want. I use the gmail app for e-mail, but you have to have a secondary file explorer app (I use ES File Explorer) to be able to choose something like a text file or word document to send via e-mail. It sounds complicated, but it's really not that bad.

I suppose the phone could be attached to the laptop via bluetooth or WiFi networking, but all of that would be an even bigger pain in the ass.

 

FileApp will do it.....just downloaded it and it worked, you need to install a program on your PC and then it stores them in the App on the phone via the USB cable. There's an option to send via email in the app.