Email 0.2

Here’s a second update to the Email chapter in Windows Phone Book. As with the first release, this version is pretty straightforward and it’s clear that this chapter will be finished very quickly.

I’m hoping this the model for the chapters going forward: Short, to the point, and easy to write.

I added a content to a bunch of sections, including View other email folders, Select one or more messages, Mark a message read or unread, Move a message to a new folder, View and interact with an email message, and Link inboxes. That last one reminded me I needed a section on accounts, so I added space for that.

There are only a few sections to write: The introductory stuff, the app tour, and the customization stuff. It should be complete in first draft form this coming week. In fact, if it wasn’t for all the “Blue” leak stuff and the Windows 8 app updates, I would have finished this and moved on days ago.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Download Email 0.2

Download Windows Phone Book 0.019

Email 0.1

Here’s a very early peek at the Email chapter for Windows Phone Book. Based on a quick run-through of the tasks for this chapter, it’s looking very straightforward, and should be completely very quickly.

In fact, I was kind of surprised by how quickly this one came together. And while I’m sure I’ll be adding more tasks as the writing continues, it looks fairly complete, topic-wise, already. So far I’ve got level-1 headings for the following:

Email in the cloud age

Understand the Mail app

View other email folders

Mark a message as read or unread

Use message flags

Delete a message

View a message

Reply to or forward a message

Compose a new message

Manually sync with the email service

Link two or more inboxes

Customize Mail

Wrapping up

A few of these sections are even complete in first-draft form, including Use message flags, Delete a message, Compose a new message, and manually sync with the email service.

More soon. I suspect this one will come together very quickly.

Download Email 0.1

Download Windows Phone Book 0 .018

Capturing and Enjoying Photos Chapter is Complete

Windows Phone Book Chapter 15, Capturing and Enjoying Photos, is now complete in first-draft form. It’s time to move on to other chapters, including the Music, Videos, and Podcasts chapter that’s based on the Windows Phone part of Xbox Music Book.

This update includes introductory and conclusion material, a tour of the Photos hub, a completed section about viewing your photo albums, an update to the Camera lenses section, system integration, and customization.

Time to move on to new content. In addition to pushing content from Xbox Music Book into the Music, Videos, and Podcasts chapter, I’ll probably start up a completely new chapter as well. Perhaps Internet Explorer or Email.

For now…

Download Capturing and Enjoying Photos 0.4

Download Windows Phone Book 0.016

Update: I just noticed that the previous full book had an incomplete Messaging chapter. Here's the fixed version:

Download Windows Phone Book 0.017

Capturing and Enjoying Photos 0.3

Here’s another quick update to the Capturing and Enjoying Photos chapter in Windows Phone Book. This update adds a much of the content for the first half of the chapter, which focuses on using the Photos hub.

Unlike yesterday’s update, which probably represents most of the content for that section, this update is likely less complete. That is, even though it looks semi-complete too, I’ll need to spend some time on it and will likely be adding more photo management-related tasks in the near future.

But for now, I’ve added a bunch of new stuff, including tasks related to viewing photo albums, editing photos, adding/viewing photo tags, deleting a photo, saving online photos to the phone, adding a photo to Favorites, and setting a photo as the lock screen or Photo hub background. It’s not as much as it seems, as many of these tasks are quite short.

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

Download Capturing and Enjoying Photos 0.3

Download Windows Phone Book 0.015

Capturing and Enjoying Photos 0.2

Here’s a second update to the Capturing and Enjoying Photos chapter in Windows Phone Book. This update adds most of the content for the second half of the chapter, which focuses on using the camera.

Now that it’s about half written, I have a good idea what a written-from-scratch, task-based chapter looks like. And I like how it’s unfolding. It should be relatively short, in part because the topic is so obvious and accessible, but I’m hoping this will be a good guide for how subsequent chapters will look as well.

The chapter is basically divided into two main parts: the Photos hub (manage and enjoy photos) and the Camera app (take photos and videos). Most of the new material in this update is in the second part and includes such topics as launching the Camera app, configuring the app, taking photos and videos, toggling the flash, using zoom, viewing previously taken photos, and so on.

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

Download Capturing and Enjoying Photos 0.2

Download Windows Phone Book 0.014