First Draft + 3

This third update to the first draft version of Paul Thurrott’s Windows Phone 8 includes a number of copy edits, with about 50 percent of the book now proofread. This will be the final pre-release version of the book before the 1.0 release.

With this version of the document, I’ve copy edited (or “proofread”) about 50 percent of the book, or up through Chapter 9 (Email). This involves me reading the book, often out loud (for whatever reasons, this helps) and fixing any spelling and grammar issues as well as making other small changes. I also had to fix or add a number of new cross-references. That first pass I made for First Draft + 2 did not include some intra-chapter references, for example, and some of the inter-chapter references were mislabeled (for example, “.3 Store” instead of “Chapter 3: Store”).

I made a few small technical corrections, but I’m not actually checking every single procedure against running hardware since Windows Phone doesn’t change that quickly. That said, a number of times a passage caused me to double-check something on the phone, so I suppose a minimum level of technical editing is occurring as well.

Feedback is always appreciated. With the next release the book is “done” for now. Then a 1.1 release will follow within 30 days to cover Nokia HERE location apps.

Download Paul Thurrott's Windows Phone 8 First Draft + 3 (648 page PDF, 39.7 MB)

SkyDrive – Dropbox – Google Drive

First Draft + 2

This second update to the first draft version of Paul Thurrott’s Windows Phone 8 includes a number of edits, including more working cross-reference links. But the big news is that I’m changing the name of the book to something a bit shorter.

First, the edits. The plan has always been to do a thorough read through/edit on the entire manuscript before declaring it finished in 1.0 form. And I’ve done some of that. But after discovering the cross-reference capabilities in Word recently, I decided to cross-link all of my inter-chapter references in the book (so they behave like hyperlinks and can be clicked). So I did that first. That is done, though I’ll check them all in the next sweep through the book. There were hundreds of them.

Second, I decided I wanted to shorten the name further with an eye, again, towards coming up with something that would make sense for a series of books. Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8 was a bit long, so I’ve shortened it to the simpler Paul Thurrott’s Windows Phone 8 and will do so for other books (Paul Thurrott’s Xbox Music, for example, as well as future books.)

I’ll more on the next book and my ideas for the future later. For now, of course, I want to get 1.0 out.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Download Paul Thurrott's Windows Phone 8 First Draft + 2 (648 page PDF, 39.7 MB)

SkyDrive – Dropbox

First Draft + 1

This update to the first draft version of Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8 includes a complete table of contents and a few other minor changes.

I have this list of things I’d like to complete for the initial version of the book. One of those things, a Table of Contents, has been added and I felt this was a big enough deal to republish the full book document. Actually, there are two TOCs, a quickie version with just a chapter listing and complete version listing all chapter sections too. Every item in both TOCs is “live” (clickable) so you can immediately navigate to the topic you’re interested in.

On a related note, I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle in-book references. But thanks to a Word feature called “Cross-reference” that works in an exported PDF as well, I’ll be using that. And that means that references in the book (things like “See the section Wallet in Chapter 16 for more information about paying for items on your phone”) will be live/clickable as well. In fact, if you search for that sentence, that’s the one reference in the book that I created for testing purposes, so you can see that it works. Converting all of the references in the book will be tedious and time consuming but, I think, worth it. (I couldn’t do this while writing the book since many of the references were for other chapters—and thus other documents, so the links wouldn’t work—or for things that hadn’t at the time been written yet.)

I also have an Index on my wish list but in investigating this, I suspect that won’t be possible.

More soon.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Download Paul Thurrott's Guide to Windows Phone 8 First Draft + 1 (648 page PDF, 39.5 MB)

Alternate Download Link (I guess I killed SkyDrive today)

First Draft of Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8 is Complete

The first draft version of Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8 is now complete. This update to the full book document adds an introduction to the previously completed first draft versions of 17 chapters.

With the introductory material complete, I can now turn my attention to a thorough review of the book and make any necessary content and screenshot edits to prepare the book for its final 1.0 release. I should finish that sometime this week.

It’s pretty clear that I’ve not achieved most of my goals for this book, but I’ll provide a bit more in the way of reminiscing when the 1.0 version is ready. For now, I’m just happy to have sort-of completed it, though of course more work needs to be done. As noted previously, a 1.1 update I expect to provide in August will include coverage of Nokia’s HERE mapping and location apps, for example.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Download Paul Thurrott's Guide to Windows Phone 8 First Draft (626 page PDF, 39.1 MB)

Final Content Update Before First Draft

Here’s a third and final update to the chapter “The Windows Phone User Experience” in Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8. This update includes a few new sections and represents the final major bit of new content for the first draft version of this free e-book.

This version of the chapter adds major new sections about the Start experience and Apps and hubs, and a few other changes. Nothing unexpected.

More important: With this release, every chapter in the former Windows Phone Book is complete in first draft form. Next, I will write a short introduction and package that as a first draft for the book. Then I will go through the book as a single document and make any changes as needed, and Windows Phone Book will be “complete.”

I write that in quotes, of course, because the book will never be truly complete. I will continue updating the 1.x version of the book to address both coming changes to the platform and to add more content, including a major revision of the Maps + Location chapter that will cover Nokia’s HERE apps. My plan is to keep providing free updates to this book as Microsoft updates Windows Phone 8. When Microsoft moves forward with a new version of the software (Windows Phone 8.1, 9, whatever), I’ll switch new editions of the book to a (minimally) paid model.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A rough short-term schedule...

First draft of Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8. This weekend.

Initial release of Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8. This week.

Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Windows Phone 8 updated for Nokia HERE apps. By the end of August.

Other changes. As required.

I also need to begin preparing the document for other forms of publication, including Kindle and other e-book formats. That work will start in August as well. And then there’s the next book. More on that soon.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Download The Windows Phone User Experience 0.3 (43 page PDF, 3.72 MB)

Download Windows Phone Book 0.067 (624 page PDF, 39.1 MB)