At approximately 12:49 pm this afternoon, about 12 hours later than anticipated, I finally finished the initial writing phase of Windows Vista Secrets 2nd Edition and FTP'd the final chapter to the publisher, while uploading a backup copy to Skydrive. I'm not sure what the writing experience is like for others, but I find writing books to be very difficult and painful, and though I've been involved in the creation of at least 20 books since 1994 (my first was Microsoft Visual Basic 3 with Gary Brent and Jim Elam), I've never really gotten good at scheduling these things. That is, I'm always way behind schedule.
Way behind. In this case, the book was original due on April 18, about seven weeks after the first content was delivered (I finished the first six chapters back around March 3. So I missed the original schedule by 5 weeks. Put another way, I needed about 170 percent of the time I had originally scheduled to complete this book. I'm a freaking genius.
But there's good news, too. If I weren't so tired, I'd tally up a rough page count of new content, but I know it's dramatic. This book will be much longer and much better, I feel, than the first edition. I've added chapters on new topics like Zune, Microsoft LIVE, and Windows Home Server, and have dramatically bulked up existing chapters were necessary. I've also removed some of the silliness from the first edition that I had nothing to do with, like the Fonts chapter.
Anyway, I'm not done, not really. I need to go over each edited chapter now. But I'll wait until after the weekend. I need to nap. :)
Here's a rough table of contents:
Windows Vista Secrets 2E
0. Read This First
1. Selecting the Right Windows Vista Edition
2. Installing and Upgrading to Windows Vista
3. Hardware and Software Compatibility
4. What's New in the Windows Vista User Interface
5. Where's My Stuff? Finding and Organizing Files
6. Using Windows Sidebar
7. Personalizing and Configuring Windows Vista
8. Windows Vista Security Features
9. Users, Accounts, and UAC
10. Windows Vista Networking
11. Windows Media Player
12. Microsoft Zune: A Digital Media Alternative
13. Digital Photos
14. Digital Videos and DVD Movies
15. Digital Media in the Living Room: Windows Media Center
16. Having Fun: Games and Vista
17. Vista to Go: Windows Vista Mobility Features
18. Using Tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs
19. Browsing the Web
20. Managing Email and Contacts
21. Turning it Up a Notch with Microsoft's LIVE Services
22. Managing Your Schedule with Window Calendar
23. Keeping Your Data Safe
24. Automating Windows Vista with Windows Power Shell
25. Beyond Vista: Managing Vista PCs