secrets to laying wire under floorboards

is there any secrets, other than riping every other floorboard up, to laying cable from one end of the room to the other ?
obviously i have to choose to go along side joists and not against them! grrr

if you maen that the joists are going the same way as the cable then yes there is a way, its called fishing.

You get something long and flexible (i use a piece of trunking) you tape on the cable, (with a loop on it) push the trunking down as far as it will go, go to the other end and put down another piece of trunking with a "hook" on it and fish for the other one then pull it out.

trunking ?

I appreciate your problem and have two comments
Whist you prefer to go with the joist theres nothing wrong going across,you would need to drill holes (not too large) and at least 50mm below top of joist to avoid nails and cable does not need securing
Going with the joists I have an idea that might just solve the problem.
Can you not have access about every 6 ft and instead of securing the cable to the joist you secure the cable to a wood batten in a slightly different manner and then secure the batten to the joist.
Intead of using clips that hold the cable tight you need a loose ring or maybe "screw in hooks" every 2ft
You can place the batten under the boards and thread the batten on to the cable as you move it to the correct position, then secure the batten (nail/screws),this will ensure you have cable support in areas you can't reach
If you had hooks you could secure the batten first and reach far enough to place the cable on the hooks
I can't see why this method won't work

trunking
you can also get it at most major diy stores

appreciated

There is a bit more to drilling holes through joists than being 50mm from the top and bottom.

Part 1B6 of the building regs says any hole should be central to the depth of the joist, no more than 25% of the depth of the joist, no closer together than 3 x the diameter of the hole and between 25% and 40% of the length of the span from a supporting end.

For notches there are different rules.

Very few sparks or plumbers bother with any of this as they either don't know any better, or don't exect the client to.

i used the plastic cover from surface mounted wire leads (as i'll be removing them anyway) and taped them together with tape to form 8 ft of wonderous stiff yet bendy stick with hoop on end, thankyou so much, im kicking myself that i had to ask, thanks for the help guys