Computer Software

When I worked, the office used Windows, so I kept my home computer to match it.  When I retired, I switched to Mac software because my home Windows software kept crashing.  At work, the network kept Windows working (mostly).  At home,  it crashed daily.

So I learned the Mac software.  The office-type software (Pages and Numbers) are AWFUL!  Few of the features I was used to on Windows.  Let's just say I am a control-freak about arranging things in documents and Mac software didn't provide what I was accustomed to.

So I bought Windows Office 2008 for Mac (in 2008) and thought I was back in familiar territory.  Wrong!  Windows Office for Mac had more features than Mac software but less than Windows on a Windows computer.  I sufferred with it, setting my old Windows computer up as a stand-alone for special projects.

Then last year, Windows Office for Mac simply stopped working.  It wanted to be re-installed.  Memory said that I downloaded it online, but I checked all my software boxes just in case.  I couldn't find it.

I could have bought a new version, but everything new is now an annual subscription and I resent that.  So I sufferred with Pages and Numbers...

And THEN, I found a dusty box lost behind other stuff at the back of a shelf.  Windows Office for Mac 2008!   Hurray.  I reloaded it.  Now I have it back.  I still can't do all the things I want to, but more than I could with just Mac software.

Example:  One thing I am very used to doing is copying website or word document charts into Excel so I can make changes.  Things like sports schedules or garden-planting documents in column format that have TMI so I can delete the junk.  Copying into Mac Numbers or Pages won't do that; copying into Windows Excel will.  So a chart with teams, dates, TV channel, logos, ratings, site , etc can be reduced to date and channel.  Hurray!

Example:  I love to make cards in Excel.  Excel lets you import pictures, rotate them, draw, add borders, all kinds of stuff.  I missed that.  It's why I didn't send home-made cards this year.  Now I can again!  Hurray.

Mac almost never crashes, but the software I use most does less (I do love iPhoto though).  Windows software on a PC does more, but crashes.  Windows Office for Mac is mostly better parts of both.

I am thrilled to have it back and working.  I changed a 3 page University of Maryland Mens and Women's basketball schedule to a 1/3 page that fits on the refrigerator...  Next up is drawing the framed beds in my garden so I can can print out blanks for writing where the veggies will go in Spring.

It may not matter to anyone but me, but I feel insanely pleased about that right now.  LOL!