So, the end of last week I was zipping along on our taxes and stopped to do a couple of upgrades including one to the operating system. Long story shorter, by Saturday I had nothing but a black screen. Two trips to Cedar Rapids and four days later, I had my laptop back, but missing a few items.
MacHeadQuarters was able to save all my documents, but since everything had to be removed and applications reloaded, I lost all my email contacts, all emails except for the previous two weeks, all bookmarks in Firefox, and had to reload Scrivener, iPhoto, Apple Pages, and Office. These things are all replaceable (except the old emails) but will take time. The Big Glitch: Pages has been "upgraded." And ruined.
I used Pages to format my books for printing and found it simple and direct. It was very easy to set up facing pages with the margins, headers, and footers one needs for a published book. But since it is a historical fact that the human race can never leave well enough alone anything that works, Apple decided to remove the facing pages feature and several other pluses to a rather resounding outcry from writers and publishers. The reviews online for this "upgrade" are stunningly bad. I have been an Apple fan (or 'Mac-Nazi' as one old co-worker called me) for 30 years. Each of my Apple computers has lasted at least ten years and was replaced only because it was out of date. So this was my first repair experience, and so far has been better than expected--except for the Pages thing.
Now, until I can find a copy of Pages 4.3, I am stuck with Word. And to quote another writer, when you try to work with headers and footers on facing pages in Word, that's when "Joker Word comes out of the shadows." Sigh.
Anyway, it was back to the taxes, which have been completed. Not without a few annoyances: Why do you have to know how heavy your vehicles are, for example? But they are filed, and the second chapter of Camping Can Be Murder has been posted on the Florida Outdoors RV site.
Meanwhile, our house is for sale, which necessitates keeping things looking somewhat respectable. And every time I open a closet or drawer, I think 'What can I get rid of?' Various other tasks nag at me when what I really want to do is get back to work on Frannie's next adventure, Grilling the Suspect.
And then, there's the weather...
MacHeadQuarters was able to save all my documents, but since everything had to be removed and applications reloaded, I lost all my email contacts, all emails except for the previous two weeks, all bookmarks in Firefox, and had to reload Scrivener, iPhoto, Apple Pages, and Office. These things are all replaceable (except the old emails) but will take time. The Big Glitch: Pages has been "upgraded." And ruined.
I used Pages to format my books for printing and found it simple and direct. It was very easy to set up facing pages with the margins, headers, and footers one needs for a published book. But since it is a historical fact that the human race can never leave well enough alone anything that works, Apple decided to remove the facing pages feature and several other pluses to a rather resounding outcry from writers and publishers. The reviews online for this "upgrade" are stunningly bad. I have been an Apple fan (or 'Mac-Nazi' as one old co-worker called me) for 30 years. Each of my Apple computers has lasted at least ten years and was replaced only because it was out of date. So this was my first repair experience, and so far has been better than expected--except for the Pages thing.
Now, until I can find a copy of Pages 4.3, I am stuck with Word. And to quote another writer, when you try to work with headers and footers on facing pages in Word, that's when "Joker Word comes out of the shadows." Sigh.
Anyway, it was back to the taxes, which have been completed. Not without a few annoyances: Why do you have to know how heavy your vehicles are, for example? But they are filed, and the second chapter of Camping Can Be Murder has been posted on the Florida Outdoors RV site.
Meanwhile, our house is for sale, which necessitates keeping things looking somewhat respectable. And every time I open a closet or drawer, I think 'What can I get rid of?' Various other tasks nag at me when what I really want to do is get back to work on Frannie's next adventure, Grilling the Suspect.
And then, there's the weather...
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