Buy the tool

FOUR word-processors are on this computer.
—1) Is good old Microsoft Word®, which I hardly use.
—2) Is AppleWorks® 6.0, a software now defunct.
—3) Is NeoOffice®, a MAC version of “OpenOffice®,” a freeware (I drive a MAC), and
—4) Is “Pages®;” a component of Apple’s iWork® — the application that replaced AppleWorks.
Go back to a prior machine, which I still occasionally use, and I can add three more.
—5) Word98.
—6) Appleworks 5.0, and
—7) Quark 4.1, the software we used at the Mighty Mezz during my employ.
5 through 7 are all “Classic” applications — they won’t work under OS-X.
All use Apple’s 9.2 operating system, “Classic-Mode” under early iterations of OS-X.
OS-X no longer has “Classic-Mode.”
—Word I hardly use, mainly because I’ve had so many difficult experiences with it.
It’s not stroke-survivor friendly. It punishes sloppy keyboarding, a stroke-effect.
It has magic keys, which if you hit accidentally, blast you into the ozone.
I’ve had everything I just typed vaporized by inadvertently hitting a magic key. (Thank ya, Gates!)
I got it only because it has two functions I occasionally use: case-change, and labels and envelopes.
They’re two of Word’s many bells and whistles; changing text-case, and generating labels/envelopes.
Other word-processors I have would probably generate labels/envelopes too, but Word is what I know.
And for changing case, I was told to do it myself.
For a stroke-survivor “doing it myself” is not that simple.
I used to use other Word bells-and-whistles at the Mighty Mezz, mainly “sort” and “convert to table.” They were tricks I used to fiddle honor-rolls.
I bought Word fulfilling a rule I have about mechanical work, which is: buy the silly tool even if you only use it once.
It’ll make your life easier. No mind-bending acrimony.
—AppleWorks 6.0 is a carryover from my previous computer.
I started using it because my AppleWorks 5.0 wasn’t OS-X compliant.
The only thing frustrating about it was it wouldn’t spellcheck a single highlighted word.
It always spellchecked the entire document.
With my new computer I suggested I wanted to continue using AppleWorks, but I was told it was defunct.
I’d have to replace it with “Pages” (or some other word-processor). “Pages” is a component of Apple’s iWork.
Supposedly it was AppleWorks improved.
The only reason I continue with AppleWorks is I have a lot of files in there.
Mainly HTML tags and footnotes I copy/paste.
I no longer use it as my default word-processor.
Converting all those files into Pages documents isn’t worth doing — it would take too long.
—NeoOffice is one of many free word-processors.
I’ve come across a slew.
Supposedly Word is doomed, because so many word-processors are now free.
A friend installed NeoOffice when he set up my new computer, mainly because I needed a word-processor — plus Word was big bucks, and not stroke-survivor friendly.
I used NeoOffice a while, but tired of it. I liked that it used the same fonts when I pasted in, but was frustrated by it’s wonky spellcheck.
It didn’t throw out all the misspelled words — plus it wouldn’t spellcheck a single word.
I can accept the no single word thingy, but missing misspelled words was a no-no.
I had to look for that stuff myself, lest I fly misspelled words.
And there are too many words I occasionally misspell (e.g. “a” for “e”), so I have to rely on spellcheck.
I’m also relying on spellcheck to flag mistypes.
So I gave up on it.
I’m now using...
—Pages, my default word-processor.
There are three frustrations:
-a) It won’t spellcheck a single word.
-b) It’s not pasting the same fonts I was using; I hafta fiddle, and
-c) It’s too smart. It has some thingy for indenting a list. I hafta fix this here list, lest it make a mess of what I wrote.
NeoOffice was too smart too. It used to memorize long words, so I could avoid typing them. Okay, but not everything. It was memorizing stuff that didn’t make any sense, e.g. my Photobucket jpeg addresses.
So I walked away from NeoOffice, but mainly because of its wonky spellcheck.
Pages is way better, and I can deal quickly enough with its smartness.
I wish I could turn that off — used to wish the same thing with NeoOffice.
My friendliest word-processor was...
—AppleWorks 5.0, the word-processor we used at the Mighty Mezz during my employ.
It didn’t punish you with magic keys.
And it would spellcheck a single word, plus it also did macros.
I had a slew recorded, like “Canandaigua.”
I could hit the “Canandaigua” macro key, and it would type in “Canandaigua” correctly.
With “Pages” no macros. All it will do is flag “Canandaigua” if I have it spelled incorrectly — I have it “learned.”
But AppleWorks 5.0 isn’t on this computer since it has the most recent iteration of OS-X (Snow Leopard, which lacks “Classic-Mode”).
—Using Quark as a word-processor is overkill; it’s more a graphics application.
The Messenger used it to generate its pages.
I had it only because the newspaper had it.
And I didn’t have the 89 bazilyun fonts the newspaper had.
I fiddled a few things at home we used in the Messenger, mainly the stockbox, which no longer runs.
And the stockbox I did here at home wasn’t what ran in the newspaper; I didn’t have the fonts.

• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over four years ago. Best job I ever had. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
• “OS-X” is Apple Computer’s current computer operating system. OS-10.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993.
• “Gates” is Bill Gates, head-honcho of Microsoft.
• “HTML” is hyper-text markup language; which I use to do these blogs. Bold text is via HTML tags, as are pictures. What you’re reading are “footnotes.”
• “Photobucket” is an image repository — it’s where I store my pictures.
• “Jpegs” (“JAY-peg”) are a compressed photo format for computer display. I store all my photographs as jpegs.