Week 3, Thing 7 Part 1

Technology-Part 1
Getting me started on technology is not necessarily a safe thing to do.

Today I have been trying to figure out where my most frequently used settings for Word are hiding in the 2007 version. It is maddening. Yes, I know there is a tutorial somewhere, but I set out today to use the app, not to learn it. First there is the matter of the defaults being different. Calibri is not my style—I’m more of a Times New Roman kind of person-- and the aging eyes want at least a size 12 font. I’ve got my rulers to stick around, but the font reverts each time I open a new document. I’ve found spell check, but haven’t figured out to make it automatic yet. At least control-z, my favorite computer command, still works. All this complaining underscores a point; I’ve been hopelessly spoiled when it comes to document production. I learned to type on a manual typewriter. I remember counting letters, subtracting from the number of spaces in a line (OK, I forgot what the exact number was, but it never varied, because there was only one font and one size available) and then dividing by 2 to determine where to start a line that needed to be centered. I remember when bold was achieved by backing up and hitting the same keys again. Make a mistake? Back space, insert correction paper, hit the key as hard as you could made a never invisible correction to a document. Or you could just rip out the paper and start over. I remember tracing maps for reports and looking up info in the only place I knew—World Book Encyclopedia. Technology is a wonderful thing. I love being able to chose fonts, sizes and color. I love being able to insert pictures and create the perfect layout. I love knowing if one way of doing something doesn’t work, I can still work around it and (usually) get the result I want. I love drawing and photo manipulation programs. I love my old Excel and PowerPoint. I love high speed Internet and IMing (takes mothering to a whole new level). I love Google and Wikipedia and Ancestry and Amazon.com. I expect I will even learn to love Office 2007.
I love technology……except when it drives me crazy.