Tuesday, December 13, 2011

New Computer!

After eight years of nursing my old Dell with Windows XP through increasing numbers of frustrating -- and, to me, inexplicable and irreversible -- problems, I finally broke down and got a whole new desktop system with a Windows 7 OS. The biggest challenges I'm facing right now are getting used to this keyboard (especially the space bar), dealing with my Word 2003 docs vis a vis Word 2010 (and just getting used to 2010!) and restoring my old favorites list.

So if any of you have suggestions or tips, bring 'em on. I'd be most grateful. :)

5 comments:

Chris said...

I do love Windows 7. :)

Office 2010 is definitely a change. I am not a fan of the ribbon.

Ok, in Word 2010 on the upper right side of the screen, right by the blue question mark, there's a little carat/arrow. When you click that, you make the ribbon appear/disappear.

Right below the ribbon is a narrow bar called the Quick Access Bar - right click on it and select the option to Customize it. That's where I put everything that I use a lot in Word, so that I don't have to poke around trying to figure out where it got moved in the ribbons.

Select the File tab (upper left) and select Recent to see your recently used documents. To the right of each document, you'll see a little pin. Selecting the little pin will keep that document at the top of your Recent docs, so you don't have to hunt for it. Probably as handy for your current WIP as it is for my system design documents at work. :)

Tam said...

I'm not a fan of the new Windows either. I still have to get the kid to help me sometimes because I can't remember how do so something that used to seem simple. It didn't help that at work we were using the old version so I would be switching back and forth and confusing myself even more. Now we have the new one at work, not sure it's any better.

Chris had some good advice. Hopefully the new one is super speedy for you. And don't be clogging it up with gay porn. ;-) Although really, what else is the internet good for?

K. Z. Snow said...

I don't know what it is with Microsoft. For some reason, they refuse to follow the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." They could've simply tweaked Word 2003, for example, instead of continually scrapping it for more complicated, frustrating, time-consuming versions. Why do those developers get paid so much?

Right now, though, this new keyboard keeps throwing me off the home row. Damned keys are too close together and the space bar isn't high enough. My fingers are still used to working a manual typewriter!

Erika said...

Not sure if this will work for your older computer but the Belkin Easy Transfer cable was the best money I spent after I got my new computer a few months ago. It transfers any and all files you want, including your favorites list.

K. Z. Snow said...

Hi, Erika! Yes,I've been thinking about getting the Belkin. Good to know it works well.