Works Like You Do

What’s wrong with me? I tried it again. I had my MAC reimaged so that it had a new Leopard and new Boot Camp partition. I set up all my data on the MAC side and set up Entourage for email. I think I might have made it if it hadn’t been for Entourage. The Office apps weren’t great but Firefox is Firefox. The problem was Entourage. It’s cumbersome to use. It made Outlook look easy. I was working so slowly that I gave it up and moved everything back to the Boot Camp partition. I use the MAC for presentations but all work is done on Windows. I may try Open Office or some other non-Microsoft MAC products when I get more time but for now, I’m back from MAC.

I was trying to get ready for class last week when I realized I was working way too hard to do something that used to be simple on my PC. I just wanted to update a few PowerPoint presentations and it wasn’t working. Apparently, I can’t link to files in other directories. I’m not sure exactly what the limitation is because I bailed and moved the files to the Parallels drive where I could quickly finish my work. I’m still trying to do one of my courses on the MAC side but since the course management system we use seems to only allow some features if you have IE or FF for the PC, I may have to give that up as well. I really like the hardware, but the lack of software support from others is killing me.

I’m spoiled. Windows XP allows you to set up and sort your files and folders the way you like to work. The MAC? Well, it doesn’t offer many choices and none of them are the way I work. As I was searching to find out about this one I discovered an interesting comparison site (I’ll add it to the links list) and a great post about the most frustrating things about OSX from a Linux user. With the exception of multiple desktops (which I didn;t have on Windows), this guys nails it. Check it out here: Top X List of Mac OS X Annoyances

I still use one old DOS program. It uses function keys, including F9 and F10. Anyone using Parallels knows that the MAC and Expose use these same keys and no matter what mode you are in, they default to MAC behavior. There are workarounds for Windows, but I couldn;t find anything about DOS. Here’s what I discovered:

You can use these keys but you need to be careful. FN+CMD+F9 and FN+CMD+F10 will do the job but if you take your finger off the FN key first, Windows will respond to the CMD key and display the Windows Start menu, taking you out of the DOS window. If you just hold them down and don’t let go, it works most of the time; but if you are careful, you can get to the point where it’s relatively consistent.

So there is my first tip. For all you Neanderthals like me who insist on using a program that’s 20 years old on a computer that’s brand new, you can do it successfully!

My PC has problems. It started life as a souped up Linux machine. I traded a nice Dell tower for it and expected to have the fastest PC on the block. The only problem is that it doesn’t appear to like Windows. It was hanging so I had it completely stripped and reloaded. Now it just reboots on its own, several times in an afternoon, with no warning. It does come back up really fast so I guess that’s an improvement. As I was lamenting this, it became apparent that I need a new home PC (I don’t use my work laptop for personal use.) As I started to consider my options, what was the first thing that came to mind? Why not check out the MAC Mini? It looks cool. It doesn’t take a lot of space. I have an LCD so I don’t need a new monitor. I have external USB hard drives and don’t really need to cram a lot of extra cards into the big tower I usually have. So I looked into it and then I remembered why I never buy Apple. Cool stuff, high price. I made the mistake of looking at what a new Dell will cost. I can still get way more machine for way less money than the MAC. Too bad the hardware and technology is so cool.

I was laughing when I saw one of the clever Apple commercials where they make fun of the Windows OS for it’s many problems. I’ve discovered that on several occasions the only way to bring my new MAC back to life is to terminate it. Remove power. Remove the battery. Reboot. I admit this happens when I’m using Parallels but so what? It’s an application process and when it dies, I should be able to shut it down without removing the battery. I’m very familiar with the Windows Task Manager and most of the time, it does the job. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever had to remove my IBM laptop battery just to regain control of the machine. I’m afraid that at least for a dual OS MAC, Apple hasn;t quite got it right yet. Maybe I should try Boot Camp to solve this.

One of my colleagues and I tried out the little white (should be silver) remote control. We wanted to use them to control PowerPoint. Wrong. It controls entertainment applications. We can use it to listen to music, view pictures or watch videos. I immediately got to work with Bittorrent to fill my hard drive with entertainment files - not. I did do some research and determined that Mira looks like it will turn the remote into a tool we can use for work. I’ll be testing and then add another post with the results. If it works, Mira will become part of our “standard build.”

I use an external USB keyboard and LCD monitor when I’m at home. I have a Belkin KVM switch and share with my home PC (still on Windows). Since the Apple has direct digital video out, I have one extra step to change over the video but no big deal. The real issue in the keyboard. Now, I don’t CNTL C and CNTL V to do a cut and paste and since it’s a generic keyboard, it doesn’t have the Apple key. The laptop is sitting on the desk. I just reach over if I want quicker editing. This complaint is about the HOME and END keys. Now, I admit I haven’t researched this yet but it drives me crazy not to be able to easily move around within my text. If I discover there is a solution or I missed something, I’ll print a retraction, but right now, the lack of compatibility with a standard USB keyboard earns a BAD post.

Another BAD Microsoft post, but it works in Windows (what did you expect?)

I use my email like a filing cabinet. I store almost everything there. I have attachments. I use gigabyte of storage for my email files. So that my email doesn’t take 10 minutes to load and doesn’t crash, I use more than one Outlook .pst file. That’s the container file where your email, calendar, tasks, contacts and notes all live. I started doing this by archiving. I extended it to a separate files for calendar, notes and contacts so I could easily update my home and work PCs.

Entourage doesn’t allow more than one email container file for a user. The MAC expert explained that a new version is due out in Q2 2007 that should bridge the four-year gap between Outlook and Entourage. Maybe they should rename it to Outrage.

My solution is not pretty but seems to be working.

I set up Thunderbird on my home PC and the MAC. Every so often it refuses to close on the MAC. I suspect it’s related to the sleep mode problem but I haven’t lost anything so I’m OK with it. I leave emails on the server for work and on the server for home from the MAC. I download my personal email only at home.
For my calendar, I am using Outlook in Parallels and nothing at home. I intend to move it all to Sunbird but I haven’t been able to export successfully yet.

I have a fair number of Notes files. I’m planning to migrate the important ones to KeePass Password Safe and leave it in Parallels with a back up at home.

Contacts moved with my email to Thunderbird. It’s not quite right but I haven;t had time to re-import them.

This is an are where I needed better tools and options. I’m getting by but it is frustrating me more and more.

I guess all the MAC users already know that MS hasn’t really paid a lot of attention to the MAC. You’re the 5% of people who use design apps, why should they bother? It’s clear coming the Windows world that they aren’t even trying.

PowerPoint doesn’t work the same or as well. The big deal breaker for me is that you can’t display thumbnails on the left column and the slide in the center. I really don’t care about displaying the outline. I can’t possibly read the 1 point type and the images aren’t visible anyway. I do want to see how the slide layouts look at a glance and that isn’t possible. This one a researched because the app is so important to me and no can do.

PowerPoint from Office 2003 works just fine in Parallels.