It ’s been a month since I started out as a Mac minimalist , challenging myself to only utilize the computer software that come on my well - equipped Mac miniskirt . And what a month — my Mac mini was clear , just cruise along . I was smug , I was feeling sound …
Until I had to work at home one day and find that my Office 2004 Test Drive had expired . How I missed that among its incessant reminders , I do n’t know …
And when I contribute an AppleWorks Indian file to work , only to discover that Word wo n’t open AppleWorks drawing file and that I did n’t have a copy of AppleWorks handy …
And then the day TextEdit would n’t show me live page break previews when I need to print something just so . What a nightmare …
And then the day when I realise I could n’t change over the pages around in a PDF file cabinet using Preview …
And so on . It was not a pleasant sight . I had bumped up hard against the edges of my software program ’s capabilities . Using my Mac mini started to be a existent pain .
Sure , Spotlight is … OK . Automator is useful . Quicken 2005 is working well for me , and iTunes and iChat are so marvelous that I tend to take them for grant . But when I want to get “ real work ” done , I ’m pretty much hosed .
So , I give in and instal Office 2004 ( I only use Word and Excel ) . Of course I was also long overdue for put in software for my third - party peripheral gadget , let in the crack - useful Fujitsu ScanSnap , which I ’ve been using obsessively to skim all my paper filing cabinet .
I did cogitate I ’d need Photoshop Elements , but that sentence has n’t come yet . iPhoto is doing a good enough job for now . On the other bridge player , I do postulate SmileOnMyMac ’s PDFPen ( Adobe Acrobat is overkill for my need ) , You Software ’s You Synchronize ( or Econ Technologies ’ ChronoSync ) for synchronize my portable grueling drive with my Documents leaflet , and Publicspace.net ’s MacBreakz to counteract my obsessional sit - at - my - Mac - for - hours behaviour .
Well , my challenge was n’t all I was hoping . But it did learn me to think before I instal . I still consecrate that this Mac wo n’t be like my others , which I loaded so full of software program demos and free utilities that I could n’t even dig my way out of it .
