Thank you, Apple!
So… not to ignite or continue any Mac versus PC wars, but as the year nears its end I think about how grateful I am for Macintosh applications making my life a lot easier.
I’ve been a Mac girl for almost as long as I’ve been using a computer.
I started with a PC (actually, no, I lie: I started with a cp/m machine a very long time ago), but eventually saw that, whereas I was spending hours and hours in Computer Hell every time I wanted to do anything, my friends with Macs never spent more than minutes there. Sometimes seconds. Then I got a job teaching, and that was the final bit of persuasion that I needed. I switched, and I’ve never looked back.
These days, I write and edit for a living. And the best thing that ever happened to my writing – at least in terms of tools – is OSX’s introduction of the Dock. It was great in Jaguar and it’s getting even better with each successive jungle cat.
Not only do I have immediate access to all of the applications I need, easily reached through really colorful and easily identifiable icons, but I also have immediate access to all of my current works in progress, just a click away, without taking up valuable screen space. I use a MacBook, so believe me, screen space is at a premium here!
I’m a very visual person, so whenever I start writing or editing a new project – novel, short story, article, etc. – I do a Google images search to help me find a suitable image that I transform (literally within a minute) into an icon that represents the new project’s folder. That’s what then goes into the Dock for me to click and open. So I have a colorful, creative lineup of projects and applications that’s uniquely mine. Moreover, it’s tailored to my specific needs. Never before has using a computer felt less like computing.
My husband is a Macintosh developer, and I can hear him swearing, sometimes, from his office down the hallway from mine. The reality is that it’s harder to code for a Mac than it is for a pc –- for the exact reason that I’m so happy with my Dock. Mac programmers make sure that the end-user doesn’t have to deal with playing computer.
I’m grateful to them all. They help me get… beyond the elements of style!
Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.
Posted in Tools on December 26th, 2006