Microsoft Word (Stop Changing Your Layout!)
I remember when our High School got its first computer lab. That was in 1988. The internet for practical purposes did not exist outside of colleges, the military, and they were still talking about Telenet and CompuServe. I started to learn to type on a type writer and worked with some of the first IBM computers used in our classrooms. Our Computer Lab teacher had a terrible time keeping us kids from smuggling in games and playing them on the servers when she wasn't looking. In the 1987 we had a small lab where we learned to write programs using DOS. It took hours just to make a picture on the screen using command lines like "go to" and "run". Now I can't keep up with the changes on MS Word because the format changes every 3 years it seems like.
I laughed when Mrs. Keesee wrote "think of one instance of a time when you wanted to do something in Microsoft Office and could not figure out how to accomplish it?" Just when I can figure out how to do anything without MS word they changing the format and where all the buttons are placed! I really enjoy the new things like charts, pictures, equations, and spell/grammar check (Greatest Invention Since Sliced Bread!). Without MS word and word processing my teachers would still be telling me, "Butch what is this.... It looks like Chicken Scratch!" My handwriting is terrible an archeologist put it in a museum next to a mummy. I still print everything because my cursive has been known to cause temporary blindness. Luckily MS word came up with this wonderful Invention and even created a help button that has always looked like a question mark or said Help.
PS- Want to talk about frustration...posting from MS Word with hyperlinks to here seems impossible.
Butch,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the walk down memory lane. I can remember 1988 (I think that was when music was real music) I too was in high school and can remember having to take typing test. My girls laugh every time I mention that I had to do book reports on a typewriter. I remember using DOS for my computerized accounting class many years ago. It is nice to know that I am not the only one that gets frustrated with hyperlinks.
Hey Butch,
ReplyDeleteI may not remember 1988 all that well because I was only 6 yrs old at that time. But its interesting to here how you and Amy have had quite a time in school working with old typewriters. MS is forever changing their format but I think its also a way to show us that technology changes rapidly and keeping up with it is challenging. Like you said once you learn how to use it, it changes again. Good post Butch.
Don't worry Angie, depending on the month, I was only a year old! I hate how often they change the format, but I agree with Angie. Imagine if we'd never advanced from typewriters or original programming. If my kids can have an even better program that what we have now, I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteButch,
ReplyDeleteThis post made me laugh quite a bit. :-)
Fortunately for me, I wasn't born until 1989 so I did not have these programs. I have had to work in miscrosoft works which a 3 year old could operate so it wasn't until 2007 I had to really work in a word program such as the MS 2007. I took this CIS class so I am squared away. I hope you have gotten the hang of it all!