Drinking the Mac Cool-Aid and It Is Delicious!
I’ve added a new link to the reading list at right. DailyWritingTips is a site I found recently and it is very well done. If you spend much time behind a keyboard, it is really worth your time to check in every once in awhile. I’ve got it on my RSS feed list. I both enjoy and use the helpful tips.
I was not a fan of Pages 06. I’m sure it was perfectly fine for making brochures and flyers, but unfortunately I never had much need for brochures and pamphlets so there it sat on my hard drive, unused and neglected. That being said, I wasn’t particularly happy with any other of the word processors on my Mac either. I played a bit with Bean and NeoOffice but when it came down to it, I usually ended up in Microsoft Word. Word reminds me of one of those RV’s you see driving down the road. The kind with bicycles tied on the back, a boat bolted to the roof, and spare luggage falling out the window. Like the old RV, Word has every possible feature bolted on and wedged into the various menus. While it has everything you could possibly need (and quite a few you will never need) it drinks system resources and is a real chore to use. Nevertheless, I, like many others, have been using Microsoft Word for more than 15 years and anything else I try will be compared to it.
So Steve Jobs announced the new Pages 08 and explained that now it is a word processor in addition to being a page layout tool. It is in this new word processing mode that I spent most of my time kicking the tires on Pages 08.
All word processors are fundamentally the same. From the days of my 8-bit Atari computer to sitting here with my fancy MacBook Pro, I still am forced to put the words together and get them onto the screen. When it comes to word processing, the devil is in details.
The details in Pages 08 are very nice indeed. There is a contextual format bar that monitors your activity and puts the applicable tools in easy reach. Whether you are typing text, working in a table, or inserting shapes and diagrams, Pages puts the related tools in the top bar.
Pages also incorporates several of the graphical tools added with iWork 08 to this Pages program. This allows for Instant alpha, customizable frames and other graphic tools. They work just as slick as in Keynote. I don’t think I’ll have a lot of need for these tools in a word processor but it is nice to know they are there.
Change tracking has also been added. This is a very important feature for my work. I often exchange documents with others where change tracking is critical. The implementation of change tracking in Pages is both easy and slick. Even more important, it has worked flawlessly with Microsoft Word. Since most of the people I am working with are using Word, this is critical.
Another new feature is automatic lists. This, of course, has been the bane of existence to all Microsoft Word users for years. Apple’s implementation of this feature is a bit more forgiving. It actually adopts your formatting instead of imposing its own. For instance if you type a number 1 and then period and two spaces, it will apply the same with the autoformatting.
The compatibility with Microsoft Word is generally good but not perfect. I put some format heavy contracts into it and made several adjustments while tracking changes. I then exported them to Word format and viewed them in Mac Word 04 and and Windows Office 2003. They looked fine and my windows colleagues were none the wiser. I also tried this with a legal pleading document and the conversion was a mess. Legal pleadings have a very specific format with lines down the left side, line numbering and a variety of other formatting requirements that don’t make a lot of sense but hey .. its the world I live in. Anyway, while the Word pleadings imported just fine into Pages, they did not export to Word properly after changes in Pages. The page formatting, font sizes, line numbering, and just about everything else were screwy and unusable without plenty of work. So for me that means I need to do pleading work in Word or just do it as a text file and send it to others for formatting.
Another issue I never quite sorted out was exporting to different versions of Word. Apple beat Microsoft to the punch with compatibility with Office 2007 but I don’t run Office 2007 so I can’t report on that issue. I tried to figure out if there is a setting to export to Office 2007 or Office 2003. Perhaps if I could sort that out it would solve the problem of exporting pleadings properly but after spending an hour trying to figure it out on the internet, I’m officially kerfluffled on that issue. In short, if you need to work with Word files and use complicated formatting make sure to give it a test run before you commit.
Pages 08 runs much cleaner than Microsoft Word in OS X. It loads quickly and happily exists far down in my activity monitor. As I typed this review in Pages, it ranged between one and ten percent of the total system resources. When I clicked out of Pages it pleasingly dropped to zero percent.
The included templates are very well designed and cover just about any need. It is telling of just how much of a stranglehold Microsoft has on the word processor market that my biggest problems with Pages are not its own feature set but its ability to play nicely with Word. Separating that issue, running Pages is easier and less intrusive than Word. It allows me to think less about the program and more about the words on the screen. While the feature set is more limited, it has everything I need. While Word still remains on my hard drive, I’m quite pleased to leave the Winnebago in the garage.
You can listen to this review on Surfbits MacReviewCast Episode #122.
I am currently working with EagleFiler in anticipation of preparing a review for Surfbits. It is a very impressive little application that sorts just about anything into an iTunes-like three pane directory. The thing is I seem to use all of these organization applications. I have Yojimbo, Yep, and now EagleFiler. The trick is figuring out which ones work best for me. Stay tuned.
On the theme of my Keynote review last week I stumbled upon Merlin Mann’s excellent post summarizing some very good practices for making outstanding presentation along with some great links to more information. You can check it out right here.
I’ve now been using the Moleskine for a few months. I wasn’t exactly sure how I would incorporate it into my life but knew I wanted an easy way to capture tasks on the run. Of course in the mean time, a few things have changed for me in terms of productivity. First, I bought an iPhone. That has had very little impact on the way I capture tasks. Why … do you ask? Because the iPhone doesn’t have a built in task list!? There is a bit of a hack but I’ll discuss that below. This post is supposed to be about Moleskines.
Anyway, I don’t keep a “journal” in my Moleskine and rarely draw a diagram. It is, primarily, a list. For instance, I’m on the phone with someone and he says, “Hey Dave … I got a new job making roadrunner traps. My new email address is Joe@ACME.com”. I’ll write a line in my Moleskine “Joe@ACME.com” As I go through the day I’ll accumulate these small entries and at some point I’ll sit down in front of my Mac and input these items. They can be OmniFocus entries, address book entries, or maybe a simple task that I’ll just do. Either way, very quickly they get processed and crossed off in the Moleskine. Like I said, nothing fancy but it gets the job done.
While I really like the pocket sized Moleskine it still is kind of bulky in my pocket so that one stays at my desk at work. I picked up a three pack of the thin softcover Moleskines that are perfect for putting in my pocket. I keep one in the car, one on me, and one in the briefcase and that works just fine. So at the end of the day I could have several Moleskine’s I am processing. It sounds confusing but actually it works quite well.
I’m thinking I may start taking meeting notes in a bigger one and process them the same way. We’ll see.
The iPhone Wrinkle
I have faith that Apple will eventually get around to putting a task list on the iPhone but I’m not all that certain I’d actually use it. If I had OmniFocus on it maybe. The current Omni solution that would require me to turn my laptop into a server is useless to me. But for now, such pipe dreams along with about ten bucks will buy you a cup of coffee. There is one slight hack. I have a “Ta-Da List” account which is great. I mainly keep shopping lists on it. For instance, I have a “Target” , “Grocery List” and a few other. I also put an “OmniFocus” list on it that allows me when not near a Moleskine, to put a task in there for later input.
I’m getting plenty of emails from readers with good ideas. Don’t be afraid to place comments with your tricks so everyone can benefit.
Well yesterday I picked up iWork 08 and I haven’t had a whole lot of time to check it out yet but I do plan on reviewing several (if not all) of the applications in the coming month. Regardless, this morning I needed to prepare a legal pleading for work and I thought it was the perfect time to check out just how well Pages 08 plays with MS Office. I took a word document with a legal pleading paper embed and imported it into Pages. For those non-lawyer types that means the document has a ton of formatting including lines down the left side, line numbers and a variety of other unique formatting that doesn’t make much sense but the courts require. Anyway, it looked perfect in pages. Not only did it look just like it did on my windows box, it even recognized the tracked changes.
At this point I am fantasizing about not using that slug Mac Office anymore and already looking for other word processors to delete off my drive (Sorry Bean). Well I got it all done and then clicked “Export” to “Word”. I snapped it onto a thumb drive and loaded it into my PC Office 2003 program. That is where the trouble started.
It did recognize the format, more or less, but the font and line spacing was inconsistent, the font size shrunk from 12 to 8 points throughout and the numbering down the left side of the page was all jinky. Put simply, it was a mess. I don’t have time to sort out if this was operator error or just the way it works on complex documents. I’ve got to fix this mess on my screen now. Regardless, I thought I’d drop a quick line in from the trenches on this issue.
Bartek has released the details of his plans for upgraded versions of his excellent iGTD. Specifically there will continue to be the free version (basic) but he will be adding “iGTD Home and Office” that allows you to sync between Macs and “iGTD Pro” which allows you sync with the web. While I am continuing to use OmniFocus, iGTD is really tempting me. Since I have a windows box at the office it would be really nice to log in to my iGTD data from it. Omni has been quiet about syncing features but I do understand they are racing to finish the 1.0 version. If Omni could just get a reliable iPhone sync that doesn’t require me to turn my MacBook into a server, that would probably be enough for me. Still and all, I’ll have to keep my eye on iGTD.
You can read about the different versions of iGTD right here.
I know I’m posting too much on the iPhone as of late but today I can’t help myself. I had another very early day and found myself on the top floor of Los Angeles Superior Court building at 7:30 a.m. with no wifi connection and time to kill. Using my new phone I was able to check mail, review an attached contract, arrange my calendar for the next few days, and follow up with a few web threads I am participating in. Now granted all but that last task was possible on my Treo, they weren’t easy. With the iPhone, they are.
I also have been playing with several of the iPhone sites that act as a navigator for iPhone online applications. The three that I’m currently toying with are Gridgets, Leaflits, and AppLists. Currently Applists is my favorite but I’ll post more detailed thoughts after I’ve spent some more time with them and AFTER I’ve gotten back to Mac posting for awhile.
Well I learned something new today. These funny little bookmarks that run like mini applications on your Mac and iPhone. LifeClever wrote up a really nice collection of them right here.
Using these “bookmarklets” you can cut out several steps from your typical web search. I particularly like the thesaurus, google images, and wikipedia bookmarklets.
When you really want to geek out, try YubNub which allows you to access a variety of search engines. I tried to figure out how to link the bookmarklets but must admit that I’m clueless so follow the above link over to LifeClever and drag them up to your bookmarks. I made a separate folder of iPhone applications and several of these found their way in but I also find them very useful when at my Mac.
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This is my third screencast. This one explains how to set alarms and timers with Quicksilver so it will appear in large text on your screen or play a song from iTunes. This screencast is in high definition format. The version that goes up on the iTunes feed will be in the iPod format. It is best viewed if you download first.
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Download it by Control Clicking Here.
Enjoy!
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