Hi Dale:

Your son is trying to convince me to go MAC and then I get your email regarding the unnecessary keystrokes and I go into nervous twitches about making the BIG change from BILL.
….

Hi Glenn:

It was, as you know, at the behest of my excellent No. 1 Son in a fit of disgust when the hackers finally discovered a way to turn off my Norton before proceeding with their intrigues, I belatedly switched from Bill to Mac; and I think unless the former does something drastic about the virus and worm he is, albeit gradually, on his way out…

….while true to my offspring’s claim that Mac is faster and superior in almost all aspects….

…trouble is, I’ve encountered two and only two kinds of technical people in the world, engineers and writers, and never shall the twains collide. Almost all writers are mechanically incompetent and ignorant of the simplest principles of mechanics and physics as you may note from the ridiculous bloopers of the typical AP reporter…

…while of course almost all engineers are functionally illiterate and so it would rarely occur to a software writer that someone might wish to edit his Mail. Outlook’s nearly-satisfactory editing provisions from Word is a fortuitous historical circumstance probably arising from collusions involving the occasional maverick who dabbles in both fields but who is largely incompetent in both, like me. Mac’s people are pure engineers so Mail is virtually devoid of editing facility

(Interesting to note that as an erstwhile tech writer I had encountered a number of such ambivalent people, a small number to be sure, but in each case I sensed him either peculiar in some way or vaguely dissatisfied with his lot in life; at least three of them [one being me] ultimately opting out of the writing slot entirely, in favor of pure engineering)

Thus after my desperate pleas, son Lee [a highly-remunerated and remarkably competent IT from Aerospace] in an agonizing effort has provided for a me a means to switch files back and forth between Mail and [Mac’s version of] Word

I must first close any file I think needs editing, use his new facility moving it to Word; make any changes necessary, then return it to Mail, any afterthoughts requiring a repeat of the entire process. The system is very slow and still plagued by several annoying glitches though beats it the pants off the former requirement entailing repeated Edit, Select-all, Copy, Cut-and-Paste, Cut-and-Paste, Edit, Select All…. etc etc indefinitely ad ifinitum. Apparently many like this tedious routine because it makes them feel competent and important

Yet there must be millions of folk like myself who used Outlook editing provisions from Word, feeling so sorely deprived and who eventually will make themselves heard. Until then, however, unless everything you compose using Mail turns out perfect in every respect the very first time, yes do think twice about switching to Mac


dalehileman