In other threads eta has expressed sympathy for my position, agreeing that certain features of Mac are bewildering and expressing that their correction should be a no-brainer. Hence the following somewhat incomplete but early-on book review

eta, seems that way to me too, leaving me with a distinctly uncomfortable feeling about the denizens of software. I get the distinct impression that they're a very isolated group who don't communicate much with ordinary folk like you and me...

...though I sense that in your infinite patience and tact you may be extraordinary in certain critical ways or at least moreso than I

As if to punctuate my observation, they have underlined "though" in the above paragraph even though its spelling is apparently OK. Mac habits such as that one are very distracting. I'm still struggling with highlight-and drag, however, and hope in a week or two to master the technique


And as if to punctuate the above punctuation, one of my objections to Mac was an inability to transfer personal editing macros (from Word) into the Entourage taskbar. I just couldn't believe it when I found they don't appear automatically as they did in Windows/Word/Outlook. So I might learn how it's done, IT No. 1 Son kindly sent me a 428-page book entitled "Mac OS x 10.5 Leopard." But I couldn't even find "Macros" in its index

Therefore I determined to read the entire book, starting on page 4 where it's supposed to tell me how to get to the "Finder" or "rosetta" sub-window from the Desktop. But I didn't find "roseta" in the Desktop, just a big astronomical blur radiating out from a central position; beautiful but otherwise worthless. Still I entertained hope because the illustration on page 4 refers me to page 5...

...where to find the Finder I was instructed to "Single-click on any blank area of the Desktop." Accordingly I did so but nothing happened; so I am stuck on page 5

So in frustration I turned back to page 3, where I was advised, "If you're brand new to computers in general [which I apparently am, having only 17 years' experience in the realm], I strongly suggest you use The Little Mac Book...instead of this book..."

If there are 428 pages in each tome and if I don't get stuck on every fifth page, and if I can manage one page every day, it might take me 2-1/2 years to learn how to get my macros into Entourage..Am I alone in my frustration

Why do they hate us so

dalehileman