- By Nancy Ferguson, Wildwood Resident -
"You'll be so happy you switched. It's so much easier - user friendly, as they say. You'll love it."
I'm certain this is true. The problem is that there is a learning curve and I'm not sure my grey cells are capable of climbing the hill.
First I had to disconnect EVERYTHING from my PC and take both the new, beautiful Apple laptop and the old, filled with my entire life, tower to the store where it would take two days to transfer everything. (Blessing number 1 - THEY did the transfer.) How could I possibly exist without email for two whole days? Never mind that I did without it for more than seventy five years.
Next I had to figure out the meaning of mac-language. Now, I've never been much of a linguist, so any excursion into a foreign country is an adventure. The icons are all on a "dock" displayed across the bottom of the screen. But what does "Safari" indicate? Is the "Dashboard" the same as the one in my car? Why is there a guitar displayed? What are all those gears for? And "IChat." "IChat?" Come on.
"You'll catch on," the nice young (YOUNG) man at the Apple store told me. "You're doing fine."
Distracted, I watched a group of children, all in bright yellow tee shirts, come into the store. They gathered around the table with demo computers and began playing.
"Aren't those children cute?" I asked my mentor. "They can't be more than eight years old."
"Actually," he said, "they're in kindergarden." Gulp.
There are enough similarities to the PC that I can edit, save, print and word process, plus many other familiar activities. I get the message that one finger moves the cursor, two moves the screen. Of course my fingers don't behave like they did - um - a few years ago. Still, things are looking up.
Safari takes me to Google and the internet and the funny looking split face at the very beginning finds everything I can't; there's an address book and a calendar; I can listen to I tunes with my laptop and even, miraculously, take pictures. Garageband (the guitar icon) would help me learn to play - if I belatedly wished to learn the guitar - well, why not? My email comes to me and if I click the correct button, I can send a response. I can actually organize my photographs for the very first time. If I want I can carry my Apple with me when I visit family.
Of course I get strange messages, like "Floating objects inside table cells..." Where's the water? And I didn't know tables had cells. But my mentor at the Apple Store says all my questions will be answered in time; for a cool $99 I have school for a whole year. (Blessing number 2.) (Is a year long enough?)
There is one sad discovery: my typing hasn't improved with my MacPro. It's still mainly hunt and peck, even with the ergonomic keyboard. But (blessing number 3) I can delete!
This little magic box has so many tricks that they can't all be listed here. Yes, I'm a happy camper. Why wouldn't I be? "
I chat?" My grand daughter, who is old - ten! and I meet up on the computer; if I get smart enough I’ll even be able to see her as we talk!