holding steady.™

so. i typically take notes in microsoft word, using the notebook layout.

this WAS something that i looked forward to when i finally switched to the mac. i thought the idea of taking notes, with an option for voice recording seemed really intuitive. and i’d never had much complaint with microsoft word (although the new format is something that STILL baffles me).

so, at the beginning of the semester, i created six notebook documents for each of my six classes. the first test came on the first day, three classes in a row, back to back. no problems, all was well. i thought that i was in for a really productive method of note-taking. the following week, i decided that i would test out voice-recording in one of my monday class that runs an hour and fifteen minutes. i had previously used it when i was in student government at UM, for senate meetings that drug on for usually about an hour. the program got buggy withing thirty minutes of my recording, and there were dramatic slugs in my performace. and before we even get into that, my machine is in pretty good condition. when i tried to end the recording, before i lost all my notes, there was a three minute lag and then i had to restart the program so i could finish my note-taking. the part of the lecture that had recorded had summarily disappeared.

the next day, i had one of my two once-a-week three hour classes for the first time, history of photography. i typed up my notes as usual, very little out of the ordinary. the next time i opened up microsoft word, actually the next ten times, my notes from that class also opened up. apparently there was an error. i really don’t know.

and then yesterday happened. i was typing notes in my international terrorism class. and then i hit the enter key and the tab key. and nothing. fucking. happened. eventually, it got its act together. but later, in my congressional representation class last night, i looked up and noticed that tabs and indents and bullets that had been created with the tab and enter keys were suddenly invisible. oh, they were there when i clicked the cursor on the line. but as i began typing again further down the page, they disappeared again.

i’m done. i quit this shit. i’ve already moved most of my word processing needs to pages, and the few times i have opened powerpoint presentations, i’ve done so in keynote. numbers is a pretty slick replacement for excel (see my review). basically, the only reason im keeping this shit on my computer is because of that unsure factor, where you just never know if you’ll need a program. also known as why i have 97 programs on my computer. tonight, i plan to convert ALL my current notes to omnioutliner pro. i’ll let you know how that works out.