Ugh! Caveman need mucho help. .

J. Fred Bear

Ugh, Ugh . Me got magic white laptop..his name Macbook with OS X.....cost me many fox pelts. ......try to write novel for childrens. Much obstacles.

ME buy thick book. named "Manuel. Missing Manuel" But not understand funny words. Me ask kid with studs in nose who work at Apple Store . Him talk funny language. Me still not get it.

(me old caveman......real good with flint knives and rawhide undies.....but computer is great magic spirit me not understand..... )

So shaman tell me "You go forum Mac smart guys. They know it all. "
So here I be.

Basic Problem: Writing for publication using Word for Mac. I spend half my time just trying to understand or control the computer itself; instead of writing the novel.
Its frustrating. Anyone here familiar with MacBooks (OS X...) and Microsoft word for mac (2008) ?????? You give magic words to; caveman..He teach you how make arrow heads from flint!!!!!

**SwampWitch**

Welcome to mac-help.com! I'm glad you found your way here and I hope your journey was not too difficult.

Have you seen this thread?
http://www.mac-help.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2333

Search for "Office 2008" after going to the link and there are two options that might help you. There are some free previews, too. http://www.vtc.com/products/Microsof...-Tutorials.htm

Here's a link to the apple site. I couldn't find Office 2008 but maybe you will have better luck!
http://www.apple.com/iwork/

I'm sure somebody will be along with more advice; let us know how it goes.

(Now if only I could learn how to rename the urls I would be happy.)

J. Fred Bear

Dear Swamp Witch:

Thanks for the prompt reply. I tried some of the websites you listed but they were videos and the narrator was talking fast with computer vocabulary I didn't understand. Plus they wanted $$ for their advice and with the economy the way it is, I can't afford that.
Older folks like me have a basic problem with the entire computer trip. We don't think as fast.
All I really want to do is write, get email and go online for info. I don't want widgets, or slick videos, or lots of arcane vocabulary.......any way...thanks for your reply. Old Fred Bear

Ric

I'm with SwampWitch if thick manuals are not you're thing then video tutorials are the way to go.

If money is an issue pop down to your local Borders (bookshop) have a look in the computer section to see if there are any Lynda.com books/dvd if there are, then you may well find an URL (web address) that if you type in you will get a free day/week/month pass.

If all else fails please feel free to mail me the computer and I will swap it for a nice WordSmith 100 Electronic Typewriter and a few reams of paper, then when you have finished typing mail me the document and I'll scan it in for you, into a format that your editor would like, and send it back on one of those new fangled CD things...

regards

Ric

**Spawn_Dooley**

Text Edit comes pre-installed on your MacBook and you might be better off using that in the interim .... it's a simple word processing app which is actually quite powerful under the bonnet ....

Applications ~> Text Edit (or look in the Dock for it's icon)

Quote:

Sometimes you only need just enough to get the job done.

It seems to be a generally accepted misconception that Mac OS X is curiously lacking the most basic form of computer software - a word processor. Nothing could be further from the truth. TextEdit, that friendly little "notepad" in the Applications folder on every Mac is actually a rich and capable word processor. In fact, I'd say for most people, it's all you really need.

Exposing TextEdit's Hidden Potential

When you launch TextEdit for the first time, you are presented with a fairly plain and unimpressive document window, and nothing more. Before doing anything else, you should take a few steps to activate a variety of hidden features.

Go to the TextEdit menu and select Preferences. In the window that appears, make sure you're looking at the "New Document" tab, and enable the "Wrap to page" checkbox, which is toward the top. Under "Properties" fill in your name, and if applicable the company or organization you're writing for. Under "Options" enable all of the checkboxes, except for "Smart links." With "Smart links" enabled, TextEdit will automatically detect web URLs and email addresses and convert them to clickable hyperlinks. Don't enable this unless you want to.

Now, quit TextEdit and relaunch it. You should see a more familiar word processing-style document window, with outlines for page margins.

Advanced TextEditing

Now that you've enabled all of TextEdit's advanced features, you can begin using TextEdit as you would any other word processing application. Set fonts, sizes, colors, line spacing, tab stops. All the basics are there, plus some extras.

Drag image files or QuickTime movies directly into TextEdit to place them in your document. Choose "Tables" from the Format -> Text menu to add tables. Press Command + T to show the Fonts panel, which gives you a wide assortment of typographical functions, including shadows and strikethroughs. Press Command + Control + D while hovering over a word to get it's definition, synonyms and antonyms. You'll soon be impressed with the quality of the documents you can create in TextEdit.

TextEdit File Formats

TextEdit's native format is RTF, and when images or other media are embedded, RTFD - an extension to the good old Rich Text Format that includes the files embedded in the document. RTFD is a package, or folder of files, similar to Pages documents. To send them via email (or post them to Info-Mac) you first have to compress them as a ZIP file. Windows and Linux users will not be able to work with RTFD documents.

You can also export TextEdit documents to PDF by going to File -> Print and choosing "Save as PDF" from the bottom left hand corner. This is nice for sharing documents with people who do not have the same fonts installed, are using Microsoft Windows or some other operating system, or who you want to prevent from modifying your work. Additionally, TextEdit can also open and edit basic Microsoft Word documents (although support is limited).

Why Use TextEdit?

Most word processors can do all this and more. The really compelling feature of TextEdit is its incredibly small size and fast performance. This is especially useful on older Macs, where processing speed and memory are limited. On a 400 Mhz Power Macintosh G3, Microsoft Word 2008 takes ages to load, while TextEdit launches almost instantaneously. On a Mac Pro Quad Xeon, it's ready to go before your lift your finger from clicking your mouse.

As I type this article, Activity Monitor shows TextEdit to be occupying 15.42 MB of memory. I also have Microsoft Word running, for comparison. Only showing a single blank document, Word is occupying 189.46 MB of memory. Opening ten additional blank documents in TextEdit brings its memory size to 31.67 MB. Doing the same in Word, we get 330.76 MB. That is a stunning difference between the two applications that I'd use to perform essentially the same task.

Also deserving a mention is TextEdit's user interface. It's clean, light, and takes up very little screen space. You can have many TextEdit documents open at once and still have plenty of room to spare.

Conclusions

TextEdit is not the most feature-packed word processor, but it's free, light on its feet, and can do all the basics (plus a little more). Most important of all, you already have it installed in your Applications folder. So next time you want to process your words, give TextEdit a try!

Ric

One for SwampWitch...

J. Fred Bear

Swampwitch, Ric and Spawn dooley......

Thank you all for your replies. Lets see: I SHOULD have stuck with Text Edit when I began to write a year ago. But I thought I HAD to use Microsoft Word so editors would accept my work.

and the entire first draft is in M-word. Ms. Swamp, I'll try to find that book. and Ric, I appreciate your offer but I'm out here in the USA Wild West......a bit far to England.......LoL

So I'll keep working and checking this Forum. by the way....seriously...if anyone needs any information about the part of the USA I live in, I'd be happy to provide it. I love this area. And we still have Indians, cactus, horses , cattle, and beautiful deserts. No more gunfights, though.

Later.......Old Fred

**Spawn_Dooley**

Text Edit may open the draft, you should try ... and M$ Word for Mac should open the Text Edit file too ... so there's cross compatibility there to play with ....

You could open the Draft using TextEdit, continue working and then open the end product using M$ Word and save it as a M$ doc for the editors

**SwampWitch**

The best piece of advice I have for MS Word is to make sure you "show ¶". Is there a paragraph symbol (¶) on the toolbar? It should say something like "show/hide ¶". I don't have Word now but when I used to, turning on the paragraph mark was the single most useful tool! It allows you to see where you've tabbed and spaced, etc., because otherwise you are going at it kind of blind.

**SwampWitch**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spawn_Dooley

Text Edit may open the draft, you should try ... and M$ Word for Mac should open the Text Edit file too ... so there's cross compatibility there to play with ....

You could open the Draft using TextEdit, continue working and then open the end product using M$ Word and save it as a M$ doc for the editors

I didn't see this; this is a great idea. I write using TextEdit just to get the words down; MS Word is brilliant for formatting to fit text (and do just about anything else) but for narrative, TextEdit is perfect.

Hope you stick around... I wonder what kind of book a caveman writes.

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