atw: Re: STraw poll
- From: James Hunt <jameshunt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:38:44 +1000
On 19 Jul 2011, at 4:18 PM, Bill Parker wrote:
> I notice the continuing discussion regarding the woes and occasional "not so
> bads" about Word. Its always about the Windows versions. Am I the only MAC
> person here? And from that, how different is Word 2011 for the Macintosh
> from the last version for Windows?
>
> Bill
No - there are at least three of us, I gather...
Macintosh versions of Word have compatibility problems with the Windows
versions - Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit has a sad reputation for
delivering products a day late and a few dollars short. However, you _can_ use
Word for Windows on a Mac: first install the Parallels product
(http://www.parallels.com/au/products/desktop/), which allows you run
subsidiary operating systems. Then install your own copy of Windows Whatever,
and Word for Windows. (You can install multiple guest operating systems under
Parallels, and run (say) Word 2003 under Windows XP in one partition, Word 2010
under Windows 7 in another partition, other stuff under Ubuntu in another
partition, and so on.)
One of the great features of the Mac operating system is backup software called
Time Machine (http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/backup.html), which backs up
everything wirelessly to an external hard disk, on an hourly basis. The
interface is easy to use, and you can reach back and retrieve earlier versions
of documents.
Hourly auto-saves may not be enough. Mac OS X also includes the backup software
Subversion, which is a standard in software development shops. In Subversion,
you can commit files at any time you like: daily, hourly, or just before doing
something heroic like deleting an entire section. You can retrieve any
committed version at any time: read back through your own comments to find the
one you want.
Subversion saves a base file and a chain of differences, and reconstructs
versions of files as required. Thus Subversion works best on ASCII text files.
I have seen Subversion used to manage Word and FrameMaker files, but in these
cases the versions saved are entire files, not difference files. The corporate
server was rather bloated...
James Hunt
----------------
Why I use a Macintosh: And those who look through the Windows® see dimly...
(Eccl 12:3)
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