On a zoom meeting today, a fellow writer fretted about losing work as she was unable to save new documents into MS Word. She was using a workaround involving saving to her desktop first.
She has up to date software and subscriptions and was still experiencing pretty basic issues. A knowledgable relative thinks she’s heading for a new laptop, even though the current one is not old.
This is an increasing problem with modern technology. It’s great when it works and a monumental headache when it doesn’t. Both hard and software aren’t designed to last. I remind you of the two fridges in my kitchen: the small, old-fashioned one which was ancient when we moved in over 20 years ago, and the big, modern, American-style fridge, which is the third we’ve bought since moving in. The other two ‘new’ fridges broke.
I’m still using Word 2007 on a combination of Windows 7 and Windows 10. It’s developed the odd idiosyncrasy but largely behaves perfectly. I vastly prefer the Windows 7 environment (and am resisting the inevitable PC upgrade) as it seems a lot simpler.
However, today I entered a free short story competition flagged up by writer Helen Yendall. The entry needed to be in pdf form. You can’t now convert to pdf in Word 2007 unless you record a macro: I didn’t trust strangers on YouTube enough to try that. Adobe wanted money to do the job, which seemed pointless for a free competition.
What to do?
I opened the document with free software, Open Office, and hit the ‘export as pdf’ button. Ecco! as the Italians say. One pdf file.
I stick with MS Word because it’s the industry standard, but how long it will stay like that when you have to pay an annual subscription and free software works just as well?
Answers on a postcard, please…