Forum Posts Feed
Profound Disappointment
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 10, 2010 at 12:39 AM
Daly,
I think you’ve received excellent advice from everyone who has responded to your sincere plea for help! I will add my two cents, of course.
I felt some of the disappointment you are feeling now when I first switched to the Mac—perhaps not as intensely. I was even disappointed with Scrivener (the application that had been the primary catalyst for my switch) because I thought it would be so wonderful that my work would practically write itself! My disappointment was compounded by the fact that I had to return my new MacBook after a couple of weeks because some circuit-whosis didn’t work properly—the first time in 25 years of computer ownership I had a hardware problem with a new computer!
But I began to realize that most of the problem was that I just had unrealistic expectations—what honest CRIMPer doesn’t? This doesn’t mean there are not a lot of compromises with Mac applications. There are. But I would urge you to ask yourself this question: If I was so happy with MyInfo and UltraRecall, why did I feel the need to switch platforms? That’s what I asked myself when I got the urge to switch back.
I’ve since become enamored of my MacBook and am planning to buy a new one in a few months. In addition to the fact that the operating system is so much smoother, and getting on the Internet via wifi is always easy and seamless, I wouldn’t want to do without Scrivener, Tinderbox and MacJournal.
Steve
Posted by Wes Perdue
Aug 10, 2010 at 12:55 AM
> Daly de Gagne wrote:
> Wes, thanks to you and the others for giving me some push-back on this.
> I do appreciate it - if anything, having cut my computer teeth on the
> Mac in the 90s until 2002, I may have set my expectations too high, or
> in the wrong places.
You’re quite welcome. I hear your frustration, and can sympathize to an extent; I do being frustrated myself during the early part of the transition.
>
> Wes, apart from the programs, what is it that makes the Mac better in
> your view to the PC? I love the way it feels, but I also like the way
> my partner?s daughter?s new Windows laptop feels, and I am told W7 is
> very stable.
Win 7 is quite stable; I just don’t like the way it feels, probably because I’ve been using XP for a very long time now.
My affinity for MacOS is very difficult for me to describe, but I will try. It just feels right - logical, consistent. Keystrokes for various things across the OS are incredibly consistent between apps; menus are consistently laid out. My Mac gets out of my way more and lets me work. It took me a while to get there, but when I go back to my PC, the inconsistency is frustrating.
> What I remember from the Mac is a true elegance in software - and I
> have not found much of it so far, with the possible exception of
> DevonThink.
I see elegance in the simplicity and consistency of design and operation of MacOS and its apps. I think you’re defining elegance differently, and that’s fine; elegance is quite a subjective attribute.
It sounds to me like your needs may in fact lie beyond the ability of a Mac and its apps to deliver, and that’s fine. It’s most important that you be comfortable and productive, so in my view it’s a perfectly valid move for you to go with a new Windows system.
Shoot, I still use a PC at work by choice - many sys admin tasks are still easier for me when running XP directly on PC hardware. However, my Mac sits right here next to the PC. It’s the best of both worlds.
Regards,
Wes
Posted by Wes Perdue
Aug 10, 2010 at 01:06 AM
> Daly de Gagne wrote:
> Andreas, please do not apologize for raising your voice. I was hoping
> for that, because for me this is a critical situation.
>
> I appreciate what you say about DevonThink, and it is the one program I
> can see myself using. But when push comes to shove, it is not all that
> different from EverNote. And it is easier to use EverNote with every
> program on the PC than it is on the Mac - though there may be something
> I am not doing right. EverNote is an automatic backup as well, because
> it syncs with the cloud.
I’ve a couple thoughts on DevonThink and Evernote. I agree that they are rather similar. I use each for different things, as they have different strengths. DT for me is a rather nice writing environment, with its good rich text editor; I keep my personal journal in DT. I use Evernote for the myriad notes I take; its cloud syncing and accessibility from anywhere is invaluable, but it’s rather terrible at handling rich text. I also don’t want to overwhelm it with niche research data.
> I have not checked Curio, and I will do that.
I tried to use Curio for project management, but it didn’t work for me. It’s a beautiful app, but I think it tries too hard to do too many things, so it doesn’t do many things well. It’s better for me to just keep my project tasks in OmniFocus and let the other project data sleep where it lies - most likely in Evernote or NovaMind.
Regards,
Wes
> Thanks.
>
> Daly
Posted by Hugh
Aug 10, 2010 at 08:36 AM
Daly
Some immediate random thoughts:
- it helps to have a strong reason for switching, and a goal. I use my Mac for writing, as I previously used Word on the PC. That was until, first, I lost a lot of material in Word on the PC, and then, second, having tried Liquid Story Binder, PageFour, and various other Windows writing applications whose names I forget, I spied Scrivener. As I’ve told Scrivener’s developer, his application is the most expensive consumer software ever; I bought a MacBook for it. Only later did I discover other useful applications that can support what I do, such as DevonThink and MacJournal.
- you’ve said little in your observations about the consistency and connectedness of the Mac interface. For me that’s almost more important than the qualities of individual applications - the ease with which, for example, you can shuttle text around using the Services menu. Incidentally, it’s worth learning how to make best use of the Services menu.
- some of the applications you’re looking at or planning to look at are really heavyweight and take quite a long time to learn, just as their counterparts on the PC also do. I’ve been using Scrivener for at least a couple of years now; last week I learnt of an important feature that I’d been ignorant of before. I’ve scratched the surface of Curio; I’ve quite a long way to go with DevonThink Pro, although it’s my main data repository. It’s not that the manuals are poorly written; Scrivener, Curio and DevonThink have very good reference and tuition materials. It’s just that there’s a lot of features and functionality to absorb, and it’s necessary to persevere. Even Circus Ponies’ NoteBook is quite a big programme.
- but ultimately, “diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks”: I’m with Manfred on this. Maybe the Mac and its software will suit you, maybe they won’t.
A couple of words about DevonThink. DevonThink technology has lots of bells and whistles, but fundamentally it has two features which are distinctive: the ability to handle gigabytes of data without choking, and the ability to offer you connections between documents you hadn’t thought of. To give an example: I have several thousand documents in DevonThink on recent Southern African events; I recently searched for information about Nelson Mandela in prison, and DevonThink also offered me a useful, long-forgottent note I’d slung in about someone who was involved in the education of Mandela’s children. By the way, only consider DevonThink Pro or Pro Office (which offers OCR features). The lesser members of the family are insufficiently versatile.
But… if you don’t want these advantages and don’t have the material to fill DevonThink up, I wouldn’t bother with it. There are perfectly good less heavyweight substitutes on the Mac, such as Eaglefiler and Together, and they’ll be easier to get to grips with.
H
Posted by Tom S.
Aug 10, 2010 at 09:36 AM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>As I continue to explore programs here on my new Mac, a very profound kind of
>The word processing options
>seem about the same as in PC world.
Truth.
>Perhaps if I could figure out “services” I could
>understand why some programs seem to have them and others do not.
The easiest way to find simple explanations for things like this is through the Mac help file, which is accessible by choosing “Help” from the menu while in a Finder window.
From the Mac help file:
—
Getting tasks done more quickly using services
Many applications in Mac OS X let you use the features (or ?services?) of one application while you?re working in another application. For example, if you?re viewing a PDF file in Preview, you can select a chunk of text, and then use the Mail service to quickly email that text to a colleague, without having to first copy the text, open the Mail application, create a new email message, and so on. Services give you quick, convenient shortcuts for doing many tasks, including searching the web, making sticky notes, having text in a document read aloud, sending a file to your Bluetooth phone, and much more.
To use an application?s services:
Select an item to work with, such as a file in the Finder or a chunk of text in a document.
Open the application menu (to the right of the Apple menu), choose Services, and then choose the service you want to use.
For example, to email a file on your desktop, select the file, and then choose Finder > Services > Send File.
—
Note well the philosophy which Wes elegantly explained earlier in the thread. The Mac is a lot like Unix - programs are designed to do a few thing well and integrate with other programs that do a few other things well. Services are the main way in which these programs connect to one another. If you are a DEVONThink developer you need a good way to import information from emails. So you write a Service which allows you to send information to DT while in the Mail program. That’s one of several ways in which this can be done.
I would also mention one more thing. You don’t *have* to do it but IMO, as in Windows with IE, your life might be easier if you use the built in tools (Safari, iCal, Mail, Address Book, etc..). People who develop these services write them to work with these programs first. If I remember right, you are a Firefox guy and that’s great. But using Safari just for a while might give you a better idea of what these programs can do with the browser before having to struggle to figure out what does and doesn’t work with third party software.
>The computer
>itself feels solid, and has not crashed once. I like the feel and the look of it.
Apple is a hardware company at heart. That’s what you are paying for.
>EN seems better in the Mac, except so far I haven’t found a universal
>clipping pane which operates as highlight and click - I have to highlight, copy, and
>then click.
The Safari clipper can be accessed by pressing the button with and elephant on it to the left of the address bar. I haven’t used it but I understand Firefox has a similar clipper. These are highlight and click. I can’t remember if there was anything I had to do to set it up. The user manual and the EN website should have more details.
>So I have a couple of days - do I keep the Mac, or do I ask Staples
>for my money back, and get a PC?
If I read your posts right you’ve only had the thing for a couple days. If you are really committed to finding out whether this was the right move for you, I would suggest that you be patient and work at it. These programs have to be mined for information to find out what they can and can’t do, how they integrate with the Mac environment, etc… You still may not be happy but I really think this is the only way to find out.
If that’s not what you want to do, I would suggest you return it now and go back to the PC. I’m a Mac guy but I’ve always been a big fan of programs like UltraRecall.
Cheers,
Tom S.