flemmings | (no subject)

People are talking as if WriteRoom was the second coming of the Messiah. It fills up the screen! It removes your desktop! You can't click on your email or Firefox icons! No distractions!

My Word 2003 fills up the screen automatically, which annoys me because it makes the screen too big. So I stick the Find menu on the side to narrow my writing space. (Equally, I hate writing spaces that /don't/ take up the full screen cause the icons do indeed distract my eyes. Can't believe most people operate that way. Do they?) But when I get stuck or lose interest-- which is always-- I minimize the Word screen and go play Addiction Solitaire for hours instead. Unless I'm missing something, can't people minimize WriteRoom as well?

Possibly the option to get back the old WP green on black format (or white on blue in my case) might help productivity, but I remember the sense of freedom I found back in '99 when I first went to a black on white format. It looks like a real ms, glory be! Truly, those of us who started on typewriters think black on white is normal. Yes, that statement dates me, but then I'm dated by definition.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I remember learning to type at school, as part of an afternoon "learn to type" activity.

Ah, nothing makes me more appreciative of current Word packages on computers than remembering the days of white-out, carriage return, counting columns . . .

They taught you in an afternoon? Or, it was a regular afternoon activity?

Wish they'd taught *me* young instead of at age 22, though it would still have been like when they tried teaching me to dance. Didn't take: I have a seeming disconnect between my brain and my body that is currently giving me grief over physiotherapy. 'But just what is it you want me to *do*?'

It was an optional afternoon activity. As I remember it, the school week (boarding school) was all day Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday morning, all day Thursday and Friday, Saturday morning. There were various activities available most afternoons (there was a two-hour break after lunch before afternoon lessons), and you were expected to sign up for something. Including at least one sports thing per week, much to my dislike.

I remember that at that point (I must have been 16 or so) I really wanted to sign up for drama classes. Or for doing printing. My mother advised me to do a course in basic typing on the grounds that it would be useful. While I was a bit less than enthusiastic at the time, in retrospect I'm glad I did it and learned it then.