Fiction Writers

Comment by Catherine Green on March 5, 2012 at 9:52pm

Hi Mandy,

Do you work on a laptop? I have the same trouble because both my computers have Word 97. On my laptop I have to open documents in Word Processor and then save to Word 97 so I can switch to the other computer.

Comment by Anna L. Walls on March 6, 2012 at 1:30am

Ah well, if you're having trouble with the program itself and updates don't seem to help you might as well get the latest edition. I bought my Mac about 3 years ago now and would only get one if they had a Word program for it. I really dislike the Mac word processing program. Way too generic. In the past I have had Word programs 'forget' how to do some simple things like the auto indent, but nothing as bad as you guys. I think I'd be really pissed if I couldn't get to my books. It was irritating enough not to have auto indent but I figured a way to fool the program that worked.

Comment by Mandy Steinfeldt Crane on March 6, 2012 at 8:29pm

Hello,

Yes I do all my work on my laptop and it was working fine and then all of a sudden it started giving me problems. I think to save my sanity I am just going to update to the latest version of word 2010 because I really like working in that. But until i can get it because it is fairly expensive It takes me 3 to 4 tries to get into it. But I also put my manuscript on a portable zip drive as a back up in case the unthinkable happens. Thanks for all the adivice.

Comment by Anna L. Walls on March 7, 2012 at 3:16am

Have you talked to a computer geek? I hate to suggest such a thing but maybe the issue isn't with the program, but with the computer. It is at least something you might want to ask about anyway.

Comment by Mandy Steinfeldt Crane on March 7, 2012 at 4:41am

Hi Anna,

That is a possiability. I was thinking the same thing just this afternoon and I will be close to Best Buy tomorrow. So I might take it along and show them. I  thought it might have been a virus so I did a full scan and got nothing so we shall see what happens. Thank you for all the advice.

Comment by Anna L. Walls on March 7, 2012 at 5:56am

Yeah, I'm not talking about a virus, just maybe the hard drive (or whatever the brain is called) might be breaking down in some tiny way. My old computer - a Gateway - started messing up the music. Nothing drastic, it just skipped a little once in a while. Still very listenable. And my Word program seemed to forget how to auto indent new paragraphs. All the settings were fine and I could tell it to successfully each time, but come the next paragraph, no indent. By accident I learned how to fool this by keeping something beyond where I was typing - I used a symbol I could see but spaces worked too. As long as I had something in front of my curser, the indents worked just fine. Go figure. Anyway, my son is a bit of a computer geek and he told me my hard drive might be dying so I bought a new computer. My husband wanted me to have a mac anyway. I'm not sure what they can do but just maybe a new brain won't be as expensive as a New Word program. I don't remember - I expanded the brain in one of my computers but that was years ago.

Comment by Robert L. Allen on March 7, 2012 at 6:11pm

Hi gals! Are you saving before you close down? And you can and should always save to a disk. My word is 2000, I think. My computer crashed and we had it fixed but, I don't think it has long to live. The programs are pretty close with some upgrade. However, I like 97 more. The italics aren't so generic and there are other things I like about it. You should always be able to save and then return to where you would like in the story. When I close out, I record the page number, line number and complete page numbering as a way to return to the right area of the story. I do this on a paper notebook.
Anna, I believe you can download word on a mac. I just found it in a Mac booklet.

Comment by Catherine Green on March 7, 2012 at 7:42pm

Yes, I save everything to my USB memory stick because I never quite trust the computers!

Comment by Anna L. Walls on March 7, 2012 at 7:55pm

When I went to look at a Mac for the first time, I wasn't going to get one if I couldn't have a Word program on it. I write too much to fight with something else, so I bought the program at the same time I got the computer.

Comment by Robert L. Allen on March 9, 2012 at 8:48am

Not to change the subject but do you guys ever get stuck in the story??? I've been working on the same thing far too long now and it seems to be getting farther away from what I want.

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