July 9, 1998
By Timothy W. Shire
There are a lot of excuses people will give you for what they perceive as their own lack of computer skills but it is often the person’s own zeal or beliefs that is creating their lack of success. When you first buy or begin using a computer there is a natural inclination to notice what other people are doing or what the computer and various types of software are capable of performing and the new user mistakenly believes that they have to do it all. Nothing could be further from the truth, as with so many other activities, failure to concentrate ones resources, results in ineffectuality.
Heidi Rosen was
for some time Apple Computer Companies executive in charge of software development.(for
an update on her feelings about that role see the August
13 MacWeek article) This lady had at her disposal the very
best computers available and she could use the most expensive software created and
she said in a conference that she used three pieces of software and that was that.
She used her e-mail program, an internet browser and a word processor. Now if you
have looked at word processors you know that there are some pretty complex applications,
Heidi
used the simplest one, the one that came with the system
on her computer.
Jo Szostak
is one of the computer coordinators and experts who was responsible for getting Regina
Public School Board schools all on line and she spends a major portion of every
day at one of her computers but the applications she relies upon is “ClarisWorks”
(now called AppleWorks) the integrated software that comes with every new
iMac computer. She says she uses it almost exclusively for all that she needs
to do.These two individuals serve as excellent examples, they are recognised experts in their field they know computer technology inside and out. Heidi is now president of a software company and Jo has spent this past year training Regina’s teachers to use the Internet. But they know the secret.
Less is more!
The most dangerous word to come from the mouth of a computer salesman or guru is “NEED”. In a conversation or lecture, if you hear that word, sound a personal “red alert” because the next thing you will hear is not likely to be true. The idea that you “need” this or that piece of hardware, or this or that piece of software is simply not the case. What ever computer, no matter how humble, its capabilities vastly outstrip the chores anyone gives it and the software, either old or new, is always 90% over capable then the demands put on it by its users. Software developers refer to this as the 10% rule. What ever software they develop, the user will only learn and use 10% of what it can do. It is the nature of the computer industry for people to demand and use a Swiss Army knife to open an envelop when their fingers can do the job just as well.
If you want to be computer literate, if you want to impress your friends, family and most of all yourself, take one piece of software and learn it well. To learn that piece of software use it for everything and develop its capabilities and your skill in using it and the best way to achieve this skill level is forcing yourself to “do something important”. Don’t tell your self that you will spend some time, when you’ve got some time, to learn the software from the manual on up. When you need to get a letter out, a report completed on a deadline that is when to learn the software. Under pressure the word “need” takes on a new meaning.
The most important thing must then be, what is the piece of software I should learn? The answer to that is a simple one, what you need. I know people who spend all of their time in a work situation where they must deal with spread sheets all of the time. They learn to use Microsoft’s Excel and to my amazement they use if for everything from letters to labels. A few days ago I received a couple of forms by e-mail, the fellow who made them is an engineer and naturally he cranked out these documents using a CAD programme (computer assisted design). Both examples point to the real need, learn one application and master it.
I recommend two pieces of software that have good capabilities and what you learn using them will allow you to handle virtually everything else. AppleWorks (used to be called ClarisWorks) is a word processor, database, spreadsheet, drawing and painting application. Not just those five applications put together in a package, no AppleWorks (runs on all platforms) is a piece of software that can do each of those things and does them well. The second piece of software I recommend is Corel’s WordPerfect. WordPerfect is overkill for most of us but it can handle graphics, has a good working screen and is a solid performer. The best thing about both of these applications is that the products you produce with them are fully compatible on any other computer and both are able to read documents created in other formats.
There are some things you should know about good software.