Computer Musical Chairs

A little over a year ago I posted about my old computer that was suffering from a lack of memory and my concern over not being able to use my Word Perfect program on a newer unit with a newer operating system. (Read it here.)  I finally came to grips with the fact that I would have to use something else.  Text documents can be converted fairly well.  But, to keep all of the formatting for further printing I converted text and text with photos to PDF.  They, of course, can not be edited or changed.

But, I still had not purchased a new computer.  Connie had been talking about getting a laptop for her use (and she says mine as well, especially when we travel).  Darryl had said he was going to get a laptop because it would require much less electrical consumption and since going solar that has to be a major concern.  In his searching he came across an outstanding “deal” and told his mom about it.  She agreed that it was an opportunity to get her a laptop at less than what she had been expecting to pay.

So, to make a long story short, she ordered and received her new laptop.  After transferring her data and programs from her “old” two year old Dell computer which has Vista on it to her new unit with Windows 7 she moved my data and various programs from my 7 year old Dell unit with XP to her unit with Vista.  Then after a lot of physical shuffling as well we are both learning new computers and new operating systems.

With much more memory I find that things move faster and that is great.  I’ve found a few little things that work a bit different and to me, at least, seem more complicated.  But, I guess this “old dog” will just have to learn a few new tricks.  I don’t have my Word Perfect but as far as I can tell at this point Microsoft Works will do the job and it converts my old Word Perfect documents pretty well.

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To Buy or Not To Buy

I presently have a Dell computer that is six years old. The main complaint is that it is lacking in memory. I can add memory. To take it from the present 512MB to 1GB will cost less than $40.00. Or, I can buy a new Dell with 3GB of memory.

I presently have the Windows XP operating system and the new computer would have the Vista system. I’m told that the adjustment wouldn’t be too difficult. But, my main concern is with my word processing program. I have used Word Perfect ever since I first started using a word processing program. As far as I can determine the Word Perfect Version 10 that I currently am using isn’t compatible with Vista. Some internet sites I visited indicate that there may (or maybe not) be a way to get it to work. I know I could learn Word, which we have a copy of, but all of my files are saved in Word Perfect. My limited experience in the past was that in a conversion there was a loss of some of the formatting.

Since I have a book (my autobiography) and numerous articles written and saved in Word Perfect I really hate to change to Word and even attempt a conversion. An updated version of Word Perfect is over $100.00, which I don’t really want to have to spend.

To buy or not to buy is the question.

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