There's surely a reason why I have an advanced degree in the humanities rather than the hard sciences. What I'm about to recount surely has something to do with it. Sylvain got me a new computer for Christmas. He had given me my previous laptop for my birthday in 2007, so a new computer was a much needed acquisition. Making the switch over from old to new, however, has been a very slow step by step process and I've been using both for different things over the past three months. One of the problems was that I needed to install Word on the new computer in order to be able to work on it. My old computer has a pirated copy of Word on it and I don't have the installation CDs. I finally decided to go with a monthly subscription to Office 365, starting with their month-long free trial and continuing on to paying mode. I made the decision on March 9th and installed the program. However, no shortcut appeared on my desktop, there was no prompt to create one at any time in the process, and though I looked and looked and searched and searched, I couldn't find the program files anywhere in my computer. After multiple attempts to figure it out over several days, I finally decided last Friday that there might be a problem with the trial program and that I should just start paying and install the real one. I did. Same result. Argh. I found Microsoft's online tech support. The programs had been installed correctly and the technician remotely created desktop links for me in a matter of about a minute. Not sure where the program files had been hiding. Needless to say, I felt rather stupid. I thought my meager computer knowledge extended at least far enough to handle this sort of thing. Apparently, I was wrong. Oh well. I'm happy to now be able to use my new computer for everything as it runs a lot faster than the old one. And it appears on my account that my monthly payments kick in after the free trial month runs out, so I only "lose" the two weeks I spent fiddling around with it and not being able to get it to work. Speaking of which, time to work. Word.
Monday, March 30, 2015
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5 comments:
If it has windows 8 like our laptop, it takes a while to get used to finding everything. We also have Office 365 and I can never find my files...some on the laptop can only be seen on the laptop and some on the ipad i can see on both devices. I am confused where to find files and when/why i have to log in at times to find them.
You use desktop shortcuts, Tanya? Say it isn't so!
I expect there are a lot of people who upgrade as infrequently as you, but it may nonetheless be the case that the operating system changes have left behind users who skipped intervening versions.
Reading your description, I wondered if it was a web app, which wouldn't necessarily have any presence on your computer. Did you follow at all what the technician did?
I wanted to follow along and I tried, but unfortunately, I was distracted by Laureva who had just woken up from her nap and was crawling around at my feet. I do remember thinking at one point when I saw her locate the files and create the shortcuts that I was sure I had looked in the same spot.
I also wondered beforehand if it was a web app, but went to the site and couldn't find a way to access anything. It appears from what the tech did that the program files were actually installed on my computer. Next time you visit, Roy, I'll let you explore my computer to try to elucidate the mystery . . . Evan, I wouldn't need shortcuts if I were capable of locating the files otherwise. Apparently, however, that's not the case and I do need them desperately in this instance!
I can understand your confusion, Janice. Let's work together and let each other know if we make any important 365 discoveries!
Roy, the reason I finally decided to go for their monthly plan instead of outright purchasing it was to avoid missing out on upgrades in future. If I do ever figure out this new program, perhaps I won't be completely left behind again.
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