To Do List Items

I keep many to-do lists. Most of them are genealogical in nature, but some have to do with life and/or computers.

Recently I switched to a MacBook Pro after using a windows computer since 1987. That's right, thirty years of using and swearing at my Microsoft compatible computers is over. For the most part. I still have some files to transfer.

One of the issues is compatibility. I lost a couple programs I have used for years -- GenSmarts. It was a lovely program that helped me search for records across many different databases and filled in a lot of holes. Another was Transcript. I used that for transcribing records, especially newspaper articles. I have found a couple workarounds for it and will just hope someone comes up with something that's Mac compatible.

Yesterday, I reformatted my little Western Digital Passport Ultra (1T) external hard drive so that I can use it in both my old laptop and the new one. That meant I had to go through tons of files on the hard drive to make sure I had all the files transferred. Since I used this for a backup by manually copying from laptop to external drive, there were only a few that I didn't have. The scary part was actually erasing and reformatting. Thought I would have a heart attack the first time because it failed. It didn't erase or reformat. The second time it worked when I followed the sparse directions a little closer. It felt really good to be able to back up my genealogical database - including photos - to something other than a thumb drive.

This morning, after receiving an answer from Flip-Pal, I installed the software for my little eye-fi card for the Flip-Pal and tested that. Then I hooked up my portable printer and hoped for the best. And that is what I got. I am so impressed with this MacBook. Not that things don't work a little differently, but I am adjusting. For kicks, I hooked up my wireless Microsoft mouse to see if it would work. It did. However, I love the touchpad on this so much, I've given up the mouse again. I've felt that a mouse just takes up space on my small and cluttered desk. This way, I have a little more room to spread out.

I am making progress slowly. Most of my time on it is learning all the ins and outs of using a MacBook. I even picked up a book that has been most helpful in finding out what works and what doesn't. I found one of the best ways to see how things work is to enter data in my genealogy database. I consider RootsMagic one of the most important software programs on my Mac. Even though it is not a "true" Mac app, it works pretty darn well. Full Mac compatibility is coming soon, I am told.

In the meantime, I will continue to run through my checklist of apps, files and wish list items and finish this Windows to Mac conversion.

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