Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be anything to write about. It’s 7:00 and the blogging streak is in serious risk. Then, suddenly, as if provided by above, I start to print the envelops for Christmas cards.
I’m not a big mail-merger. I do it once a year, for Christmas cards. I have all my lists as saved files, so printing out envelopes saves a lot of time, and I can personalize the envelopes with graphics that coordinate with our cards. Get it, this is supposed to save me time.
I went up tonight and tried to do this for the first time with Office 2012. After I finally found the tab for mail, I selected merge, and suddenly everything worked differently. First, my pre-saved address files wouldn’t open because the updated program doesn’t recognize word tables. So I saved the data and tried to create a new file, but the ability to add a table of data is either taken out or hidden from me. Luckily I could save the data as an Excel file which worked.
After about 1/2 an hour I was able to print envelopes. But my Christmas card spirit was gone, and my hatred of Office 2012 was blazing like a Yule log.
I know I’m not the first to express my irritation with the changes to Office. The problem is that with a fundamental program like Word, you don’t have time to relearn it on the fly with new versions. Over time I’ve figured out where most of the needed commands are, but every so often I try to do something old…like mail merge…and this frustration reemerges.
It’s good to have these experiences, because they remind me of the frustration that must be felt by so many of the people I work with. The world of technology is constantly changing and sometimes I’m so used to it I forget how jarring this can be.
Until I try to mail merge…
For some programs, I find myself stalling until it gets “updated” again and then congratulate myself on not having learned something which has now become outdated.