Technology

Well, I think I am like many people when I think that technology can be a mixed blessing. I could not live without a microwave to re-heat previously cooked food or to "bake" a potato. I do not understand how a television, radio, telephone and the Internet work, but I am thankful to have them to use on a daily basis.

Computers and software can be annoying at times. They can be time wasters. They don't always behave the way you want them to behave or the way they should behave, but we have got so used to having them that we feel lost when we don't have electricity or we have lost our telephone connection during a storm.

When I was working on putting the material for my book, Churches of Grey Presbytery of the United Church of Canada: Historical Highlights, in to the software used by the printer for publishing, I had some trying moments. I was cutting and pasting from one program to another. All went reasonably well until I needed to insert information about a Church between two others and there was not enough space. Some ended into what I began to call la-la land. When I discovered "design check" and put it to work it indicated information in "overflow". Some times my mouse would accidently drag pages out of order. [Okay, it was me that was controlling the mouse.] If I realized it immediately, Ctr-Z righted the wrong. Thankfully, I did work things out in the end and everything appeared in the correct order for the finished project. All previous experience with the program had been with documents less than 8 pages. In the end it was 130 pages long with illustrations and maps inserted. I used the Internet, e-mail, photoediting software, two different word processors, an indexing program and the publishing program to complete the book. I can not imagine doing the book without the technology I have readily available in my office.

When I research, in addition to print resources, I use a variety of technologies from microfilm and microfiche to various resources provided by the World Wide Web, but I will leave that topic for another day.