On Saturday, I tackled the billing document again for Ed. And because a recent download of Windows 8.1 refuses to recognize the printer, and because Ed has not been able to download new drivers, I E mailed the billing document to him and opened it on his laptop that still connects to the printer. I then transferred it to his Word program and when it came up, none of the columns (Time, Mileage, Expense) lined up.

The ruler that was standard on Word was not there. So I Googled it and learned how to find it and place it. Why something so often needed is not automatically on every Word document is truly annoying. Then I tried to set tabs and sometimes I got a submenu when I clicked on a tab stop, and sometimes I got a tab, but when I went to tab to it, I didn’t get it every time. I was very upset and Ed was too because he is on a deadline and an auditor is waiting for these bills. And since the document is so very long, I needed headers and footers so that the columns would be repeated on every page. Not simple. I gave up.

Then I called Rose, a paralegal who works with Ed’s lawyer on guardian issues, and is a whiz on documents and Excel. And, on a Saturday, she drove over and put my document into Excel and showed me how to use it and she’s coming over again today to help some more. Is that a friend, or what? I have about 20 more pages to add to the bill, so I was feeling really out of my depth, knowing I couldn’t line anything up. And now Ed will meet his deadline.

Another benefit is that when Ed watched Rose work, it made him reaalize the extent of the problem, and he thought I was just having problems because my way of working was not well thought out. When he saw what was involved, he got kinder. I will add that, when I worked on pre-Windows Word -- DOS for all you young ones, I could design anything, line up stuff, add the columns, double underline the total, etc., etc. They have automated everything and I find their menus to be needlessly obscure.

As for me, I know when to ask for help. That’s worth a lot.

xx, Teal