An Apple a Day Means Plenty of Play!

Last November our family visited the local Apple store in search of prices on Ipods. Christmas was around the corner and an Ipod seemed like a perfect gift for our daughter. My wife, daughter, and I had begun our Christmas shopping adventure.

I’ve never have had any interest in Ipods. Still don’t. Not that I don’t enjoy music. I just don’t appreciate things sticking in my ears and toting things around in my pockets that aren’t necessary. Besides, I’m usually at one of four places–at my desk in my office at church, in my study at home in front of the computer or a book, in the Lazy Boy recliner in front of the TV in the family room, or in my car. I have musical options at each of these locations. Oh, there’s the trip to the refrigerator which occurs quite often. But when I’m going there, music isn’t on my mind. Who needs an Ipod?

So while my wife and daughter were plugged up to Ipods in their ears in the Apple store I began messing around with an Apple desktop computer which sported a new Tiger 10.4 operating system.

What made this experience so meaningful to me was an event that had recently occurred at work. I had completed a Christian education calendar using Microsoft Word on my Windows operating system. I needed to get the calendar published and was working on a tight timeline. I had trouble formatting the document. What appeared on screen came out differently when I printed the document. I struggled with this issue for a few hours before asking other staff members to help me figure out what was causing the text to kick down to a second page. All the coding was correct. Three staff members, all who were experienced Windows and Microsoft Office users, could not determine a solution. We spent most the day on the issue and could not resolve it.

On this same day, our youth minister was struggling with a similar issue with Microsoft Publisher. Her problem related to formating as well and she had reached her point of frustration.

So while in the Apple store, I immediately opened a newsletter program on the Apple system called Pages. Jumping straight to a template I began moving text and pictures around on the screen. I moved a picture from the top left column of the page to the bottom right column. When I released the mouse the picture moved exactly where I wanted it and all the text on the page automatically repositioned on the page. I could not believe how easy it was and immediately thought how much more useful this program would be for the many word processing and layout tasks that are part of my work as a Christian educator.

Apple had my attention. I began experimenting with other programs on the Apple system and was sold! Before I left the store that day I made the decision to cut and run from the Windows system that I had used for years and become a Mac fan.

I have not been disappointed. This decision has opened up a new world for me and after seven months of usage, I’ve experienced a user-friendly, stable, virus-free, work powerhouse. But more importantly to me right now, an Apple a day means plenty of play! Learning, that is! I’m able to spend more time on productivity and less time on system maintenance. I now have a new understanding of what it means for an educator to have an apple on his/her desk!