Mac OS X: The Best OS for Writers
Aayush Arya of Apple Matters has posted an article titled “7 Reasons Why Mac OSX [sic] Is the Best OS for Writers.” It’s not a terrible article*, and all of the reasons he cites are jim dandy ones, but he fails to mention the three features that have made my writing life 500% better. I agree that OS X is the bestest, but integrated spellcheck and a new voice synthesizer (?!) are not in the fucking ballpark.
#1. Exposé: Listen, this is the greatest thing that ever happened to my writing. For you poor impoverished souls out there, this is a feature that, with a single button press or flick of the mouse, spreads every open window and document across your screen, giving you a grand view of your current tasks, and allowing you to switch instantly between them. The effect never fails to impress onlookers, and honestly, after three years and change on the Mac, I still get a kick out of it. Right now, if I swing my cursor into the top-right corner of my screen, I can see my email client, a letter of recommendation I’m working on for a student, the .jpg I’m going to use for this post, and two browser windows (one in which I’m composing these very words). Like so:
But that’s not the best part for writers. What Exposé allows me to do is to shuffle, physical paper-style, between any two or three or dozen documents I may be working on. It’s like spreading all your pages out on one big table and being instantly transported to each one. You can copy and paste so quickly, it’s almost telepathic. Really. I still edit a lot on real paper, but OS X has made me comfortable with writing at the computer in a way I never was on Windows. I still use MS Word 2004, by the way, ‘cause I fear change.
And don’t you say a God damned word about Alt+Tab. It is NOT the same thing.
#2. Quick Look: This feature is new to Leopard, but it’s already saved me about 7 years in wasted time waiting for documents and images to load in their respective applications of choice. Quick Look allows you to instantly view the contents of Word documents, without having to actually open them in Word (which we all know can take for-fucking-ever if the file is over 200 pages). You just hit the space bar with a file selected, and a little window pops open showing you which of the hundred and seven versions of your novel XJ77-02-13-2008b.doc is. You can run through the whole document in Quick Look, just like thumbing through a filing cabinet. No matter how big the file is, it’s super fast.
#3. Instant Notes: I don’t even know what this feature is called. It works like this: you highlight some text, either from a Word file, or a web page, or wherever, and you drag that highlighted text to your desktop. OS X instantly creates a little .text file on the desktop that you can go back to anytime you want. It even automatically names the file with the first few words, so you don’t have to type anything, just drag and drop. Over and over. It just works.
And finally, I think I should mention Time Machine, even though I’m still backing up the old-fashioned way and haven’t used it. Any OS that includes an automatic back-up feature is a friend to writers and brave animals everywhere.
* And by “not terrible” I mean “terrible.” No fucking clue what this guy is talking about half the time.
Thu., Feb. 14, 2008
Reader Comments (4)
Expose changed my life forever. Sometimes I just flip my cursor to the corner so I can see how wonderfully my OS can organize my otherwise chaotic life.
I guess you could say its like going to church without the cannibalism.
it has left anchorage. i think i can feel it.
Godspeed, little MacBook Pro. You're new daddy is waiting for you in a magical land called "America."
Expose: 19 pornos at once is what I'm talkin' about.