I am SO Frustrated!

You know, technology is wonderful - when it works.

If you've been following my wondrous blog, you'll know that my nephew and his wife are expecting a baby girl in December. So of course I have been in the process of making crocheted items for the newcomer, and spending waaay too much time looking through patterns. So. Many. Patterns.! Thus the lack of posts. At this point I have made a Caron Simply Soft Baby Hoodie, booties - sorry, I can't find the pattern, a Cuddly Baby Amigurumi (which I've decided I need to remake because I didn't put safety eyes on it - silly me) and I have designed a Baby Unicorn Lovey. I am in love with this lovey. I was having issues with the head when I first started, which took me about 3 days to finally work out. The rest all went pretty smoothly until I got to the mane. I did curly-q's and sewed each one one separately, which was really tedious. But the lovey is done.

Attachment 20935

As i was creating the lovey, I was using the OpenOffice program I have on my laptop to type the directions. Of course this was just a scratch copy. So yesterday I went to put the official pattern together on my business stationary, correcting all my shortcuts and abbreviations (so people could actually understand what I had written) and arranging all the photos with their captions. Then I saved it. This took me about nine hours to do. (Side Note - I don't have a tester for my patterns, so when I write the final draft, I go over what I have written several times to make sure it is correct, concise, and understandable. I haven't gotten any complaints so far, so hopefully I'm doing something right!)

For some reason, no matter what I try to save something as, my computer wants to save it to Word, which I don't have on the computer. So I get up this morning and see that it was saved as Word, and the format is all wrong and the pics are all on top of one another. !&%$#@&^!!!! I had Word on my old laptop, but when it crashed we couldn't transfer the program. The Microsoft Office Suite is so expensive that my IT Guru son downloaded OpenOffice for me. It's ok but not nearly as good for my purposes as Word, and has always been rather frustrating for me to use. At this point I'm so frustrated I'm really ready to go back to Word. I see that there are some older versions that are for home/student use that could be used for my laptop and don't cost extraordinary amounts. Well, I've decided that I'm going to see if my son is free this weekend and pay him a visit. HELP! Obviously, I am NO computer whiz, and no doubt some of my issues stem from the fact that I flounder around a lot. I won't be surprised if my son finds out I screwed something up.

If you all would be kind enough to remember my computer in your prayers, I would certainly appreciate it. Now I'm going to fix myself a very large drink.

Attachment 20936
Hoodie sweater and booties for the Newbie!

Very Nice Nova55

Hello Nova55,
I love all of your creations. That Lovely is adorable. I like the colors you choice for the sweater. I have avoided the hoods as head size is tricky in babies.

I want to let you know I have the same computer problem. I had Microsoft office on my computer and when I got an automatic update it wiped out my Microsoft Office. All my baby patterns and instructions that I had saved were gone.

I did the same thing you did office is to expensive just for my use. My son downloaded Open Office for me too. I have the same problem if I try to save a word document it will try to go to word you have to click on other and it will show you Open Office (whatever they call their word document). I haven't used this in a while as I got so use to Microsoft office I looked for an alternative.

What I have been doing lately is using Office online and copying my patterns and anything I think is important on the word document but I use save as pdf. I can open the pdf files. The only problem with that is you can't correct a mistake unless you have Adobe writer. For what little I use my computer it is not worth the expense to buy new software. I can find my way around the system.

I do feel your pain as I was so use to Microsoft I got spoiled and it took me time to figure out another way.

Good luck,
Spoula

Thank you so much for the compliments! I had the yarn for the sweater - it's Premier Debra Norville Everyday and it's a no-pill acrylic and so soft. I'm really not sure what size it is - I was thinking around 12M. She'll be born in December, so even though they're in southern CA, she'll need a sweater. I had the Caron Simply Soft for the lovey, too. Trying my darnedest to use up my stash, but this will take awhile.

One of the things I've invested in is a separate hard drive. When my first computer crashed, my son suggested getting a portable/external hard drive, so that's where I keep most of my patterns and photos. Theoretically, if something happens to the laptop I'll still have what I've saved on the portable.

I called my son last night and he told me to right click on the file I'd saved, and a pop-up window showed that the default was Word. I was able to switch that to OpenOffice and click on "open docs with this" box, so I shouldn't have a problem anymore. What I don't like about OpenOffice is that it doesn't work well with photos. So even though I got the pattern back (whew!), I am having to redo all the photos and captions. Then it looks like I can just hit "file" and export as a PDF. I like to keep one copy of the pattern as a document just in case I do need to correct something later, and then if someone does buy the pattern, I send out a pdf format. I also have to weigh buying the Word program vs. how many patterns I'll write, because I really only need it for the patterns. So I guess I'll limp along with OpenOffice and see how it goes.

You son is right I just haven't used open office for awhile and forgot the exact instructions. I reread my post and I wrote my files were lost. That was incorrect they were there but saved under Microsoft word so I could not open them. I have since opened the ones I want to use with open office then copy that page or pages to word on line and then I save it as a PDF file. I can still get to my patterns but it takes some doing.

Did you sell that pretty cowl you made?

Spoula

Well, I'm certainly glad you were able to retrieve your patterns. It can take quite a bit of time to find and save patterns, and to lose them is disaster!

No, I haven't sold anything in a while. A little bit ago one of the "craft business" people I subscribe to finally stated what I suspected - one person can't do it all. If nothing else, you need a FULL TIME Social Media Manager to handle that side of the business. I was hoping that my sister could possibly help me with that, but she can't. So I do what I can, but I know that I need a much larger reach than what I have now to really make this business a go. I'm trying to organize myself enough to try a few things that won't cost me anything, but there's no doubt that a millennial would be able to do a much better job than me when it comes to media! And just between you, me and the grapevine, this vendor section is a joke. Barb already had a Buy, Sell, & Trade section, and that's what should've been used for Vendors. But I really enjoy Crochet Talk and especially talking with you and the regular posters, so I put up with it - even though it's not a wise business choice.