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Today everything in IT is driven by hype, fashion, “cool”ness, social media popularity and so on…
But real, serious, efficient work still requires full Windows + Office! Estimated reading time 6 min |
Contents
Hype about new things should not mask reality
All things works on hype, PR, fashion about the latest and cutting edge trends, products and services. Nothing wrong with that. In order to make a new product visible, hype is required.
But there is a side effect. Most consumers are likely to get carried away by “what’s new and cool” and forget what’s essential and useful!
This article is just a gentle reminder of all the things mobile, cloudy and social that we still need to get serious work done – efficiently.
As I have discussed in earlier articles, typically, 50% work is core business activities and remaining 50% of work is unstructured. Unstructured work is executed using MS Office.
This is the work we are talking about in the current article.
Cloud, Mobility and Devices
All this is obviously good. Your files are no longer seque4stered on the local PC or laptop. Keeping them in cloud makes them accessible from anywhere – on any device – and by anyone whom you have authorized. All good. Of course there is some insecurity about cloud storage being insecure. But so is local laptop or desktop!
These are good trends and they are expanding the usage of Office into new scenarios.
But there is a problem. We are forgetting a fundamental fact.
Creation vs. Consumption
Consider the new technologies available – small sized smartphones, tablets with lots of battery life but no keyboard (by default), lots of cloud storage options, Office available on all platforms at a very affordable or no cost.
Excellent. But remember. What can we do on a small mobile phone or a tablet with on-screen keyboard?
View documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Scroll with style and show off. Do pinch zoom in and out. Do some simple editing – remember that the keyboard is too large and it is impossible to type with good speed on it. Graphic editing is possible but limited either by features available and / or due to the limitations of what we can do with touch.
Mouse is precise and touch is imprecise in the role of a pointing and drawing device.
Therefore, even rearranging objects using touch is bound to be slower and more cumbersome on touch devices.
Therefore, most of the work on these “NEW and COOL” devices is going to be viewing and presenting.
Having said that, let us consider the fundamental question. In order to CONSUME something, it must first be CREATED. Where are you going to create it?
Many of us have tried writing long emails, formal documents, complex spreadsheets, detailed presentations using all these fashionable devices and form factors.
Although it may be technically possible – there is a simple flaw. Each activity takes longer because of the absence of adequately sized screen, proper keyboard and mouse.
Why add to our inefficiency?
Regular readers of this blog are aware of the state of Office usage. Almost every activity we perform is inefficient or suboptimal – because we have learnt everything by trial and error. Those who are not familiar with my concepts can search for “Efficiency test” in the blog and try out the tests.
Now add to that the cumbersomeness of working on a compromised device or a platform – that doubles the level of inefficiency.
The solution
Use Full version of Windows and Microsoft Office on a proper laptop, desktop or a tablet with keyboard and mouse (or stylus) for doing serious work of creating documents of all types. We now KNOW that every feature which sounded like it was a waste is actually powerful and useful. It is just a question of finding your benefits behind each feature.
DO NOT waste time trying to create professional things on low capability and poor featured devices – even if it is fashionable and the “in thing”.
Finally your life is precious and your time valuable. Spend it to generate maximum impact and best output in the shortest possible time and don’t waste it in showing off underwhelming fashion.
In some cases, Windows may be substituted by Mac OS, but there is no substitute for Office.
Summary
Use powerful platform to do real, professional work. Use lower powered platforms to do light work.
Be fashionable, use the latest – but not at the cost of your efficiency!
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