Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 November 11

= November 11 =

Good Alternative to Microsoft Office in Windows 8?
Hey guys, it's been a while! I am currently in need of a free (as in beer) alternative to Microsoft Office. This is Windows 8 I'm using. The thing is, I'd rather it not be Open Office or Libre Office; I'd prefer to try something different. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks! -- .Yellow1996. (ЬMИED¡) 18:45, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * List of office suites provides some ideas, and Comparison of office suites compares their features and cost. Astronaut (talk) 19:18, 11 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Astronaut! :) I had forgotten completely about Google Docs; probably will just go with that. Thanks again! -- .Yellow1996. (ЬMИED¡) 19:36, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

MacBook Air given up ghost
My 8 month old MacBook Air is giving me a grey screen with flashing folder. I'm out of the telephone support period and I can't get a Genius Bar appointment till Thursday. They can call me tomorrow. I can chat with them in office hours. I can get as far as Internet recovery but is that any use to me? I didn't set up a time machine, was thinking of doing it when I had a moment to work out how. It says it will take a while and then after a bit it takes me to OS X Utilities. I don't think I have a time machine backup. If I try to reinstall OS X it tells me to select the disk where I want to install it but it is not allowing me to choose any disks. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:49, 11 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The "flashing folder" icon is an error code that indicates no bootable device has been found. It can indicate a configuration error or a hardware failure.  Be careful with the next steps: some instructions you might find on the internet to "repair" this condition may result in permanent data loss.  The best next step is really to get help at the Apple Genius Bar.  If your data is still recoverable, they are the best resource to help you get your system back to operation without damaging or destroying any data.  Nimur (talk) 23:28, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much. I'm more than a bit annoyed about spending so much money and not being able to get an appointment for days. Itsmejudith (talk) 23:34, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * If you had spent $75 on a USB hard drive (which you should have set up when you bought your computer), you could easily rewind your computer to a day it was working. You plug in a blank hard drive and the computer will ask you if you want to use it as a Time Machine drive. There is no "working out how". It's that easy. So you really should only be annoyed at yourself. --209.203.125.162 (talk) 19:00, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, thank you, very helpful. Hard drives start at £70 in the UK. If they are essential to owning a Mac then they should be included. Or at least they should advise you to buy one when you buy a Mac. They give you enough hard sell about the extended warranty even though you have your statutory rights. And of course this is independent of having to wait three days for a Genius Bar appointment. Itsmejudith (talk) 19:13, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
 * The IP user is a bit snarky about it, but the point (s)he makes about backup is fundamentally an important one, and yes, Apple should advise you of it in the manual and frankly I'm surprised that they don't (I checked and it isn't mentioned). I don't think a backup drive should be included with the machine as some users may already own one (in the same way that I don't think that power adaptors or usb cables should be included with smartphones - it simply leads to waste). I'm not saying that this is what has happened to your machine, as it's impossible to tell without examining it, but any drive can fail catastrophically and irrecoverably at any point after purchase (for a device of such complexity is is simply not possible to eliminate the possibility of this happening). Therefore the only reasonable defence against loss of data is to maintain a reliable backup of any data you consider important. You need, at very least, an on-site backup (e.g. a backup hard drive), and for any data you wouldn't want to lose if your house got burgled, set on fire or flooded you need an off-site backup as well (i.e. some form of online backup). The following articles provide a very simple explanation of how to do this (there are of course other backup products, but I use these and they work well) on-site backup, off-site backup. I implore you, whatever the outcome of your current issue, to set up at least one of these (or an equivalent) immediately. Once set up, test it by trying to recover some data - a backup you can't recover stuff from is useless. I promise you, it will save a lot of headache in the long run. I have twice had to use my backups "in anger" and at those points I was very glad I had them. Equisetum (talk &#124; contributions) 14:20, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
 * " Hard drives start at £70 in the UK. If they are essential to owning a Mac then they should be included." go to amazon.co.uk and you can pick up a selection of 500GB external HD for £35. They aren't essential for owning a Mac, they are essential for owning a computer, Windows, Linux or Mac. Hardware can fail anytime.Dja1979 (talk) 14:56, 16 November 2013 (UTC)
 * That is very helpful, Equisetum, many thanks. I must say that part of my hubris stems from having a university IT support system at my fingertips, which is all PC oriented, but then I decided to be a bit more independent and have some Apple equipment at home. The Apple Store told me that hard drives start at £70, and the price seemed to be the same in Argos. I didn't even know that external drives are formatted either for PC or for Apple. I do get impatient with IT that is nearly there but not quite. I am the person who used to press Next Page instead of Store Page on the dedicated word processor. I have form on this crap. Itsmejudith (talk) 23:41, 16 November 2013 (UTC)