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PC Virgin trying to do graphics on Windows. Tips, advice?

586 views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  GratuitousApplesauce 
#1 ·
Well, not exactly a virgin, but I've never gone all the way with a Win PC before. (Yes, I feel soiled. :) ) I've played around with a few PCs, but all of my computer and graphics experience has been using Macs since OS 7.

Here's the scenario. I'm helping someone at a print shop that does simple graphics for business cards, small print jobs and ads and layout for a local publication that they print. I'm pretty experienced with Illustrator and Photoshop CS4 on my Mac.

They've recently installed CS4, mainly for InDesign, for the publication. Previously they were using Corel 12 and Pagemaker, and most of their huge collection of previous jobs is in those formats.

The hardware setup is some kind of no-name tower, w/ smallish LCD monitor running WinXP. It's slow and that dang hourglass already has me contemplating where on sweaty Ballmer I'd like to shove it. :)

At first I thought I'd have to figure out Corel Draw and struggled with it for a few hours, then realized that I could save as to AI7 then open up files with AI CS4. And that is pretty much the same as using it on my Mac thankfully.

I keep getting the alt-control stuff mixed up since my fingers keep going to where the command key should be, but I figure I'll get that eventually. I have to delve into Windows to use Outlook for email to customers and IE to go to the occasional web page for something. I also have to attempt to keep their jobs filed in the right place under "My Documents" and find previous jobs. Also using the various print dialog boxes which just seem arcane to me and each driver seems to have a completely different way of doing something, with different names for the same function.

Overall WinXP is fuuuuuugly and doesn't always make sense to my Mac-trained brain. Looking for tips or advice from anyone who has found themselves in a similar situation.

I found myself looking on eBay this evening for a nice, not-too-old used large-screen iMac that I might be able to convince them to buy. That's probably not going to work though.
 
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#2 ·
I've got to say that even the relatively benign Windows 7 makes me crazy with frustration. However, wouldn't buying an iMac (my choice) essentially force them to live in the Apple world for anything you process?
 
#3 ·
Well I've offered to do the work on my MacBook Pro, but I'd still have to use the PC for organizing/saving files and doing the emails. I bought a copy of Win7 Pro to install on my Mac, but haven't done that yet. I'm hoping when we get to working on the publication in InDesign, I might be able to use my machine.

These people are not really interested in computers, probably why the inexpensive/older hardware and software. I think they're too busy to really invest more than the minimum time in figuring out and upgrading their systems more than absolutely necessary. I imagine the idea of switching to a Mac would be unthinkable for them.
 
#4 ·
You know something, as painful as it would be for them, I would begin this by making THEM install Windows 7, and getting all of the driver/Outlook issues at least brought up to date--otherwise you will bang your head against the wall looking for ancient answers to ancient problems for hours on end. Once they're up to speed, then you can adequately work on their files and Outlook Express in your own version of Windows 7. As much as i dislike Windows 7, finding answers to XP problems at this late date is almost fruitless.
 
#5 ·
So far (only worked for them a few days) I haven't run into any problems that don't seem to be my own ignorance of Windows. I don't know what'll happen when something get corrupted, crashes or there's some kind of virus issue. I'd be at sea in that situation.

I'm not in a situation where I can ask them to do anything major to change their systems or get new hardware. I'm only doing part-time work for them as a contractor. Their graphic person left and I'm known around our little island for doing graphic design work so my name came up. Whether this goes long-term or not depends on how this works out and if they have enough work for me to scale back my main business. Right now my main business is sucking, so I'm glad for the work.

Changing their system will be painful for them because they're not people who like to tinker with computers and are like most people out there in the world of work who really don't pursue learning about things in the geeky realm if they don't have to. And they're very busy all the time.

They'll have to upgrade things eventually and maybe at that point if I'm still working for them I'll be able to influence that direction.
 
#8 ·
I see. The only hope here is, as you say, to install Windows 7 on your own MacBook, try to do all of the work there, either in OS X or a Windows version of the program you need, then port all of the jobs back into their arcane filing system. And live with Outlook.

I've not had any problems porting files across from PC versions of Adobe programs--it's just that the XP system is a dog to troubleshoot regarding issues like Outlook Express, printer drivers, or internet connections. XP has not just been orphaned--its entirely family history has been erased.
 
#9 ·
I think they have someone they go to that helps them keep their PCs running. I'm certainly not that person. If the machine doesn't work, I won't be much good in finding out why.

If they had Macs, I'd be much more useful in that regard. We'll see if they'll let me do work on my machine. The good thing for me so far is that the Adobe CS4 stuff is pretty seamless between the PC and Mac versions, so I have very little learning curve when I'm actually working on graphics. I still have to discover a lot about InDesign, but I'm not worried about being able to pick that up.

Just learning to tolerate the dreaded hourglass ....
 
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