Oops?

When I began editing and studying online, I found I had to juggle my time in order to get everything done. Lunch breaks were an easy solution: I can accomplish two or three tasks in the same time frame (eating, classwork, and editing). It made absolute sense to do a lot of my editing work at my desk at work.

However, at work I use a Windows-based computer, which was provided by my employer in biotech. At home I use a Mac, which I own. Once I am freelancing full-time, all my work will be done on the Mac.

And this brings me to the "oops." As much as I love the Mac platform, I've gotten really comfortable working on the PC. I've set folders up on the PC to segregate in-process work from completed and published work. I have files for images, for different authors, for different projects. Everything is very organized.

I've also been working exclusively in Word for Windows when I edit documents provided to me by my authors. As I learned (to my great disappointment and frustration) during my first copyediting class, Word for Windows is not equivalent to Word for Mac.

So I've set up a situation, quite unintentionally, such that I will be totally a fish out of water when I quit the biotech job, unless I make some changes.

I don't relish the thought of lugging my MacBook back and forth to work every day, but it seems like a superior idea to striking out on my own and having to learn an entirely new software, not to mention lacking any real organization for the projects I've already completed or have in progress.

What a mundane dilemma.