[blindlaw] Mac Users Out There?

[Dennis Clark]

Hello Mark and everyone,

It will be very helpful for us to hear from blind users who have real world 
experience using the Mac.  I have just spent a month upgrading to Windows 7 
as a result of needing new server hardware, and we are still limping along 
with less functionality than before the upgrade. The cost to me in lost 
time, lost functionality, decreased efficiency of my employees and myself, 
and the cost of paying my employees salaries while they figure out how to do 
their work in this new and unfamiliar environment is totally unwarranted. 
As a result I have decided that we will be moving to a Mac or Linux 
solution, and I am hopeful that it can be the Mac using voiceover. Since one 
of my objectives is to eliminate Windows based programs from my office if 
possible, I am not interested in using bootcamp or fusion. If you could tell 
us about the programs you have used with voiceover, and which have worked 
well and which have not, it would be very valuable.

As attorneys we more often than not work with M.S. Word files, though I do 
not think that this means we must use M.S. Word or office.  Which Apple Mac 
word processors have you used with voiceover, and are they able to open, 
work with, and then save files in Word format?

Next, I would be curious to know which Apple Mac email programs are provided 
with or can be purchased with the Mac, and how well they work  with 
Voiceover.  How easy is it to save attachments with these programs, and how 
easy is it to create folders and move messages into them from the inbox.

Next, which web browsers are provided or available for the Mac using 
Voiceover, and what are their pros and cons when compared to IE or Firebox?

Have you had any experience with backup software for the Mac, since this is 
very important for a law firm?

For those of us who are blind, optical character recognition software has 
become an important part of our accessibility arsenal. I was pleased to 
learn this morning that ABBY Finereader has a version of their OCR software 
for the Mac called Abby Express.  I use ABBYY frequently on our Windows 
machines, so this removes a big obstacle when considering whether or not to 
move to the Mac. Have you had any experience with this program or any other 
OCR software on the Mac?  The only criticism that I saw about ABBY Express, 
was that it uses a twain interface, which is apparently not standard on the 
Mac.  Other than that, users thought it did an excellent job on optical 
character recognition.

Have you read or scanned books on the Mac, and if so, what scanner and 
software do you use?  I do most of my reading with Kurzweil under Windows, 
because I like many of its  features such as that both lines and pages can 
be of any length, and are not artificially imposed as is the case with most 
word processors such as M.S. Word.  This is particularly important for 
reading books, where one must know their actual location in a book to create 
accurate citations.  Additionally, I find Kurzweil's multilevel bookmark 
system to be very helpful when reading case documents and pleadings.  I have 
been hoping that  Kurzweil would make a Mac version available, but I have 
heard nothing to suggest that this might happen.

I want to thank Mark and others for reading this lengthy email, and I would 
really appreciate hearing your thoughts.

All the best,
Dennis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark BurningHawk" <stone_troll at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Mac Users Out There?


>I use a mac for almost everything, for what it's worth.  I offer tutoring 
>services (write of list) or will just answer questions if I can. I'm not a 
>lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I use a Mac and like it MUCH better 
>than the PC.
>
> Mark BurningHawk
> Skype and Twitter:  BurningHawk1969
> Home:  Http://MarkBurningHawk.net/
> Namaste!
>
>
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