So in the last 6 months it seems like I have learned a new piece of software at least once a week, if not every day... not to mention continually trying to gain more in-depth knowledge of the ones I'm already using frequently.
My curiosity just keeps me wanting to know about everything that comes across my screen... 'tis a bad thing. As I said in a job interview many years ago... "I'm a Jill of all trades; a mistress of none."
This week; Blogger, Wordpress, Jing, the latest version of Adobe Acrobat. In the last month I've continued to struggle with the changes to Microsoft Word & Excel. See my previous post on that. I've reviewed the latest changes in OpenOffice. I really can't wait for this project to improve beyond where it is now. I've started with OneNote, and SharePoint for hopefully improving office communications. We all seem to be moving about so much these days, it's just easier to catch-up on files from anywhere. My preferred work space is home so it's nice to be able to walk into the office and feel as though I haven't really missed much.
I'm constantly doing my best to keep up-to-date with SEO requirements - that alone takes time out of every week. Not that things change that much, you just need to be sure that they haven't when you're recommending strategies to clients. I like to do my best to not only stay abreast of the literature, but I also like to test drive the theories myself. With work I don't have to be an expert in most software, I just need to know what the limits are and be able to judge to efficacy and potential of something in the hands of a pro.
All those are for work... well mostly. On the personal interest side I've had ProShowProducer for making DVD's and shows from my photos. Of course for photos Adobe seems to have a never ending learning curve with Photoshop - I don't think I'll ever come close to using more than 10% of it's power. I've spent the better part of the morning playing with it. I love Lightroom and feel like I'm doing OK with that one - though I know from friends that there is much more I could be doing with it's power.
As it appears that it will rain, I suspect that I'll spend a couple of hours now learning more about using CSS and .NET. Sure enough today I've picked up a couple more programs to learn.... Visual Stuido is next on my list.