Word processor

A word processor (also more formally known as a document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of viewable or printed material.

Origin of word processing

The term word processing was devised by IBM in the 1960s, and originally encompassed all business equipment—including manually operated typewriters—that was concerned with the handling of text, as opposed to data. Electromechanical paper-tape-based equipment such as the Friden Flexowriter had long been available; the Flexowriter allowed for operations such as repetitive typing of form letters (with a pause for the operator to manually type in the variable information). In the sixties it began to be feasible to apply the technology developed for electronic computers to office automation tasks. IBM's Mag-Card Selectric was an early device of this kind. It allowed editing, simple revision, and repetitive typing, with a one-line display for editing single lines.

Related Topics:
1960s - Friden Flexowriter - Mag-Card Selectric

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In the early 1970s Lexitron and Vydec introduced pioneering word-processing systems with CRT display editing, but the real breakthrough occurred in 1976 with the introduction of a CRT-based system by Wang Laboratories. (A Canadian electronics company, Applied Electronic Systems, introduced a similar product in 1974, but went into bankruptcy a year later. In 1976, refinanced by the Canada Development Corporation, it returned to operation as AES Data, and went on to successfully market its brand of word processors worldwide until its demise in the mid-1980s.) This was a true office machine, affordable by organizations such as medium-sized law firms. It was easily learned and operated by secretarial staff.

Related Topics:
1970s - CRT - Display - 1976 - Wang Laboratories

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The Wang word processor displayed text two-dimensionally on a CRT screen, and incorporated virtually every fundamental characteristic of word processors as we know them today. The phrase "word processor" rapidly came to refer to CRT-based machines similar to Wang's. Numerous machines of this kind emerged, typically marketed by traditional office equipment companies such as IBM, Lanier (marketing AES Data machines, re-badged), CPT, and NBI. These all, of course, were specialized, dedicated, proprietary systems. Cheap general-purpose computers were still the domain of hobbyists.

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With the rise of personal computers, and in particular the IBM PC and PC compatibles, software-based word processors running on general-purpose commodity hardware gradually displaced dedicated word processors, and the term came to refer to software rather than hardware.

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IBM PC - PC compatible

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Early word-processing software was ludicrously clumsy in comparison to dedicated word processors; for example, it required users to memorize semi-mnemonic key combinations rather than pressing keys labelled "copy" or "bold." (In fact, many early PCs lacked cursor keys; WordStar famously used the I/J/K/M "diamond" for cursor navigation.) However, the cost differences between dedicated word processor and general-purpose PCs, and the value added by non-WP applications such as VisiCalc, were so compelling that personal computers and word processing software soon became serious competition for the dedicated machines.

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The late 1980s saw the advent of laser printers, a "typographic" approach to word processing (WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get), using bitmap displays with multiple fonts

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1980s - WYSIWYG - Bitmap

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(pioneered by the Xerox Alto computer and Bravo word processing program), and graphical user interfaces (another Xerox PARC innovation, with the Gypsy word processor). These were popularized by Microsoft Word on the IBM PC in 1983, and MacWrite on the Apple Macintosh in 1984; these were probably the first true WYSIWYG word processors to become known to a large group of users. Dedicated word processors became museum pieces.

Related Topics:
Xerox Alto - Bravo - Graphical user interface - Xerox PARC - Gypsy

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