Word Processing
Word processing software is, and has been for decades, among the most common of applications utilized for both commercial and home computing. It is interesting to note, then, that the history and development of word processing has had very little in common with the development of practical computing.
A simple definition of word processing might be the application of technology to manipulate printed text. That said, the lineage of word processing must be traced to the invention of both the printing press and of movable type--both arguably dating from around the end of the Middle Ages. These earliest systems were as costly as they were cumbersome, which caused the printed page to be held in widespread imagination as high art indeed. The result was that hand lettering, with all its inherent risks for errors and illegibility, remained the norm for the vast majority of text, for several hundred years.
It was not until the late eighteenth century that an inventor addressed the problem. Henry Mill constructed a portable typesetting system that can probably be considered the world's first typewriter. However, it was difficult to manufacture, difficult to use and was subject to frequent malfunction. It was not commercially successful.
Mill's endeavor was followed by that of William Burt, who patented a slightly more marketable "typographer" in 1829. But it was Christopher Sholes's invention, in 1867, that brought affordable typing to the world. Sholes also developed the familiar "QWERTY" keyboard, so configured to reduce the probability of jammed hardware by placing most common consecutive letters far apart. Sholes's typewriter was marketed worldwide by the Remington Company, best known for the rifles and six-shooters of the same name, and remained the standard for printed text production until well into the twentieth century.
The next logical step in the development of word processing was the application of electricity. Although Thomas Edison patented an electric typewriter as early as 1872, it was not until the 1930s that electrically assisted typing became common. The first commercially successful system was the IBM Electromatic. This model was the standard for business usage until its successor, the IBM Selectric, was introduced in 1961. The Selectric marked a notable advance as its "typeball," which replaced the earlier configuration of numerous single-letter plates, could be easily and economically replaced. This made for quick, simple alterations between fonts, typefaces and point sizes.
Meanwhile, data management systems such as punch cards—originally developed for military use during World War II--found their way into business applications. The first true word processor, the Repetitive Typewriter marketed by the M. Shultz Company in the 1950s, utilized punch-code roll paper, not unlike those used by player pianos, to quickly replicate common letters and forms. Entire paragraphs could be manipulated within a document, by "cutting and pasting" the roll paper--which is how this common word processing term originated.
IBM entered the word processing market by introducing, in 1964, a version of the Selectric that included a magnetic tape drive for data storage. This model was also the first device to be commercially identified as a "word processor"; a term that originated as the direct translation of the German word for "typing."
Ensuing technical advances, for the next decade or so, mostly involved improved data storage capabilities. Magnetic storage remained the norm, although the various cards and tapes in use rarely had capacities beyond a page or two of printed text. The development of the floppy disk, in the early 1970s, marked a major advance in their ability to hold 100 or more pages of text. It was also in the early '70s that the first CRT screen word processor was marketed, the Lexitron. This was the first system that allowed for examination of an entire document without printing out a hard copy.
Floppy disks brought a second major development in word processing: loadable software. For the first time, word processing programs could be added to existing computer systems, making text manipulation capabilities available to most any user.
Throughout the '80s and '90s, upwards of 60 commercial word processing programs became available, each more user friendly and with more time-reducing features than the last. Spell checking, grammar checking and mail list managers became industry norms, and add-ons such as platform translators (to allow for document sharing among Mac and PC users) made word processing invisibly commonplace among home and business users, and requisite throughout the publishing world. Dozens of available fonts and colors, as well as stylization and formatting capabilities, has helped word processing evolve into desktop publishing, which has made the traditional roles of typesetters and printers all but obsolete.
The future of word processing remains tied to emerging technology. The internet has made document sharing global, and nearly instantaneous. Voice recognition software might one day replace the keyboard. The integration of word processing with functions such as bookkeeping and inventory management has even given rise to an entirely new software category: information processing.
However word processing evolves, it is unlikely to ever impact the cognitive methods that lies behind the act of composition. An author, in other words, will always be required to create the ideas that appear first on a screen, and then on paper. Word processing is not, and will never be, anything more than a writer's tool. But as it is a tool that has vastly reduced time spent on functions such as editing, proofreading and formatting, it is a tool that has irrevocably changed how we produce the printed word, both now and for decades to come.
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