The way we wrote

[Barty]

Some vintage photos of authors and their word processors (the non human variety).

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...thful-machine/

From a history of the early years of word processing

Asimov: “I end up with letter-perfect copy and no one can tell it wasn’t letter-perfect all the time. …  Then I have it printed—br-r-rp, br-r-p, br-r-p—and as each perfect page is formed, my heart swells with pride.”

Crichton (1983): “When you type, the words appear on the screen … you can move around on the screen, change what you’ve written, pull blocks of text, put them elsewhere. You have complete freedom.”

Andrei Codrescu: “let you write with light on glass, not ink on paper, which was mind-blowing. It felt both godlike and ephemeral.”

GRRM still famously uses WordStar in DOS. Roger Ebert loved Xywrite, a truly geeky and endlessly tweakable tool. There must be some sf writer out there using emacs. The current rage is stripped down writing tool like scrivener. The ultimate hipster tool must be this $500 e-writer with an e-ink screen

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/freewrite/

It doesn't even have Delete key or arrow keys; you can only type, type, type, and backspace.

My first word processor was something called HomeWord. It produced justified text, and it was amazing to see my home work printed out type set like a book! (well, except for the ugly dot matrix print). I then graduated to WordStar. I remember finding a book that showed you how to hex edit the program to get all kinds of nifty customizations (this was back in the day when computer mags printed assembly code listing of entire programs in their issues). Not being a touch typist, I found all the ctrl+this, ctrl+that horrendous. WordPerfect was a relief (yes, it's strictly for philistines). Then came the GUI and the WYSIWIG editors, which somehow took all the thrill out of it. I still haven't gotten used to the new Word with its giant ribbons and icons.

I was too young for the typewriter. My English teacher never tired of telling me how good I had it, not having to type my paper, with footnotes. The horrors, the horrors! Incidentally, my older brother and sister claim the most useful class they took in high school was ... typing.

[Cinisajoy]

Typing class was useless as we had old electric typewriters which pretty much guaranteed unless you had been typing all your life no way to get over 50 WPM.
Now Vocational office education was great. Newer typewriters and I could do 75 WPM easily.
Oh and just fyi, the keyboard is the same whether you are on a typewriter, word processor, computer or other device.
Also Google Frank Gilbreth to learn more about the man that came up with speed typing.
If you live in an apartment, his wife probably designed your kitchen layout in the 1920's.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Typing class was useless as we had old electric typewriters which pretty much guaranteed unless you had been typing all your life no way to get over 50 WPM.
Now Vocational office education was great. Newer typewriters and I could do 75 WPM easily.
Oh and just fyi, the keyboard is the same whether you are on a typewriter, word processor, computer or other device.
Also Google Frank Gilbreth to learn more about the man that came up with speed typing.
If you live in an apartment, his wife probably designed your kitchen layout in the 1920's.

We had old manual typewriters when I took typing in high school. Although I never did better than about 32 WPM, I thought the class was still useful in teaching me how to type. But maybe you already knew how to type before class, and were looking just to speed up?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by rkomar

We had old manual typewriters when I took typing in high school. Although I never did better than about 32 WPM, I thought the class was still useful in teaching me how to type. But maybe you already knew how to type before class, and were looking just to speed up?

These were the first or second generation electrics and the teacher insisted though I think only to the minority (in that class) student that you had to type 60 WPM to pass.
Now granted she taught the other kids how to type but the first semester, she had the two WHITE girls making decorations for her child's classroom.
The other girl only took the first semester.
Needless to say when she told me I had to type 60 WPM to pass, I told her only if I can use the VOE typewriter otherwise here is my typing book. She never reported me as skipping class. I had her the year before for accounting.

I was planning on working in an office when I took accounting. I was working in an office my junior year. My official job title was inventory control specialist. The office was attached to a warehouse. If I never see a 00 or 000 cork or rubber stopper again, it will be too soon.
Note this was in 1982-83.

[Yolina]

My gran could type ridiculously fast on her Underwood No 5, but never got the hang of a computer keyboard. I still have the 5 btw but I'm a right snail on it

[Catlady]

I had an electric typewriter from Panasonic that had memory--there was a long thin LCD screen where you could see each line you were typing before it printed on the page. I can't remember exactly how it worked, but the memory held multiple pages--five? ten?--so you could go back and correct and reprint pages.

I also remember using a Wang word processor at one of my first jobs. This typed onto cassette tapes. I don't recall how we accessed the tapes or printed them; I just remember that they were fun to use.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Barty

The current rage is stripped down writing tool like scrivener. The ultimate hipster tool must be this $500 e-writer with an e-ink screen

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/freewrite/

It doesn't even have Delete key or arrow keys; you can only type, type, type, and backspace.
.

Hipsters may or not like the Freewriter but actual writers don't seem impressed:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/0...ewriter-video/

It doesn't do too well even compared to 70's primitive word processors.

Me, I got my start with Paperclip on the ATARI 800 and later MS Write on the ST.
I still have some reports that have traveled from Atari 5.25in floppy to PC floppy to external hard drive over the decades.

These days I'm on MS OFFICE and Softmaker Office for Android.
The category has pretty much stabilized in the last ten years, not much real improvement made or needed besides Softmaker's built-in epub export.

[tubemonkey]

I went from typewriter to Notepad. I'm happy.

[NickyWithNook]

I remember getting an early word processor from my parents when I was in college. It showed a short line of text at a time. Very clunky, but better than a typewriter I suppose. It really was just an electric typewriter with a small amount of memory and a little screen.

I learned to type on a Selectric.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Hipsters may or not like the Freewriter but actual writers don't seem impressed:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/0...ewriter-video/

I'm not too surprised - you can still grab an Alphasmart on ebay for less than one-tenth of the price.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Typing class was useless as we had old electric typewriters which pretty much guaranteed unless you had been typing all your life no way to get over 50 WPM.
Now Vocational office education was great. Newer typewriters and I could do 75 WPM easily.
Oh and just fyi, the keyboard is the same whether you are on a typewriter, word processor, computer or other device.
Also Google Frank Gilbreth to learn more about the man that came up with speed typing.
If you live in an apartment, his wife probably designed your kitchen layout in the 1920's.

He also came up with how surgery is done. It was his idea to have the surgeon say scalpel and have the nurse place it in his hand.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

I remember getting an early word processor from my parents when I was in college. It showed a short line of text at a time. Very clunky, but better than a typewriter I suppose. It really was just an electric typewriter with a small amount of memory and a little screen.

I learned to type on a Selectric.

I learned how to repair IBM Selectric typewriters in college. Best typewriter ever built.

[crich70]

I can use an app on my kindle fire and an external wireless keyboard. Just email myself the text later and edit on my desktop.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by crich70

He also came up with how surgery is done. It was his idea to have the surgeon say scalpel and have the nurse place it in his hand.

I see we read the same book.
The book about Frank Gilbreth isn't public domain but many of his books are.
I think he revolutioned many industries.

[theducks]

Typing class in Jr. had manual Royals. I did 7WPM
I bought a electric SCM (at the PX) for my folks in the 60's and tested it out until we got back to our home port. 8WPM

At work, we had UNIX (on a Glass TTY): the RAND editor and NROFF macros and a Daisy Wheel printer, courtesy of the IT department for our day to day WP.

I now have a computer, Libre Office, Color Laser. There has been no speed improvement since High School ( and it might have even gone down )