<p>I agree about WP 5.1. I started with WP v. 3.0 when it was still put out by Satellite Software in Orem, Utah.</p>
<p>I was cleaning out my mother's house last week, as she is now in an assisted living, and I found my resume from my junior year of college on punch cards. It was funny to us because my son is now a college junior with his own resume (not on punch cards).</p>
<p>It's funny to me that many older people are afraid of or not that good at using computers. (Obviously that is a gross generalization, and not necessarily true of anyone on this forum.) Me, I've never used a typewriter, and frankly I'd be intimidated if I had to use one. I honestly would have no idea how to work the thing. </p>
<p>I've had a computer in my house for as long as I can remember. I am 24. My dad is sort of a nerd so we got one before most people-- very early 80s.</p>
<p>Texastaximom: I kept myself in book and food money typing other people's papers. I never typed any for free.</p>
<p>I had a typewriter which had cartridges which popped out from the side so you could insert an eraser cartridge for errors. I can't rmember the brand, but it was my big deal high school graduation present.</p>
<p>Life woulda been a billion times easier if we'd had computers then--imagine not typing the whole thing over cuz you want to change a paragraph!</p>
<p>
[quote]
A former legal secretary, Conover said she's ready to hang up her electronic Royal typewriter and start composing letters on the computer her son gave her. She previously took a community college course in an effort to get Web-savvy but said without personalized instruction, she learned little.</p>
<p>Conover is looking forward to being able to e-mail friends and relatives throughout the country and keeping up on current events elsewhere. "I have friends who travel in Europe, so I like to know what's going on there," said the youthful 90-year-old.</p>
<p>"There's all this wonderful information we can get. I want to learn everything I can about it."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>not everyone is afraid of computers- they just need some help</p>
<p>I'm 18...and I prefer using a typewriter to my iBook. The typewritter does not have AIM to distract me, no internet, just me and the typewriter. Unfortunately, I don't get to use it often due to a lack of time (I'll admit, MS Word is much faster).</p>
<p>I actually asked for a Selectric for xmas. All I have is a fairly late-model plastic thing....they thought I was crazy for wanting a Selectric.</p>
<p>I remember my first Smith-Corona which I received to take to college with me. But I still paid to have my undergrad thesis typed - it was over 100 pages long, and I had looked at it for too long already! My father graduated from IBM school, and when I visited him, they had punch cards, sorters, etc., the loop tapes came later. And we thought those were computers - really business machines, but it was a start. The U of Illinois computer took up one whole building just for the memory! Now, we are looking into laptops for college.</p>
<p>In college I worked in the Engineering Department helping the secretaries (I was a Spanish Education major, but that is where work-study put me). One of my projects was to transcribe the speeches from a professional engineering society conference--one of the professors was the society president. </p>
<p>I spent months listening to a poorly recorded series of cassette tapes typing the speeches onto stencils (remember those). This was followed by mimeographing (making copies) of the 125 or so pages for the 300 plus members. Lastly I had to collate them--which meant walking around the room where stacks of paper were placed in order 300 times--bind them and mail them (using individually hand typed labels).</p>
<p>Oh, the good old days.....</p>
<p>"I remember when 'doing something on the computer' meant punching a stack of cards, taking them to a service desk in the bowels of some building, turning them over to someone geekier than I, and then coming back some other day to get the results (a bulky prinout that you could turn into a banner to wrap around the whole building)."</p>
<p>OMG, that keypunch machine, a stack of punch cards or paper tape that made up a Fortran or COBOL program, and a Burroughs B5500 mainframe computer that seemed to fill up an entire basement... <a href="http://lazowska.cs.washington.edu/pga1/%5B/url%5D">http://lazowska.cs.washington.edu/pga1/</a> Those were the 'good ole' days!</p>
<p>My first real job way back then was at Intel producing wafer fab production reports by hand. No personal computers or even dumb terminals yet. No MS Excel or even Lotus 123 yet. No Lotus-Intel-Microsoft (LIM) specification yet. </p>
<p>If I only knew then what I know now.
I feel so old!</p>
<p>Only on CC would one find such a heartfelt thread about...typewriters--a subject that's dear to my own heart.</p>
<p>Like evitajr1, I remember my first Smith-Corona (it said "Sears," but everyone promised it was a real Smith-Corona), which I received as a high school graduation present. In college (early 1970s), the closest I got to a computer was a paying job as a typesetter for the school newspaper: When I typed, the keystrokes would be translated into punches on a long yellow tape, which was then fed into a giant machine that looked a little like Miss Emmy--Spencer Tracy's dreaded computer in "Desk Set," though the computer at the school paper probably wasn't as huge as I remember. When the copy was printed out, we fixed typos by re-setting the lines with the mistakes, printing out the new little bits of copy, and then cutting the bits out and running them through a hot wax device so that we could paste them over the old lines. I also made money typing papers for other students. At the time, jmmom, I was pretty enamored of corrasable bond, though it smudged at times and the pages were slippery and some teachers didn't like it.</p>
<p>Ah, but then came the IBM Selectric to change my life. After I graduated and started work, I begged the office manager for years until she finally decided I was worthy of one of the self-correcting models. I think I was as impressed by that technological marvel as I was when I got my first computer some 15 years later. One of the best presents my husband ever gave me was my very own Selectric to have at home (as I recall, they were always pretty expensive, but he conspired with the office manager to buy me a used one).</p>
<p>Much as I like to remember my passion for the old Selectrics, I wouldn't go back; in fact, once we were all thoroughly hooked on our Mac at home, we (sob) donated the Selectric to a local charity. But it's interesting to remember how thrilled I was about that little correcting tape on the Selectric, when I now take all kinds of word-processing tricks for granted.</p>
<p>Smith Corona! That's what mine was with the pop out tape cartridges. I think it was called a "Correctrol"--it was pre Selectrics.</p>
<p>My college typewriter was a Selectric I--non-correctable so you had to use either correct-o-type or corrasable bond paper. In fact, we still have it if anyone would like it, but you'll have to pay for the shipping--that thing weighs a ton!</p>
<p>And let's not forget carbon paper and onion skin for making copies!</p>
<p>Over the weekend I worked a silent auction for a local charity fundraiser. Due to some last minute confusion, I found myself "desktop publishing" receipt forms, and frantically trying to figure out how we were going to make copies at the event. I turned to my daughter, home from college for spring break, "Honey, run up to Staples and get me some carbon paper, would you?" She looked at me blankly. "What's carbon paper?"</p>
<p>Ouch.</p>
<p>Carbon paper...what's that. Oh how I hated printing W-2 forms and report card, and having to run them through a decolater to separate the carbon paper from the various forms.</p>