From "Machine for Transcribing Letters" to Word Processors by KM Rockwood

The first word processing device (a "Machine for Transcribing Letters" that appears to have been similar to a typewriter) was patented in 1714 by Henry Mill for a machine that was capable of "writing so clearly and accurately you could not distinguish it from a printing press.”

In the late 19th century, Christopher Latham Sholes created the first recognizable typewriter, which was described as a "literary piano".

Many of us remember old manual typewriters. When I’m concentrating on writing, I sometimes still expect to hear that distinctive “ding” at the end of a line.

Using those typewriters well was a skill. The pressure on the keys had to be reasonably even or the letters might be incomplete, skewed, or show up in varying shades of gray.

Early keyboards were laid out alphabetically, but when two letters near each other, like ST, were hit in quick succession the typebars—those long metal arms that swing upward when a key is pressed—jammed.

So the QWERTY layout of the keys, which at first glance may seem to make no sense, was designed to keep letters which tended to be used together spaced far part.

In 1874, Remington adopted QWERTY for its typewriters, and that became the industry standard. We still use it today, although we seldom have typebars to jam.

Those of us with clumsy fingers worked manual typewriters with a bottle of white-out or a correction tape easily accessible, since we knew we were going to make mistakes. Making corrections took care, especially with the white-out. If it wasn’t completely dry before typing was resumed, it would leave big white smears over the page.

I was always in awe of the people—almost always women in the “typing pool”—who could produce page after flawless page of typed documents, often while talking among themselves. Once I asked an expert typist how she did it, and she just shrugged. “The text goes from the paper through my eyes into my fingers. It doesn’t stop in my brain. I don’t know how it works.”

And when we needed copies! Messy carbon paper could produce several copies, each with less sharpness and precision than the previous one.

Photocopiers eventually eliminated that problem.

Then, in the 1960s, IBM Selectric typewriters appeared. They were an amazing advance over manual typewriters. Each letter struck the page with precisely the same force and moved on to the next one. Eventually they were even available with an included correction ribbon. Backing up and retyping a wrong letter would cover it so the right one could be added.

In the late ‘60s and 70s, word processing began to shift from electronic typewriters to fully computer-based, although these used single-purpose hardware rather than the multi-purpose computers we use now.

Shortly before the advent of the personal computer, IBM developed the floppy disk. Recognizable word processing programs appeared, with a display on CRT screens which permitted easy editing and corrections.

To those of us who have always struggled with producing crisp, error-free work, this was a miracle. The white-out and correction tape were tucked away in a drawer. We could write with abandon, knowing that edits were just a few keystrokes away.

Word processing programs have evolved over the years. Technology doesn’t come easily to me. Each time I needed to learn a new word processing program, I spent literally weeks looking up “how-tos,” usually in a printed instruction manual.

Unfortunately, once I knew how to make the manuscript do what I wanted it to, especially in formatting, my brain hung onto that information. When I left that program behind, my brain did not, and I had a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the new program.

I went through Wordstar, Apple Writer II, Word Perfect, One Note, OpenOffice Writer, Microsoft Word, and am now struggling with LibreOffice Writer, which came installed on my new computer.

Word Perfect was my favorite.

I have not found a printed manual for LibreOffice Writer.

Most of us are aware that on October 14 of this year, Microsoft will “stop supporting” several Office versions, including Word 2016 and Word 2019, as well as Microsoft 365 apps running on Windows 10.

Word will then be on a subscription basis, with a recurring fee, unlike the previous versions where a user could purchase the program outright and install it on a computer.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve come up with a more-or-less correct template for a manuscript in the Shunn format. I’ve gotten the straight quotation marks changed to curly, managed to actually get headers and titles on all the pages except the first, although I forget how I did it and will have to look it up when I need it again. I’m presently stuck on a UK English for spell check, but I think I know how to go back and forth with that.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending upon how likely I am to accidentally close the instructions as I try to implement them step-by-step) I can find most of the information online. Thank goodness for YouTube.

I am, however, reluctantly coming to the conclusion that I will need to just go and get a subscription to Word, rather than continuing to figure out how to use LibreOffice Writer.

So far, I haven’t figured out how to make LibreOffice Writer read text to me, which I find to be an important editing tool.

But the deal-breaker may be its apparent inability to eliminate widow and orphan control. It leaves disturbing blocks of white at the bottoms of pages.

Anybody out there have any insight?

Wikipedia contributors, "Word processor," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Word_processor&oldid=1303187632 (accessed August 7, 2025).