It displayed text on a CRT screen, and incorporated virtually every fundamental characteristic of word processors as we know them today. It was a true office machine, affordable by organizations such as medium-sized law firms, and easily learned and operated by secretarial staff. In the early s Linolex, Lexitron and Vydec introduced pioneering word-processing systems with CRT display editing. A Canadian electronics company, Applied Electronic Systems, introduced a product with similarities to Wang's product in , but went into bankruptcy a year later.
In , 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 mids. Despite these predecessors, Wang's product was a standout, and by it had sold more of these systems than any other vendor.
The phrase "word processor" rapidly came to refer to CRT-based machines similar to Wang's. Cheap general-purpose computers were still the domain of hobbyists. These were later replaced by application-specific daisy wheel printers Diablo, which became a Xerox company, and Qume -- both now defunct.
For quick "draft" printing, dot-matrix line printers were optional alternatives with some word processors. 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. Early word-processing software 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 E-S-D-X-centered "diamond" for cursor navigation, and modern vi-like editors encourage use of hjkl for navigation.
However, the price differences between dedicated word processors and general-purpose PCs, and the value added to the latter by software such as VisiCalc, were so compelling that personal computers and word processing software soon became serious competition for the dedicated machines.
Dedicated word processors became museum pieces. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Mary Bellis. Inventions Expert. Mary Bellis covered inventions and inventors for ThoughtCo for 18 years. She is known for her independent films and documentaries, including one about Alexander Graham Bell. Updated January 10, Featured Video.
Cite this Article Format. What printed out depended on what daisy wheel I put in the printer, of course. I churned out four more romances on it, plus I don't know how much other stuff. She was Peggy's computer. Thank heavens for code overlays in. COM files. A few years later, my cousin and I moved to PC-Write, which was thoroughly WordStar compatible - including the extended diamond - when it was clear WordStar would never be upgraded I guess it was, eventually.
I think we needed new printer drivers or something. I moved on to WordPerfect 4. And in fact, I refused for almost another decade to give up my IBM AT keyboard because later ones moved the Control key from where God himself had placed it, next to the A key, for the left pinkie finger.
I didn't use it much, partly because typing wasn't my job that belonged to the Chief Yeoman and partly because I didn't have time. Everything was on K hard sector floppy disks. Hard disks did exist, but they were the size of washing machines and nobody could afford one. So the program was on one disk, and the data on the other. My first "word processor" was Bank Street Writer on the C, which was quickly ditched in favor of a kick-ass for the time word processor running on my spanking Commodore Tom Henderson , freelance writer and owner of ExtremeLabs.
WordStar on an Altos 8" was my first micro word processor. Seymour Rubenstein 's [One of WordStar's two inventors] phone was written in hand, across the face page of the manual.
My first text editor was "ed". The first one I pitched across a room was "vi", but it only broke the Televideo I wrote five books on WordStar on an Osborne 1, including a book about the Osborne 1. Not everyone in the early PC era had WordStar as one of their first programs though. Take, for example,. I'm an outlying data point on this one. I never used WordStar, as far as I can remember. XyWrite was certainly one of my all-time favorites, but that came very late in the process.
There were flirtations with other word processors including Word Perfect, and I actually paid for more than one version of the shareware success story, PC Write. But the first word processor that I recall buying and using for writing was a program for the Apple ][ that was way ahead of its time.
This was before the Apple 2e; the Apple ][ could only display text in uppercase. This program used a graphic display however, and showed upper and lowercase on the screen.
A miracle and nothing less! It also did a bunch of other useful things that were magical at the time. It could create indices automatically for an index or table of contents, handled proportional spacing on my Starwriter daisy-wheel printer , mail merge, spanning multiple floppies, macros, and much more. This was, of course, DOS. And Nedit. And soon, StarOffice. Now I use LibreOffice.
In the world of business , word processors are extremely common. They are used for creating legal documents such contracts, company reports, literature for customers and clients, internal memos, and letters. Most companies have their own format and style, and either have the company letterhead programmed into the word processor software, pre-printed on paper, or both. Since the advent of social networks and email, the role of the word processor in the home has declined considerably.
What used to be done in printed form on physical paper , is now done almost entirely online. According to Top Ten Reviews , the top word processors software in the world are:. Even if you have been using Microsoft Word for many years, the tutorial may serve as a useful reminder. Word processor — definition and meaning A word processor , also known as a WP , is a software program people use for writing letters, documents, books, articles, etc.
Word processor — brief history In the s, a word processor was a stand-alone office machine with a keyboard, printer, electric typewriter, and a recording unit.
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