Word Processor

Using computers for text and data storage first became feasible in the 1970s. The earliest users were newspapers, which had to get information out quickly and had the mass production facilities needed to make computers pay off. These original systems are still in use all over the world, but most of us think of word processors as more a tool of the PC age. WordStar, WordPerfect, and Word have developed a market for those willing to type. The appearance of cheap letter-quality printers made word-processing useful for business correspondence, and suddenly the appearance if not the content of correspondence improved dramatically. But word-processors have also shown their limitations. Their focus on improving the printed page has kept them until recently from considering documents meant to remain on the computer. Of course, until distribution of computer hardware has widened, paper will remain a lot more accessible to the masses than this hypertext database.