In medieval times books were treasured objects, the result of hundreds of hours of paper production and months of hand copying. Few scholars were capable of such a task, further increasing the value and rarity of a book filled with hard earned knowledge. Gutenberg's press enabled such books to be mass produced, if a few dozen copies could be called such. The invention of the typewriter released millions of writers from the drudgery of hand writing their manuscripts, though even today it is still a preferred method used by writers for a first draft.

I came upon the scene in tenth grade when I decided to learn how to type. Being the only boy in a class of twenty students only spurred me to surpass my feminine teasers. I would sit in my room for hours at the rare large-type typewriter inherited from my uncle and, fetching a Western from my book shelf, would type out the whole book as fast as I could. Then I would rate myself for speed and accuracy. With this method I garnered top honors in typing class.

In the late fifties, the IBM Selectronic had taken over the offices of the business world. This new , but heavy marvel used electricity to enhance the ease of typing, but still relied on mechanical means for the actual printing and good copies could only be produced by carbon paper. Mistakes were corrected by overprinting on white tape, but the copies remained uncorrected. In the sixties, word processors added, almost as an after thought, the ability to see a line (dimly) on an LCD screen before the actual printing. This feature quickly was recognized as an important way to prevent typing mistakes along with a new electronic spell checker. The word processor also boasted the capability of producing unlimited copies of the original, albeit slowly, and was able to store a number of documents on disk.

The life of the word processor was short lived, however, with the introduction of the computer and its companion printer. No writer worth his or her salt would be without the myriad benefits of computer writing. Now full page previews are available for corrections, both in spelling and in grammar, right and left hand justification appear like magic and treasured fonts transform your work at the touch of a key. Unlimited hard drive space easily accommodates your valuable documents and dozens of perfect copies spew forth from the printer like rice at a wedding. I have no idea how this paradise of writing tools will someday be surpassed, but I do know that, like in medieval times, the ideas must originate in the human brain and be written from the heart.

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