90 Days To Word Processing

How to decide if you need word processing, where to find the right equipment, and what to ask before you buy.

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What the hell is a word processor anyway? A word processor is, in the hyperbole of the times, any piece of office equipment more intelligent than a chair. Telephones, dictation equipment, tape recorders, typewriters, smart typewriters, memory typewriters, copiers, and memory copiers are all word processors. No wonder managers of businesses get confused and nervous when someone suggests they should "look into word processing."

But let's assume that what you're most interested in is a machine that will simplify and speed up your office's paperwork -- letters, reports, memos, forms, contracts, records, lists, documents, notes, and so forth and so on. Then what you probably have in mind is one of those devices that consist of a keyboard, a screen, and a printer. When connected to a "memory" and a small computer, appropriately programmed, these elements become a word processor. What the user types on the keyboard is displayed on the screen and stored in the memory. At the stroke of a key, the printer pours forth whatever is stored on the disk faster than the fastest typist. There are "screenless" word processors that have at most a single line of display, but their functions, speed, and expandability are limited. We'll assume that what you want is a full-display system that shows you from 24 to 54 lines of whatever you've typed on it.

If you already have a microcomputer, you can turn it into a word processor by adding a word-processing software package. The micro won't do as many tricks as the so-called "dedicated" word processors, however, and microcomputer dealers don't provide the service and support that the dealers in dedicated word processors do. Still, you can get a good word processor for under $8,000 this way.

Also for $8,000, you can get the simplest dedicated word processors -- the so-called writer systems. They're designed specifically for text processing, but they're limited in speed and memory. The next step up, where you'll find the widest choice of functions and options, is to systems priced between $8,000 and $12,000. If you need really sophisticated functions, such as the ability to handle scientific equations, you may have to go over $12,000. But be cautious at this level: There are a lot of older systems up there that are no longer competitively priced.

That's what a word processor is, but what does it do? Take a letter, please. Very few of them are dictated, typed, and mailed without some revision. If a word is misspelled, misused, or misplaced, the whole thing must be retyped. Even the simplest word processors permit changes to be made quickly and easily. The text can then be printed again -- unattended.

But today's machines can do a lot more than that.They are handy for sending out form letters that don't look like form letters. Someone puts a list of names and addresses and perhaps some personal information such as nicknames into the computer's memory. This, in computer jargon, becomes a "data base." A master letter is prepared with special symbols in the places where the computer is to insert names, addresses, and nicknames. At the touch of a button, the word processor generates hundreds of "personalized" letters ready to be folded, stuffed, stamped, and mailed.

You can also add information to the data base so that useful sub-categories can be created. A stockbroker can send one letter to clients interested in speculating and another to those who buy only blue chips. A physician can send a polite reminder to patients who have neglected their bills for 60 days, and a not-so-polite letter to deadbeats.

But there's a lot more to word processing than managing a data base and sending out form letters. The computer can store and recall whole paragraphs, even pages, of text, and insert them in the body of an original document. This is useful in documents like contracts, in which some elements are always the same, but others have to be changed to fit the particular case. If you discover you've misspelled Zbigniew Brzezinski's name throughout 100 pages of text, there's a command that will find all the Zbignews and change them to Zbigniews.

If all this has made you eager to run out and buy a word processor, maybe you should calm down a bit first. There are more than 150 different word processors/personal computers to choose from, and at least as many companies selling software for these machines. What's more, industry standards are few, so almost nothing that works on one system is compatible with any other. If you decide to trade in the machine four years from now, you may find that your data bases won't be readable by the new equipment, particularly if it's made by another company. The disks produced by some entrylevel word processors are not usable on the more advanced systems of the same make. That's like recording a Beethoven symphony on your home tape recorder only to find that it won't play on your car's tape deck.

Furthermore, the machine you buy today is likely to be outdated in two years by products costing half as much. That doesn't mean you should wait. If the computer can save you time and money now, then by all means go ahead and buy it.

The point is, your word processor is a major first step in automating your office to make it more efficient and productive. So it's a step you should take some time in making. The time we're suggesting here is roughly 90 days -- three months of figuring out what you need, finding out what's available, and making sure you get the most word processing for your money.

Days 1 to 30: What kind of word processing do you need? Mark Nigberg's ad agency has many high-technology clients, so he knew a little about word processors. He figured it would be easy to bring word processing into his office. He went to a computer show, looked at a couple of systems, and picked up some brochures. The next day, he called a manufacturer.

The salesman asked what Nigberg was looking for. "Well," Nigberg said after a moment of hesitation, "we're a 15-person ad agency with $2 million in billings." The next thing Nigberg knew, the salesman was proposing a $50,000 office-automation system.

"It was like being docused with cold water," Nigberg says. He was certain the system the salesman was pushing was much too elaborate and expensive, but, he says, "I had no idea how to evaluate a word processor in terms of our needs."

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