usingatypewriter 3faction edit

Field: Communication, Written Went Obsolete: Has evolved into what is now called “keyboarding” Made Obsolete By: The word processor and then the personal computer. Typing on a typewriter is probably not obsolete in all areas. Knowledge Assumed: The alphabet, basic spelling, grammar When useful: Business, school settings, writing, any time quick and legible written communication was necessary. |

Skill Description:

The earliest typewriters did not use the standard English keyboard that we know today, so the skills needed to use one varied. Later typewriters could be roughly divided into manual and electric. The manual typewriter, like the venerable Underwood Manual, was a metal behemoth that was heavy but hard to really break. The manual typewriter required a great deal of strength, and the letters (strikers) sometimes stuck together if two keys were pressed at the same time.

Later, the electric typewriter did not require so much effort….although people who had grown up with the manuals had to adjust their touch.

Neither of these, of course, had some of the computer keys that modern keyboarders know: Ctrl, Delete, Home, etc. Nor did they provide a wide variety of fonts.

In addition, there were other typing skills that modern copy machines and computers have made obsolete: changing typewriter ribbon, using correction fluid or correction tape (no “backspack” on a typewriter, you know!), using onionskin paper and carbon paper to make copies, literally cutting and pasting blocks to text if you wanted to change something, and also making pictures by typing certain letters and symbols over and over.