| Computer software is that essential equipment that | | | | better ways to record his thoughts and communicate |
| makes this critical office and home tool available to us | | | | them to others using the written word. The |
| - let's face it, there are few of us with the skills and | | | | important combination of writing tools - what would |
| knowledge to know what to do with one without it! | | | | evolve into pen and paper - became more and more |
| Just as a pen is only a shell without the ink to allow | | | | advanced as the years progressed, culminating in the |
| us write, so a computer without software is a large | | | | invention of the typewriter. And while this offered a |
| and expensive paperweight. | | | | more efficient way of marking down thoughts and |
| And the most important software of all is probably | | | | observations, even it, these days, seems antiquated |
| the one we use most often, namely word processing | | | | in comparison to the computer software that we use |
| software. We don't have to be professional writers | | | | today. |
| to employ some type of word processing suite on a | | | | The use of many features, once novel, of word |
| daily basis; from making shopping lists to composing | | | | processing software have become second nature to |
| letters, this is the one type of software we can't do | | | | us now. We cannot consider typing any length |
| without. | | | | without the ability to delete at will, to cut and paste, |
| Since the dawn of time, man has been recording his | | | | to make mistakes and move along. And that is |
| thoughts using some kind of annotation. Though | | | | perhaps the dichotomous pleasure of word |
| writing itself is not as old as we are - the term | | | | processing software - that we can, at the drop of a |
| 'prehistory' specifically refers to that time before | | | | hat, save our words or delete them forever. |
| writing existed, allowing us some kind of access to a | | | | For that is the real gift of computer software. It is |
| written chronicle of events - this creative and | | | | the medium between us and our computing tool, |
| expressive form of communication has been around | | | | helping us make use of technology we do not |
| since the time of the ancient Sumerians. | | | | necessarily understand, and allowing us to express |
| Throughout history, man has invented newer and | | | | ourselves precisely as we wish. |