Word processing

Word processing is the act of typing, editing and printing out of textual/graphical information using a word processor. Microsoft Word is an word processing program. When you use a program like Microsoft Word to create a document, you have performed word processing.

Word processing can be performed either electronically or mechanically. Electronic word processing  involves the use of a computer device running an appropriate word processing software, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. Mechanical word processing involves the use of devices like a typewriter.

The first word processor, the Wang 1200, was released in 1971 and was reminiscent of a typewriter. The 1200 was basically a typewriter which had the ability to record keystrokes and then play them back onto a piece of paper. What qualified it as a word processor was the fact that people could go back and correct things that they'd typed without having it print onto a piece of paper. For those who feel they never have enough RAM, keep in mind that the Wang 1200 had 256 bytes of RAM. That meant it could hold just a few words at a time. A single gigabyte is 1,073,741,824 bytes.