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Comptometer operator

But there you are assuming it will be printed out. Try using word where there are 20 columns
 
Samcat I used to work for Sumlock comptometer and found them far too complicated for myself. I just worked in the office in the middle of their service dept. They had a school where people were trained to us them and gain qualifications. There was another company next to us but I can't remember their name. Google in Sumlock comptometer and see what comes up. Jean.
Hi, I trained as a compometer operator at Sumlock in Birmingham in 1969 and had my first job as a junior comptometer operator in West Bromwich, it meant that I earned twice the salary of an office junior and gained some respect within the office. I went on to have a long career in computers having that as a good grounding for me.
 
But there you are assuming it will be printed out. Try using word where there are 20 columns
That was rather my point!

You will see at once that 20 columns won't work on A4 portrait and is pushing the limits on A4 landscape so from a presentational point of view something else is needed. A spreadsheet will fool you into thinking that you will get away with just a few more columns until you actually go for the print.

Obviously 20 plus columns is OK from a calculation rather than presentation point of view but even then the spreadsheet might be improved by restructuring. For example one could have 366 columns for the days of the year or 12 sheets of 31 days or 53 sheets of 7 days, the later two choices being easier to navigate.

There will always be the perverse user; I once worked with someone that used PowerPoint for letter writing!
 
Mort, Lotus and Corel were good however when l started my company in 1989 basically engineering we had to make decision Lotus vs Microsoft. This was a big move for us with 100 plus people and needed to be integrated.
My son started graduate school where he was required to have a computer with Microsoft office on it. Speaking to head or their computer group about why, he said office was fully integrated, required many fewer key strokes etc. Never looked back and have used Outlook everywhere. Yesterday I had calls using Microsofts version of zoom. One was to Sweden the other linked Germany & Indi, flawless.
I agree, it was the need for integrated that swang it for me too.
 
Dan Bricklin, originator of VisiCalc, explains how it came about here.
The computer spreadsheet was a great invention but I am not sure it was good for mathematics. (I solved a good few problems by using an incremental approach with a spreadsheet rather work out the appropiate function). Another use of spreadsheets, which I strongly deprecate, is using it for presenting tables, Word etc. do that job far better! (If nothing else wordprocessors make one very aware that a page has a finite size, something speadsheets pretend they aren't!
Spargone, totally agree but so many use excel for notes and letters!
 
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