[ Retro Scan of the Week ] TRS-80 Word Processing
September 8th, 2009 by Benj Edwards
Click above to see the ad in situ.
Here’s another vintage clipping from my grandmother’s cedar chest, this time from a Knoxville, TN newspaper. It mentions SCRIPSIT, early word processing software for the TRS-80 computer line.
Discussion topic of the week: What was the first word processing software you ever used?
September 9th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I wrote a really bad bare-bones word processor in BASIC for my C-64 that I used for a little while. About a year later I bought PaperClip.
September 9th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Pretty sure I used WordStar before Appleworks
September 9th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Not quite sure if it was Electric Pencil or Scripsit. On a Model I clone.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Something from Commodore on the 64 — came in the traditional silver package with the title and picture. Don’t remember the name.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
It was Bank Street Writer for me. What a weird name. Probably wouldn’t make it in today’s marketplace.
Strangely, I remember that when you password-protected your BSW files, it would put hidden letters in the Apple II CATALOG listing. I had one of my disks of things I wrote and password-protected, but no one I asked could remind me how to expose those hidden characters in the CATALOG. They would appear in inverse when the proper POKEs were performed.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Can’t remember what it was called; it came on a 386 that ran the GeoWorks OS (how obscure is that?). Or, it’s possible I ran WordPerfect or something for DOS, but I usually just used EDIT before that 386. Also used something on the Apple IIgs, I think, and Word on the Mac Classic at some point.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
The first word processing program I ever used was the built-in text-editor in the Tandy DeskMate program. I thought it was pretty cool at the time.
http://toastytech.com/guis/deskmatetext.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeskMate
September 11th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
That would have to be Apple Writer II.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I had one that came on a cartridge for the C-64, but can’t think of the name. It wasn’t that great, and combined with a 1526 printer, was not very impressive.
The next one I had (or first good one) was pfs:write on a 486pc I built.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
My first word processing software was cartridge Scripsit for the Color Computer II. When I finally added a floppy disk to the CoCo II, I ran Disk Scripsit, then TS-Word/TS-Edit under OS-9 and finally DynaStar under OS-9 Level II on my CoCo III. Then came the PC…..
Wow, good times!!!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Not counting “Fileform” for the Aquarius computer, the first real word processor I used was “Word Power 3.3” for the Coco 3.
December 16th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Here’s an awesome site for you all…www.RadioShackCatalogs.com.
It contains every Radio Shack Catalog from 1939 to 2005, plus TRS-80 and Tandy computer catalogs, old Radio Shack commercials, and a LOT more!
If you want to see about 500 old Radio Shack advertisements like the one above, go to: http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs_extra/advertisements_small/
or for a large viewing format, go to: http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs_extra/advertisements
ENJOY!!!
May 23rd, 2022 at 4:31 pm
This was my store for several years. I worked there from September ’82 till October ’84. I still have some of my business cards from this store. We used to hold these “Scripsit” seminars on a regular basis and I used to present them. I sold a lot of the Model II computers with the 8MB hard drive and the Daisy Wheel II printer to law offices. Scripsit 2.0 offered three things that law offices needed and did it far cheaper than “Wang” word processors did …line numbering, double-line spacing and page numbering. I sold several hundred thousand dollars worth of these systems. Scripsit 2.0 combined with the Spelling Dictionary was truly unbeatable. They were truly state of the art back then.