Let me prepend this thread by saying, I want either a word processor (digital) or a typewriter, for writing, and I am not interested in justifying it for my needs over a PC software solution, ipad etc. I’ve seen some good reviews for a word processor like this: Attention Writers: Neo mobile word processor product review - YouTube
And I’m also considering a typewriter, but I’ve literally never used one before so I’d have to learn how. I need advice on brands and models and what will be extremely low maintenance and cheap in 2013. Are Olivettis good?
I had an amazingly nice keyboard from the late 80’s early 90’s, a super clicky Fujitsu, I wish I still had that. I’m mainly looking for an option to write that won’t have distraction from the internet/games, and I dislike writing by hand for extended periods of time.
If anyone is insane like me and knows anything about this stuff I am all ears.
“[N]ever used [a typewriter] so I’d have to learn how.”
Kids.
Next thing you’ll be telling me, you’ve never started a fire by rubbing sticks together, or did arithmetic with an abacus.
ETA: I grew up with a Royal Portable that I got used, for my Bar Mitzvah in 1964, that I used for all my schoolwork for years and years. This was the kind of typewriter when they still actually made them mostly of metal instead of cheap plastic. I still have it. Although I haven’t used it in years. The ribbon in it is undoubtedly totally mummified.
Before you buy a typewriter, check the availability of ribbons. Without them, the typewriter is useless. Same with a word processor; I think they use cartridges.
Manual typewriters are simpler mechanically, but hitting the keys may be physically demanding, if you’re not used to it. Where do you live? There are still typewriter shops around, selling refurbished old ones. I think typewriters were trendy recently among a certain hipster crowd. Perhaps you can visit a local shop, test a few and discuss which would work best for you.
And I think a few companies still manufacture new ones, but the old ones were built like tanks. My father had an IBM Selectric, which used typw elements instead of individual letters, and was really sturdy. If you could actually lift the damned thing over someone’s head, you could probably kill them if you dropped it on them.
I agree. Kids. Back in college I had a portable electric with removable ink cartridges along with an eraser cartridge but once computers came along, I never looked back. Haven’t had a reason to use it in years and don’t really know why I still have it. I am finicky when it comes to keyboards however. There must be decent tactile feedback. Lot of crappy keyboards floating around these days. No one cares anymore.
If you could find a steady source of ribbons, I would wholeheartedly endorse the IBM Correcting Selectric II. I typed millions of words on these machines in my early career and I miss them to this day. They had great keyboard “action” and the ball-shaped type element allowed them to rattle along at amazing speeds.
I did schoolwork and early college on a Smith-Corona portable manual. Good for finger strength, and the sound of the bell at the end of each line, and the slam of the carriage return, I still miss. Changing the ribbon is the only physical skill you need to learn, and that’s easy. Harder is arranging your thoughts well enough ahead of time so you don’t need to make corrections.
I applaud you in finding a way to writer without internet distractions. I’ve opted for doing first drafts by hand, god pen on paper, and rewrite when I type it into my computer. Good luck!
I miss the sound. Manual or electric, the sound somehow put me in typing mode. And while I have decent keyboard speed while composing, I suck at transcribing because I’m not a perfect touch typist. So what I actually did most recently, when I had the need to transcribe a bunch of handwritten notes, was use ListNote speech to text on my phone, ship it to the computer via wifi and then spell check. There is no way I could have done it any faster via typing. Truly, we live every day in the science fiction of our youth.
A simple computer without internet access or games or other distractions installed, a good printer, and a copy of Word stripped down to essentials is functionally everything you’re looking for, without the pointless retro-ism of a typewriter. Yeah, I wrote buttloads on the family manual Royal, an electronic Olympia and Selectrics all over the place… but it’s like going back to manual screwdrivers because the LED on a power driver bothers you.
Heck, just use Notepad or Wordpad. A text editor would be a fine place to start.
A typewriter simply has too many limitations. No storage, no retrieval, no search. Just being able to search for strings of text makes the entire WP revolution worth the hassle.
Yeah, you gotta learn to back up your files. And, yeah, you probably will lose data at some point. Everybody does. (So what? Everybody spills coffee on their typed manuscripts. It’s fate.)
You know the WP key I use more than any other? Backspace. I rip out huge chunks of what I write. (I’ve re-written this one paragraph three times!)
OMG, there must be another whole thread just in that!
I was of the right age to just miss the Slide Rule generation. Hand-held calculators were totally the new-fangled technology just about the time I started college. I never used a slide rule.
Being a math major, of course, I knew the basic principles of how a slide rule works. But that’s a far cry from actually becoming proficient. And having been a student pilot, I knew basically how to use a flight calculator, which is just a circular slide rule with some specialized scales for pilots (like for computing fuel consumption, or density-altitude as a function of ambient air temperature). The back side was for computing wind triangles.
A few years ago, I found a good full-size slide rule in a thrift shop. I bought it, just to have as a collector’s item. When I took a Statistics class, I always brought it with me on exam days and sat it on the desk while I took the exam – just for the fun of it.
It is interesting to note that there is another active thread on time slips.
I’m of the age where I started with a typewriter, in fact took typing in 8th grade, as everyone did. Even had a manual in grad school for when the power went out. I don’t know what you are writing, but if it is anything substantial, get a word processor. Writing is revising, and that is really a pain on a typewriter, no matter how good the correction method is. I’ve never used one, but I assume they let you move sentences around, right?
One good thing about a typewriter - you can do envelopes a lot easier than on a printer.
Yes, but a portable manual will look so hip at Starbuck’s! Get a roll of paper & pretend you’re the new Kerouac…
I learned on a massive manual typewriter with blank keys. Then worked in a law office on an IBM Executive (yes, Virginia, there was proportional spacing when Bush was slacking off the the Guard). On to a hippy newspaper with an IBM Composing Selectric–which produced justified copy through a rather arduous process; and I actually got paid–not much, but more than some of the “writers.” Long years using various Selectrics, then pioneering with standalone word processors. I’ve done it all.
A simple PC with a decent keyboard, the right software (WP, no games) & no internet access will do the job if you really want to write.
Possibly. I use too many features of Word even in the simplest writing to go back to a very-electronic typewriter level. I “see” formatted text more clearly than I do mechanically laid out manuscript style.
