When the original IBM PC's came out, we all used DOS programs. You had your word processor, spreadsheet and maybe a database. Each program had its own fonts and printer drivers and you were lucky if you could produce a document printed from more than one program to look the same. Forget consecutive page numbers — everything was an appendix. So your spreadsheet printout might be appendix A whilst your database report was Appendix B. You then put the pieces together hoping that no one would notice the difference in fonts!
Then came the 'Integrated Suite' programs such as Symphony. These made it possible to 'share' data with your word processor, spreadsheet and database. A lot of this was achieved by letting you "type" in your spreadsheet. The output was not bad, but working with text with all those cell boxes was no good for your eyesight!
Enter, stage right, Windows! A common user interface, meaning that all programs would have menu bars, icons, buttons and all the other paraphernalia we have become used to. Gone was the font problem as all Windows programs shared the same fonts and printer drivers. Things were looking up!
Trouble was though that people still used their Windows PC's as though they were DOS programs with a pretty screen! Those of us who remember those days had to learn how to 'work the Windows way'. Today, that means forgetting about word processors, spreadsheets, databases and so forth as separate programs. They are now tools. The idea is that you use the best tool for the job and a central program to piece it all together.
Even using today's all singing all dancing programs, it is easy to forget the best tool for the job. As I write this in my word processor, I can see drawing tools, table tools, I can make it look like a web page, I can even have animations and 3-D graphics — and I'm using a word processor!
"Great!," you might think. No need to go out and buy all those separate programs — just use a modern word processor which will be able to do anything! Well, yes, it's true you can do a lot with these things. Trouble is they tend to do many things reasonably well. That's fine for reasonable documents, but I want to produce GREAT documents!
