Do you know how to use a typewriter?
 

This might seem like a really stupid topic, but oh well. I'm curious. :)

Today, I gave the runner at our law firm (a local college student who works part-time) an assignment, but it had to be done on the typewriter. She was like, "Okay, but how do I work this thing?" She had never used a typewriter before. That blew my mind -- I've never met anyone who hasn't. I think she may have been born in 1985 or 1986.

So, I thought I'd bring the question over here. Have you ever used a typewriter? If not, post the year you were born.

I remember playing with an old-fashioned one when I was younger.

I'd never used an "electronic" one like the one that they have at my current office until last year.

I didn't get a personal computer till my freshman year in HS (1994). But before then, my reports in middle school were all done on my typewriter -- I think it was a Smith-Corona? Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's what it was called. It was an electric typewriter with the neat auto-correction feature. I still used it in HS, especially when it came time to fill out college applications.

Keyboarding classes in HS were done my sophomore year, but those were the days of black screens, green cursors, and MS-DOS.

We have an electric typewriter here at work that is rarely ever used, except when forms need to be filled in that way. I must admit that I have to reacquaint myself with it most of the time...especially with the color coding things that perform different functions.

Yup. Used to use the manual one in my aunt's basement when I was little. Have to use the eletric typewriter at my job for making labels and filling out forms and such.

Sure do! I learned how to type on an electric typewriter while I was in junior high. For my eighth grade graduation, I got a really cool typewriter that used four colored ink pen kind of things instead of a ball or ribbon. I wish I remembered what it was called!

I do. Had to take a typing class in the summer of 1982 before I attended USC, because I was majoring in sports information (later changed to journalism), and that was a prerequisite.

Haven't worked on one, though, since 1988.

Born in '84
Never used a typewriter until my current job at the bank.

My coworkers laughed at me. A lot :p

:eek: We still have a typewriter here in the office for labels and such. I can't imagine having absolutely no clue of how to work one...it's not that much different than a computer keyboard.

Well, I could type! But the moving of paper and margins and such.. well that's different. I was so proud of my first envelope :)

Yes. I had one of those electronic ones. I didn't get a computer until I started college.

This is a fairly older typewriter. More like an electric typewriter versus a word processor.

She didn't even know how to turn it on. :( I had to show her how to load the paper (upside down!), how to use the correction button and margin release. I showed her how you have to line up the text in the lines in the little window thingie on the...what's that thing called? Where the letters come out? Lol. And she kept rolling the paper through and then having to go back and her lines were ALL uneven. It was just....weird.

Yes, I received a typewriter for high school graduation gift (and still have it!). Once in awhile I use it if I have something that needs to be typed.

Yep. I had to do all of my college applications on a typewriter. That sucked balls.

I also work in a law firm and we have to use a typewriter sometimes.

However, before I started working at my firm, I hadn't used a typewriter since I was about 10.

I filled out my sorority recruitment application on an electronic typewriter... :)

yes, i have used a typewriter. my kids, however, have not.

This thread inspired me to test my summer interns and their typewriting skills.

There are three of them, 2 are 19 and the other 18. I gave them forms to fill out with just our company address, my name, and today's date. Between the three of them, two were able to find the ON button, and only one knew how to load it correctly. I was pleased to see that they knew how to maneuver the buttons and type normal, but all three of them kept accidentally hitting the "word erase" instead of the "letter erase" button.

At least they were able to align everything correctly and I don't have a bunch of slanty words on the page considering none of them have ever used a typewriter before. :eek:

I do. But I took typing lessons. They came in very handy. I can type over 100 wpm.

Yep - I used to use one that belongs to my father. It was in a green suitcase thing. I now use an electric one at my office.

I use a typewriter all the time for my job.

Slightly off-topic,

But if you want to see how fast you can type, http://www.typingtest.com can clock your speed. (You'll need Java for it to work, btw.)

Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

I've used typewriters before, but I'd be really annoyed if I had to use one now. I mean, WHY?!

I've never used one, and I was born in 1983.

Both electric and manual.

My high school best friend graduated with a 3.965 because he got a B in typing in the 9th grade.

When I was little, my dad had a manual typewriter. He showed me the basics of how to use it, including how to load and align paper and how to use correction paper (I think that's what it's called?). I remember asking him why there wasn't a "1" key with the other numeric keys. If someone sat me in front of a manual typewriter today, I could probably muddle through.

I haven't gone anywhere near a typewriter since my folks got a computer when I was about 12. I learned to type on that computer. I've never been clocked, but I type wicked fast.

wow, i actually resent that statement. though i was born in 84, ive used both an electric and manual typewriter. my college advisor made us type all our college applications vs. printing them. this was around the time the Common App came out and my advisor wasnt having it!

so i can type on both. im no pro, but i was when i had to type those applications.

p.s. i got accepted to all the schools i applied to, so maybe the typing was impressive? who knows.

Oh that's brutal.

At my all-girls' school, if you got anything but an A in keyboarding, you were the butt of jokes.

Yes.
I think my family has an old one of my Mom's from the 1960's and you need seriously strong fingers to pound on those keys. WOW! :eek:

I used a typewriter to type projects, etc. in elementary school and the very early years of highschool. My family didn't get a computer until I was in grade 8 (1991).

yes, i've used a typewriter before

but NO i cannot use the one in my office... it's a really early model funky oldschool word processor and it just SUCKS. we'd be better off with just a real typewriter.

Yes, I had to learn at my job because we used to use it for fingerprint cards. I did not know how to use one before 2001.

yeah. i'm young and have used one.

i wish i had one now. my pc sucks and i am a writer.

writers live for nostalgia.

i was born in 1982 and used a typewriter in keyboarding class in highschool.

The public library near my parent’s home has electronic typewriters. I would always use them to fill out job applications during my quest for the ultimate minimum wage job.

Absolutely!

I completed a journalism degree and (what felt like) billions of resumes and cover letters on my mom's old manual typewriter. Not even electric! The pinky strength required to type "a"'s and semi colins was incredible.

I am a writer also. Have any work published?

Yeah. I always thought that teacher should have been drawn and semestered.

That's a joke. Get it? It took me a second when I first heard it.

*Groan.*

PS...that was a sympathy groan because of your son leaving. That joke was so bad, it didn't even warrant a groan.;)

I had to take a class in middle school for learning how to use a typewriter. :)

We didn't have a computer in my house until my junior year in high school, so I typed reports on a typewriter for a couple of years.