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The top vintage platform for word processing and desktop publishing?

Agent Orange said:
Back in the day when I would walk through the office, the ladies could be seen with pc monitors flipped 45 degrees to resemble an actual 8 x 11 page. It seems that the word processor of choice, in the early going at least, was WordStar. Later on in the federal government arena, Word Perfect reigned supreme until Window got a foothold, then it was all Microsoft Office with Word. As far as I know, it still that way.
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Yes, except for the early days, it was indeed WordPerfect until Microsoft took over completely. Before that it could have been anything.

But 45 degrees? lol Was the floor level? :)
 
There were a few early monochrome monitors and adapters for the PC which were much taller than they were wide; the idea being that you had a standard letter-sized display. I suppose if you took a standard wide-screen LCD monitor and turned it 90 degrees, you'd have the same thing.
 
It sounds like it varied greatly from time to time and platform to platform then. =)
 
Chuck(G) said:
There were a few early monochrome monitors and adapters for the PC which were much taller than they were wide; the idea being that you had a standard letter-sized display. I suppose if you took a standard wide-screen LCD monitor and turned it 90 degrees, you'd have the same thing.
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I know what you mean although I only remember one model of computer, it may have been the Xerox machine (star?) that the GUI was developed on, but it had a monitor screen that could be turned 90 degrees giving the user the choice of landscape or portrait display.

EDIT. On reflection the display screen may have been fixed as portrait.
 
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Both my working XP machines have dual-mode LCD monitors that are almost permanently swivelled to portrait mode; love 'em, great for reading manuals, datasheets, email, etc. etc.

But I prefer 90 degrees to Agent Orange's 45; must give him a sore neck (unless his floor really slopes a lot, as OJ suggests... ;-))
 
Micro Display Systems and Princeton Graphics Systems produced portrait monitors in the 80s.

There was a discussion a while back here on the former regarding a video adapter card for - http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?23274 Included in the thread is a link to a pdf of the sales pamphlet listing the features of the monitor along with names of DTP and word processing software of the period.
 
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My friend's father in the mid- to late-1980s used a 286 marketed as a word processing system, which ran an OEM MS-DOS, custom word processor, and had a monochrome (page white!) portrait monitor. It wasn't a typical monitor simply rotated, as the scanlines were still horizontal. Being a page-white mono monitor, I remember it being extremely easy on the eyes. He used it to write textbooks and kept it working as long as it was practical to do so into the early 1990s.

I don't recall the name of the system or software, but have asked my friend; if he replies, I'll edit this post to include the info.
 
Ole Juul said:
Yes, except for the early days, it was indeed WordPerfect until Microsoft took over completely. Before that it could have been anything.

But 45 degrees? lol Was the floor level? :)
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Ole - That was a test to see if you were paying attention and it appears that you passed. I never could count very well.
 
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Don't forget 'MultiMate' on this trip down Memory Lane. My copy runs on two 5.25 360K floppys - doesn't like to run off a HD unless you do some hacking.
 
Ah, Electric pencil. I started with Scripsit on my Dick Smith System 80 but I dabbled with Electic pencil also.

Tez
 
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