Any typewiter users?

[Tentacles]

Ahoy,
I have just started writing some erotic fiction, and I have been using a typewriter. The typewriter seems like its exactly perfect for the job. Anyone else use typewriters here? Or thoughts on the machines. Mine is a pre-war royal quite delux and I love it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Where do you find ribbons?

 

[YoursSINSerely]

I used one today, and IBM Selectric. What a piece of crap! The ribbon kept jamming because no one has used it in years and its drying up. I couldn't get the envelope macro to work, so I was forced to use the typewriter.

Once you learn how to use Word, you will never, ever go back to a typewriter. So easy to correct errors and move an entire paragraph, pages, or chapters. Sign up at nightschool and take a lesson. There's great bells and whistles to it and you don't even have to pick up your left hand when the bell goes off. Not everyone is going to understand that last line.

Although, I actually did learn to type on a manual Royal typewriter. I will agree with you that it was the best typewriter out there. It was ergonomics at its best. Since I've gone to the PC, I've had both wrists operated on for carpal tunnel syndrome. Never had that problem with the typewriter, but I was also alot younger then.

I am Yours SINSerely,

 

[Stella_Omega]

I've loved using typewriters-- but I gave away my last one, which was a fantastic old manual, all worm gears and clockwork. God it was cute!

 

[Handley_Page]

Pay for the shipping and I've give anyone an Olivetti 1010, with lots of spare ribons, etc..

 

[jomar]

Where do you find ribbons?

You can find them online and in some stores like Office Depot.

 

[bb_peaks]

I haven't used one in a while but have a coworker who probably learned on one such as you described. She's already ruined one computer keyboard by her hard pounding of the keys and is well on her way to destroying the second.

 

[Handley_Page]

I haven't used one in a while but have a coworker who probably learned on one such as you described. She's already ruined one computer keyboard by her hard pounding of the keys and is well on her way to destroying the second.

suggest she investigate an industrial-grade 'Cherry' Hall effect keyboard.

 

[sr71plt]

Once I'd moved to the Magnavox word processor (even before the advent of the PC), there was no turning back to the typewriter except for typing in forms. I still have an IBM Selectric around here somewhere.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I haven't used one in a while but have a coworker who probably learned on one such as you described. She's already ruined one computer keyboard by her hard pounding of the keys and is well on her way to destroying the second.

Like most persons my age, I learned to type in high school on a manual Underwood and a Royal. Later, I used my wife's Selectric, which forced me to lighten my touch, and I have no problem with what you are describing. Under no circumstances would I want to go back to a manual typewriter, but I could if I had to.

You can still buy them. http://www.mytypewriter.com/

 

[TE999]

What is this 'typewriter' thing you speak of? I saw one, I think in a thrift store once. Odd looking apparatus...had a ball with typefaces on it...large it was, and heavy...no monitor either...it didn't work and it smelled musty.

 

[sr71plt]

What is this 'typewriter' thing you speak of? I saw one, I think in a thrift store once. Odd looking apparatus...had a ball with typefaces on it...large it was, and heavy...no monitor either...it didn't work and it smelled musty.

And yet it lives on in the folks using Courier and habitually putting two character spaces after end punctuation.

 

[The_Fool]

And yet it lives on in the folks using Courier and habitually putting two character spaces after end punctuation.

That's me. The two spaces after the period, not the courier font.

 

[Boxlicker101]

What is this 'typewriter' thing you speak of? I saw one, I think in a thrift store once. Odd looking apparatus...had a ball with typefaces on it...large it was, and heavy...no monitor either...it didn't work and it smelled musty.

What you saw was probably an IBM Selectric, a relatively modern electric typewriter.

 

[TxRad]

You mean I should give up my Royal-Underwood.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Originally Posted by sr71plt
And yet it lives on in the folks using Courier and habitually putting two character spaces after end punctuation.

That's me. The two spaces after the period, not the courier font.

Me too. I like the Courier font and I always put two spaces after the punctuation that ends a sentence and after a colon. I did that before I even started typing, when I did nothing but writing by hand. I didn't measure it, of course, but there was more space between sentences than there was between words. In fact, I'm doing it here.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

When did it become proper to only use one space after a period or colon? I admit to being old enough to remember when the first stand alone word processor showed up on Popular Science and thinking "Oh, I need one of those . . . How much?" Then came word processing programs for PC's and life became good.

 

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by sr71plt
And yet it lives on in the folks using Courier and habitually putting two character spaces after end punctuation.



Me too. I like the Courier font and I always put two spaces after the punctuation that ends a sentence and after a colon. I did that before I even started typing, when I did nothing but writing by hand. I didn't measure it, of course, but there was more space between sentences than there was between words. In fact, I'm doing it here.

Ah, the true sign of an unprofessional keyboarder. You might find Robin Williams's (no, not that one) The PC Is Not a Typewriter (or it's twin, The Mac Is Not a Typewriter) eyeopening.

Before there was a typewriter, there weren't two spaces--printing never has put two spaces there--just one space plus a "shosh" of leading. And the computer was able to build in this "shosh," so, Walah, the rationale for that died with the typewriter.

 

[sr71plt]

When did it become proper to only use one space after a period or colon? I admit to being old enough to remember when the first stand alone word processor showed up on Popular Science and thinking "Oh, I need one of those . . . How much?" Then came word processing programs for PC's and life became good.

Printing has never used two spaces (one space plus another small cubit of leading). That only came in with the typewriter because of the limitations of the typewriter. The computer has no such limitation.

This reminds me of when my office was developing a new publishing system from the ground up while I was off on a year's assignment. The system it was replacing was one we bought wholesale from the Washingtion Evening Star, when that newspaper went out of business--and we had to adapt our procedures to that system because we were incorporating it wholesale. When I got back I found the new system requirements parrotted the Evening Star system elements we didn't want and only had adapted to because of that system's limitations.

 

[Vermilion]

Y'know, I learnt to type on a Mac computer - I have never in my life used a typewriter, and yet I was still taught to insert two spaces after a full stop etc.

I honestly don't know if I could train myself out of it -- it's so damn habitual now my conscious reflexes just aren't involved.

x
V

 

[DeeZire]

I'm surprised WP programs don't have a sound option replicating the snap of the type on paper and the ding of the bell. That's what I miss. What I don't miss is trying to justify type by counting spaces, something I used to do when typing up our band newsletter, which would then be pasted together with contact cement, using stick-on letters for the headlines. Then we'd run it off on a Xerox machine. Ah, the good old days. I still have my green drafting board, gathering dust in the closet.

 

[Boota]

You can get a program that makes those noises. Not sure where to get it, but I've seen a computer with it.

All I can say is that if I had to use a typewriter I would have never started writing.

 

[Tentacles]

Ya I love the noise, and ribbons can be had online, many of the older manual ones use the same kind. Mostly though I like the rhythm that I develop while using the machine. I'm forced to type slowly and deliberately, thinking about each phrase and sentence before I commit it to the page. Mine is also small enough to carry around, its meant to fit in a large briefcase or something and I can take it out side. I have never been able to comfortably use a laptop away from my house or desk. Either the glare or the battery life causes me to feel like I need to rush through whatever I'm writing to just get it done. The typewriter on the other hand is infinitely easier to read and it always 'on'.

Generally I write drafts on the typewriter and then scan in the text to edit on my computer.

P.S. I hate word, and all microsoft products(with the white hot heat of 1000 suns) and I will never go to office first for anything.

 

[Austin8]

I've never used a typewriter, and what's the deal with the double space at the end of a full stop?
seems to far away. Anyway Tent, your hatred of all things pc prompted me to bring back an old thread of mine, hope you post to it..

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=650216

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Ah, there's nothing like the sound of a typewriter as it jiggles your desk like an earthquake. DING! I taught myself to type on a Smith-Corona, which I only stopped using about ten years ago when I got a computer. I no longer use a typewriter, but I own several vintage typewriters. I never miss an opportunity to snatch up and old Royal or Underwood at an auction if I see one. I love them all, but when I take them out and mess with them, it always makes me thankful for my laptop.