Computer software is that essential equipment that makes this critical office and home tool available to us - let's face it, there are few of us with the skills and knowledge to know what to do with one without it! Just as a pen is only a shell without the ink to allow us write, so a computer without software is a large and expensive paperweight.



And the most important software of all is probably the one we use most often, namely word processing software. We don't have to be professional writers to employ some type of word processing suite on a daily basis; from making shopping lists to composing letters, this is the one type of software we can't do without.

Since the dawn of time, man has been recording his thoughts using some kind of annotation. Though writing itself is not as old as we are - the term 'prehistory' specifically refers to that time before writing existed, allowing us some kind of access to a written chronicle of events - this creative and expressive form of communication has been around since the time of the ancient Sumerians.

Throughout history, man has invented newer and better ways to record his thoughts and communicate them to others using the written word. The important combination of writing tools - what would evolve into pen and paper - became more and more advanced as the years progressed, culminating in the invention of the typewriter. And while this offered a more efficient way of marking down thoughts and observations, even it, these days, seems antiquated in comparison to the computer software that we use today.

The use of many features, once novel, of word processing software have become second nature to us now. We cannot consider typing any length without the ability to delete at will, to cut and paste, to make mistakes and move along. And that is perhaps the dichotomous pleasure of word processing software - that we can, at the drop of a hat, save our words or delete them forever.

For that is the real gift of computer software. It is the medium between us and our computing tool, helping us make use of technology we do not necessarily understand, and allowing us to express ourselves precisely as we wish.