DOCUMENT PROCESSING

A document is any written, printed, or electronically prepared business communication that conveys information. In the information age, documents are essential products that are becoming larger and more complex. Document processing involves the equipment, software, and procedures for creating, formatting, editing, researching, retrieving, storing, and mailing documents.

HISTORY OF DOCUMENT PREPARATION

The advent of a writing system coincided with the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to agrarian encampments where it became necessary to count one's property—whether it was parcels of land, animals, or measures of grain—or to transfer that property to another individual or another settlement. Letters were being handwritten as early as 2686 b.c.e. Prior to the inventions of the typewriter and the computer, all documents were handwritten, whether they were letters, bills of lading, property deeds, or reports.

The invention of the typewriter changed the way people communicated—moving from handwritten documents to typed ones. The typewriter was invented in 1714 by Henry Mill. Christopher Latham Sholes, a Milwaukee inventor, is the person most often associated with the invention of the typewriter in the United States. In 1868 Sholes produced the first practical typewriter to be patented.

At that time, however, correspondence was deeply rooted in etiquette and penmanship. Individuals were of the mindset that letter writing was the most private, complete, and encompassing form of communication between people. Individuals who dared to type letters risked rejection. Typewritten letters were viewed as insulting, implying that the recipient could not read. Even as late as 1922, the etiquette authority Emily Post was still describing letter writing as an art—even as she saw that art shrinking until "the letter threatens to become a telegram, a telephone message, a post-card" (Post).

Nonetheless, sales of the typewriter became lucrative, and with its acceptance, individuals found the process of preparing documents a far simpler one. The typewriter gave operators a faster means of writing than a person could do by hand.

In 1961 IBM introduced the first electric typewriter, the Selectric. Instead of the standard movable carriage and individual type strikers, this typewriter had a revolving type ball. The use of the revolving type ball allowed the Selectric to print faster than traditional typewriters. Following on the heels of the electric typewriter, IBM introduced the Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter (MT/ST) in 1964. The MT/ST was one of the earliest attempts to convert the regular Selectric typewriter into a word processor.

TYPES OF DOCUMENT PROCESSING

Different definitions have been ascribed to document processing. Several business education courses with document processing in their titles describe courses as being designed to teach students how to create a variety of computer-based documents—anything from business, technical, medical, and/or legal documents, tables, forms, reports, presentations documents, to documents for electronic publishing.

Nonetheless, computer science or library and information science show marked differences in their definition of document processing. In these areas, document processing might "explore the issues involved in building natural-language-processing applications that operate on large bodies of real text such as the ones found in the World Wide Web" (Dras and Cassidy, 2005, para. 2). Others find document processing to relate to electronic publishing—and to include such topics as typography, computer languages, file formats, specifications for document style and semantics, and electronic document standards.

Document processing has also been described as processing text documents, including methods of indexing for retrieving text based on content. Thus, document processing appears akin to nonverbal language in that it is learned terminology, one not easily or readily defined—one whose meaning varies with the culture of the organization and/or individual.

While an administrative assistant considers document processing as using a computer to keyboard a letter, memo, electronic mail (e-mail), or report, other individuals see document processing as a means of coordinating and conducting business transactions. An order submitted to purchase a certain product, for example, becomes a document for processing.

From the word-processing perspective, in its simplest form the term document processing means the production of paperwork. Originally the term encompassed all business equipment concerned with the handling of text. The term word processor came to represent stand-alone units. In 1981, with the advent of the IBM personal computer (PC), the playing field for word processors changed. Software-based word processors gradually replaced dedicated word processors. In this fashion, the term went from representing hardware to referring to software.

THE FUTURE OF DOCUMENT PROCESSING

In 1980 R. I. Anderson reported that "an even broader concept of word processing is emerging which ties automatic typing equipment into a communications network for input and output" (p. 55). At this time, optical character recognition, output to phototypesetting equipment, output onto microfilm, or output routed to automatic filing systems were separate units that were being tied together into a total information system of which word processing was a part.

Advances in technology have made it easier for individuals to create and manage documents. Tablet PCs, scanners, voice-recognition software, and the Internet are all changing the face of document processing.

Doctors' offices use wireless tablet PCs for inputting patient data during examinations. Prior to this technological development, patient reports would have been dictated by the physician and transcribed by an assistant. The hard-copy form of the patient's report would have then been stored in the patient's file. The use of the tablet PC also eliminates the need for storage space for hard-copy records and makes retrieval of materials faster and simpler. Also archiving stored records from a computer is a simpler process because older files may be stored on compact disks, jump drives, or external hard drives so that the data is available if needed but is not consuming space on an active hard drive.

Prior to the advent of scanners, documents were stored in file folders, file cabinets, file centers, and departments. Hard copies of documents can now be scanned and stored in an electronic file. This technological advance decreases the space formerly needed for document storage. Also, when a customer or other individual needs a document, a copy can be sent immediately by scanning the requested document and attaching it to an e-mail message.

Voice-recognition software is an important development, particularly to physically challenged individuals. Through the use of a microphone, individuals can dictate letters, memos, e-mail, and reports and have those documents convert to type on the computer screen. The use of voice-recognition software in industry reduces the number of repetitive stress injuries (such as carpal tunnel syndrome) and decreases the amount of time required to input data.

Companies are using e-mail as their official communication channel, thereby eliminating the need for hard copies of interoffice memorandums. In addition to being a faster means of communication, e-mail messages provide a hard-copy record, when needed, by simply printing the message. E-mail messages may also be stored electronically, reducing the required storage space for hard-copy documents.

see also Word Processing; Writing Skills in Business

bibliography

Anderson, R. I. (1980). Word processing: The changing office environment (Margaret H. Johnson, Ed.). Reston, VA: National Business Education Association.

Dras, M., and Cassidy, S. (2005). Document processing and the semantic Web. Retrieved October 13, 2005, from Macquarie University, Department of Computing Web site: http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/comp348

Ober, Scot, Johnson, Jack E., and Zimmerly, Arlene (2006). Gregg college keyboarding and document processing (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Post, Emily (1922). Etiquette in society, in business, in politics, and at home. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

Shelly, Gary B., Cashman, Thomas J., and Vermaat, Misty E. (2003). Discovering computers 2004: A gateway to information. Boston: Course Technology.

Szul, L. F., and Bouder, M. (2003, February). Speech recognition: Its place in business education. Business Education Forum, pp. 54–56.

K. Virginia Hemby-Grubb