Buy a typewriter in 2004? You Bet I Did!

Why buy a typewriter when your office if full of laser printers? Because there are still those agencies that insist on NCR forms—you know, those forms that must be printed or typed on the make self-copies? I work for the government and it’s quite often that a NCR form comes to us from another agency. There are also those companies and sites that have Adobe Acrobat forms that can be printed but not typed into without the receiver owning the Adobe Writer. Yep, there’s still a need for a typewriter, but do you really need one with all these bells and whistles?

I tried to buy a low-end typewriter that just typed—it didn’t even have to have a correction function, but those aren’t easy to find and when you do they’re flimsy and cheap feeling. I learned to type on an IBM Selectric—those monstrous machines that were electric but you still needed some finger power to get the keys down. Like calculators, I don’t like the newer versions that make mistakes by blowing on them—I like a substantial feel beneath my fingers.

The person I share the typewriter with uses them too often—she’s still doing most of her work on the typewriter so she wanted the advanced features. I say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, so we got the advanced model for her and I use the basic features—this typewriter is a match for both of us.

We decided on the Lexmark Wheelwriter 3500 after trying several. I liked the feel of the keys and the substantial body, she liked the features.

For her, things like being able to change the pitch was important. Pitch lets you decided how many characters there are per inch. This typewriter allows you to choose from 10, 12, or 15 characters per inch. It does this by spacing out, or conversely squishing the characters. To me it’s silly, and I hate when my forms look funny because of the pitch, but I’m learning to check the pitch before using it.

The speed of the typewriter was important to me. I type fast and hate a typewriter that does keep up. I find it strange to have gone on to the next line in my head and then seconds later hear the carriage is just making the trip. It’s easy for me when the keys and the sounds are in sync—more like typing on the computer than a typewriter.

BASIC FUNCTIONS
It has everything you’d expect from a normal typewriter. You can bold the text, underline it, center it, left-align, right-align, etc. You can also use the auto correction to lift off characters, words, or whole lines of text from your printed paper.


ADVANCED FEATURES
The highlights of the advanced features are that the typewriter has a two-line display screen so you can see what you’ve typed—you can go back and edit before you print it to the page. You can also preformat a page for a form so that when you type in the information it automatically puts the information in the right place. This would be very helpful if you type the same form over and over, but it’s not something I’ve had a need for, yet. You can do this for up to 43 different form.

One feature I do like and use is the Index CardFile feature which provides you with electronic ” index card” that lets you store names, addresses, and phone numbers. This information can be merged into letters, envelopes, and forms. It can also handle alternate languages (Spanish, French, etc.) but since I only know English I can’t vouch for this feature. I do use the Spell Assist which is a 120,000-word dictionary that provides alternate spelling selections—a lot! It also has Automatic Page Numbering which numbers your pages during print out.

DURABILITY
I’ve got to say it’s great. It’s light but not flimsy, stiff but not finger bruising. It fits both of its users beautifully—she’s able to save forms and documents and I’m able to do my once a month miscellaneous form and neither of us have had a problem with the memory or the typewriter itself. It’s easy to use, has great directions, and is a staple in our office. It’s quiet, works every time, and serves its purpose.