Computer Office System 计算机办公系统 Computer office systems are computers and their peripheral e

Computer Office System

计算机办公系统

Computer office systems are computers and their peripheral equipment is used to create, store, process, or communicate information in a business environment. This information can be electronically produced, duplicated, and transmitted.

The rapid growth of the service sector of the United States economy beginning in the mid 1970s has furnished a new market for sophisticated office automation. With the increasing incorporation of microchips and microcircuitry into office equipment^[1], the line between the computer and other equipment has blurred.

At the same time, computers either stand alone or as part of a network and specialized software programs are taking over tasks such as facsimile transmission-or FAX, voice mail, and telecommunications that were once performed by separate pieces o.f equipment. In fact, the computer has virtually taken the place of typewriters, calculators, and manual accounting techniques and is rapidly taking over graphics design, production scheduling, and engineering design as well.

During the first half of the 20th century, financial and other numerical record keeping tasks were performed manually or by bookkeeping machines, billing machines, tabulating equipment, and other types of electromechanical accounting devices. In the 1950s, such machines were increasingly replaced by mainframe computers-large, very expensive, high speed machines that required trained operators as well as a special temperature regulated facility to prevent overheating. Use of these machines today is limited to large organizations with heavy volume data processing requirements. Time sharing, allowing more than one company to use the same mainframe for a fee, was instituted to divide the cost of the equipment among several users while ensuring that the equipment is utilized to the maximum extent.

Mainframes with remote terminals, each with its own monitor, became available in the mid 1970s and allowed for simultaneous input by many users. With the advent of the minicomputer, however, a far less expensive alternative became available. The transistor and microelectronics made manufacture of these smaller, less complex machines practicable. Minicomputers, the first of which entered general business use in the early 1960s, are now widespread in commerce and government. Terminals linked to the central processing unit (CPU) are under the direct control of the individual user rather than centralized staff. In recent years, however, it is the microcomputer, or personal computer (PC), that has come to play the principal role in most office workplaces.

Desktop PCs have become increasingly affordable as a result of industry wide adoption of the architecture of the PC introduced in 1981. Although it has become feasible to provide virtually every office worker with a PC, it is more cost effective for PC users to share files and common peripherals such as printers, facsimile boards, modems, and scanners. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many companies began programs of linking or networking multiple PCs into a unified system.

The local area network (LAN) was created in response to the need for a standardized system of linking computers together in a company. The most common method used to connect computers to a network is by means of coaxial cables. Newer generation networks use fiber optical connections. When computers are not in close physical proximity, networks may use microwave radio or infrared radiation to link the computers. Microwave radio requires a dish antenna for transmission and reception; infrared radiation requires a lens for transmission and a mirror and lens for reception. Other methods used for wide area networking include telephone and communications satellite linkage.

The need for computer connectivity has established the usefulness of the peripheral device known as the modem. Modems permit two computers to communicate by telephone in order to access databases, transmit files, upload and download facsimile transmissions, and send and receive electronic mail. Early transmission speeds using this equipment were relatively slow—300 baud^[2]. Some modems now operate at speeds of more than 50,000 baud and have error checking and data compression features.

Text materials in typed or printed form can be input directly into a computer by means of a scanner. To read text, optical character recognition (OCR) software must first be used to convert printed documents electronically into computer readable files. Scanners obviate the need to rekey printed text in order to input it; they can also be used to input graphic material.

Computer Printers

A considerable volume of office computer output is via the printer. Among the earliest printers used with PCs in business offices were daisy wheel and thimble printers, so called because of the shape of their printing elements^[3]. Although their type quality was comparable to that of a typewriter, they were slow and could accommodate only text, not graphic materials. As a result, they have been supplanted in most offices by dot-matrix, ink jet, and laser printers.^[4]The dot matrix printer may have a 9 or 24 pin print head. The pins impact the paper through a ribbon, creating patterns of dots in the shape of letters and numbers in multiple fonts and type sizes. The ink jet printer, an advance over the dot matrix, provides both high resolution (the higher the resolution, the better the print quality) and quiet operation. The laser printer represents an even greater advance. Similar in technology to a photocopier^[5], it offers speed, high resolution of 300 dots or more per inch, ability to reproduce complex graphics, and silent operation—all of which make it virtually essential for desktop publishing.

Electronic Mail (E-mail)

E-mail has become a key part of the communication networks of most modern offices. Data and messages can be transmitted from one computer to another using telephone lines, microwave links, communications satellites, or other telecommunications equipment. The same message can be sent to a number of different addresses. E-mail is sent through a company's own LAN or beyond, through a nationwide or worldwide communications network. E-mail services use a central computer to store messages and data and to route them to their intended destination. With a subscription to a public E-mail network, an individual PC user needs only a modem and a telephone to send and receive written or vocal messages. Because of the huge amount of E-mail that can be generated, systems have been developed to screen mail^[6]for individual users.

Voice Mail

A specialized type of E-mail system, voice mail, is a relatively simple, computer linked technology for recording, storing, retrieving, and forwarding phone messages. It is called voice mail, or voice messaging, because the messages are spoken and left in a voice mailbox. The telephone doubles as a computer terminal, but instead of presenting the information on a computer screen, the system reads it over the phone line, using prerecorded voice vocabulary. The systems are based on special purpose computer chips and software that convert human speech into bits of digital code. These digitized voices are stored on magnetic disks, from which they can be instantaneously retrieved. Callers are offered a menu of choices, and the messages they select are played; they can leave messages in voice mailboxes, or they can access huge computer databases.

Desktop Publishing

Desktop Publishing is the use of a computer and specialized software to combine text and graphics to create a document that can be printed on either a laser printer or a typesetting machine. Desktop publishing is a multiple step process involving various types of software and equipment. The original text and illustrations are generally produced with software such as word processors and drawing and painting programs and with photograph scanning equipment and digitizers. The finished product is then transferred to a page makeup program, which is the software most people think of as the actual desktoppublishing software. This type of program enables the user to lay out text and graphics on the screen and see what the results will be: for refining parts of the document, these programs often include word processing and graphics features in addition to layout capabilities. As a final step, the finished document is printed either on a laser printer or, for the best quality, by typesetting equipment.

Notes

[1] With the increasing incorporation of microchips and microcircuitry into office equipment: incorporation of sth. into sth. else = to incorporate sth. into sth. else, 意为“将……结合进……”。本句可译为：随着微型芯片和微型电路越来越多地进入办公设备，计算机与其他设备之间的界线已不那么分明了。

[2] baud：波特(通信中的符号传输速率单位，每秒传输一个符号称为1波特)。

[3] Among the earliest printers used with PCs in business offices were daisy wheel and thimble printers, so called because of the shape of their printing elements．本句为倒装句，原句应为：Daisy wheel and thimble printers were among the earliest printers used with PCs in business offices... "so called" 为形容词，引出状语，表示伴随情况，对主语进一步说明。

[4] dot-matrix, ink jet, and laser printers：点阵，喷墨，激光打印机。

[5] Similar in technology to a photocopier，...: similar to...: 与……类似或相似；类似于……。此处由形容词短语做状语，表示原因。

[6] to screen mail：筛选或过滤邮件。

Choose the best answer for each of the following: