This beauty is from Ben Ullman’s Flickr. The “microcomputer” he’s talking about is a TRS-80 Model 16, a pretty sophisticated (for the time) business system that sold for $5,000 when released in 1983. With peripherals, it was a lot more.
Here’s the main menu for Scripsit, the word processing program written for the TRS-80s.
“I can correct my mistakes on the screen and then print the letter out perfectly.” That line really gets me. It’s hard to imagine now, but what we take for granted as the most basic of conveniences was not very long ago a revolutionary event, as anyone who’s ever had to use a typewriter can tell you.
These days, the suggestion that we correct what we type/text carries the stink of fanaticism, and hard copies are simply food for the shredder.
I hope you snagged a ribbon at one of the races, Ben. Old Acres sounds like a nice place to spend the summer.
(TRS-80 and Scripsit images via Connecting the Dots, ZDNet, and Wikipedia)
2 Warps to Neptune 
Aw, he even double-spaced after each period in the letter. Can’t make this stuff up, folks. =)
Could you imagine? Back in those days there was an actual command to proofread a document. These days it’s automatic!
I love that menu. And check this out, I found a review of the proofreading function (i.e. a spelling dictionary) from 1983.
Wow, thanks for the link! It’s a whole magazine from that year! 1983 was one of the best years ever. So funny how sterile and nerdy the whole “computing” scene was, but there was definitely a market for it. Now computers/computer technology is such an integral part of society, but any kind of back end development/coding is totally obscured.