Office Automation and Group Collaboration Paper

Office Automation and Group Collaboration Paper
CIS 319, Computer and Information Systems
November 1, 2009

Office automation came a long way from equipment such as the typewriter and the simple form of copying machines. For the young people of this generation, a typewriter might possibly sound like a dinosaur for most. Copying machine today does more than just make copies. The introduction of computer into the workplace gave office automation a brand new meaning – fast and furious.
When asked which software application is commonly used when it comes to office automation, the answer would probably be Microsoft Office. Why not? Visit any office, whether a medical office, a post office, a library, a legal office, etc. More likely, these organizations will have Microsoft Office installed in their computer system. In the military, Microsoft Office conquered all offices in the military. Word processing is huge when it comes to office automation, and Microsoft Office delivers in the form of Word. “Microsoft Office Word is a powerful authoring program that gives you the ability to create and share documents by combining a comprehensive set of writing tools” (Microsoft.com). Microsoft Office Word gives a whole meaning to word processing. “Word gives office automation the tools to work faster and efficiently” (Rubenking, 2008). Rubenking also added that Word, in addition to lots of features, can also compare documents side-by-side, review and correct documents, and translate into or from another language. In the military, Word is the widely used word processing program, so it doesn’t present difficulties in successfully receiving and sending documents. Some disadvantages Microsoft Office Word presents are the cost and inability to share documents with another who doesn’t use the same program.
In today’s world, electronic mail or e-mail is common in office automation. In the military, since Microsoft Office is widely used, Microsoft Outlook was and is the familiar...