Word processor adapted for filling in blanks on preprinted forms

Abstract

A microprogrammed word processor, e.g., a typewriter or accounting machine or billing machine, has both normal and special modes of operation. During the normal mode, as alphanumerics and control characters (e.g., space, tab, line feed) are keyed in, the printing carriage is stationary at a margin. While fed-in characters are being memorized in the normal mode, the alphanumerics are viewable on a display. However, neither printing nor carriage movement takes place until later, when one of several separate print instruction signals are recognized by the computer program. During a special mode, as characters are keyed in, there is still no printing of alphanumerics; but, there is non-printing carriage movement along the line of print, to the particular printpoint associated with each keyboard actuation. Accordingly, as the fed-in characters and associated printpoints are being memorized, their actual physical positions, relative to a record carrier such as a preprinted bill or form, are viewable by the machine operator. During the feed-in step, operators can thus make carriage adjustments so as to effectuate proper alignment, of the later to be printed alphanumerics, on different types of forms. Thereafter, the actual printing of the forms can take place from memory into the proper positions on the forms, with the carriage moving either right-to-left or left-to-right.