Another thought. Is the user really any better off after 20 years of computer evolution?

There used to be a time study firm that would publish the average time it took to create a one page business letter. Before computers the estimates were around 4 hours. The time was used in dictation, typing, review and retyping.

Today if you include the overhead of word processing classes to learn the software, operating system classes to learn how to use the computer and the time spent maintaining the hardware; I would bet the estimates would be same amount of time or more. In addition the user has a whole new set of variables to worry about (fonts, graphics, alignment ...).

Granted the final letter today looks pretty cool. Is the content of the letter any better? Does it really take less time when all related overhead is taken into account? Is the business any better off with the new methods?