AES Data Ltd. "AES Plus 103" Word Processor
CSTMC/SMSTC – 1987.1157
Collection Storage Facility
This AES Plus 103 was used in the offices of the Canada Science and Technology Museum before being transferred to the collection in 1987.
Unlike most computers today, the AES Plus 103 did not have a mouse or graphical user interface (GUI), so users had to master a set of commands and special keys in order to create and edit documents. The AES Plus 103 had a monochrome video display with no graphics. Dotted lines on the screen helped users align and edit text as well as visualize the layout of documents. The standard version of the AES Plus 103 stored data and applications on 5.25-in. magnetic floppy disks. On this version the twin drive bays are empty; data was instead stored on an external drive.
The development of word processors revolutionized office management in the 1970s and 1980s. Designed and built in Montreal, Quebec, by AES Data Limited, this word processor allowed the user to create, store, and revise text electronically before printing, tasks that had previously been performed manually on a typewriter. Word processors changed the type of work secretaries did, freeing them from the repetitive re-typing and photocopying that typewriters required. AES trade literature depicted an open and near-paperless office of the future.