I think it was probably in the late eighties or early nineties, when we Auditors were given laptops to replace the trusty typewriters we had always used. It was a traumatic, difficult time for us because we were just not computer literate and barely knew how to switch one on. The first laptop I used was a black and white screen Texas Instruments – almost steam driven by comparison with today’s lightning fast powerhouses. I think the whole hard drive was only 64 Mb! It was loaded with Lotus 123 Spreadsheets and Word Perfect – the latter being an absolute swine of a program to master.
By the time we got to Port Elizabeth branch, I was a little more au fait with the PC and I was showing Miss Patricia Leitch, Branch Administrator the programs we had to use. Pat had a PC on her desk on which Lotus 123 was installed. I had a fresher version of Lotus which had an add-on sub-program called W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. (What You See Is What You Get) which enabled one to format text in various ways and I was showing her how it worked. The Manager Resources, Chris Morris came by and jokingly asked what we were doing as Pat was leaning over me, to see the screen better. Pat very innocently said, “Mr Lyle is showing me his WYSIWYG”. (Pronounced wizzywig). Chris thought this was hilarious and called out loudly, “Hey everybody, Mr Lyle is showing Miss Leitch his WYSIWYG”.
It was a case of “were our faces red” but everybody laughed delightedly.
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