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Name two different offivce applications that could be used by the small business to improve upon the paper based system.

One application that could be used wouold be Microsoft Excel. Excel would be an improvement seeing as it allows for multiple datas to be stored in tables, these tables can be altered and updated at will without having to draw up another table. Additionally Excel allows the user to create charts using the chart wizard to present the data formally.
The second application could be microsoft word; word also allows for tables to be created and updated more easily than a paper-based system.

Describe two advantages of each over the paper-based system and one advantage of one over the other.

One advantage of Microsoft Excel over a paper-based system is that it allows the user to update and/or correct anything in the tables without having to start from scratch with a new one. The second advantage is that the data can be presented professionally and formally as a graph.
One advantage of Microsoft Word is that it allows the user to format text so all data can look professional. Additionally with word, the user can use a search tool, i.e. Find (Ctrl+F), to quickly locate relevant data without having to read through every entry to find it.
An advantage that Excel has over Word is that it allows the user to create charts. One advantage Word has over Excel is that the user can do alot more with the formatting.

How were secretaries' and typists' employment prospects affected by the advent of these office packages?

With the invention of such packages many typists and secretaries have been put out of a job, before where managers and diretors had hired people to do their admin work for them, on a typewriter, nowadays the manager can personally do it by using a simple program such as Word. Additionally seeing as computers can perform the job of the typists and secretaries faster and more efficiently, then there is no need to hire them.

What new job opportunities were opened up by the advent of office applications?

Even though some people may have been put out of a job due to a computer, many would have been put in a job due to a computer. Many computers at some point crash and need to be repaired. So many computer technicians, such as software specialists, hardware specialist etc. would have been employed to maintain the welfare of the machines. Additionally businesses that sell spare computer parts would have made more business due to the advent of these office applications.