【课文标题】 OFFICE AUTOMATION   办公自动化
【课文来源】网上
【翻译作者】springkang[DFCG]
【作者主页】www.chinadfcg.com
【作者邮箱】springkang2003@yahoo.com.cn
【翻译目的】普及计算机专业英语知识，让更多的人了解外国最新资料打好基础
【正文】
                                   
    Office automation is the application of computer and communications technology to improve the productivity of clerical and managerial office workers. In the mid-1950s, the term was used as a synonym for almost any form of data processing, referring to the ways in which[1] bookkeeping tasks were automated. After some years of disuse, the term was revived in the mid-1970s to describe the interactive use of word and text processing systems, which would later be combined with powerful computer tools, thereby leading to a so-called "integrated electronic office of the future".
    办公自动化就是应用计算机和通信技术提高职员和管理层办公人员的工作效率。在20世纪50年代中期，该词几乎是所有的数据处理的同义词，指计划的任务自动完成。经过多年的弃用，办公自动化一词在70年代中期又重新提起，用来描述字和文本处理系统的互动使用，后来字处理系统与强大的计算机工具结合，开创了所谓的“未来集成电子化办公”时代。
    The major functional components of an office automation system include text processing, electronic mail, information storage and retrieval, personal assistance features, and task management. These may be implemented on various types of hardware and usually include a video display terminal, input devices, and a hard-copy output device for "letter-quality" printing, etc.
   办公自动化系统的主要功能组件包括文本处理，电子邮件，信息存储和恢复（译者注：retrieval又有检索的意思，此文中我觉得译成恢复似乎更好），个人助理和任务管理。这些功能可以在各种类型的硬件上实现，通常包括视频显示终端，输入设备和用于“高质量文字”打印的硬拷贝输出设备等。
    Initially, systems sold by major manufacturers were aimed at clerical and secretarial personnel. These were mainly developed to do word processing and record processing (maintenance of small sequential files, such as names and addresses, which are ultimately sorted and merged into letters).
    最初，多数生产商的系统主要售给职员和秘书，用做字处理和记录处理（小型顺序文档的维护，如名字，地址，最终都以字母排序和合并）。
    More recently, attention has also been focused on systems which directly support the principals (managers and professional workers). Such systems emphasize the managerial communications function.
    最近以来，人们的注意力转移到能直接为负责人（如经理和专业人员）提供支持的系统上来。这种系统重点在管理通信功能。
    Electronic mail and filing permit a user to compose and transmit a message on an office automation system. In the early 1970s, the ARPANET community developed[2] a number of such systems which have been heavily used. Through standard message format protocols, several hundred different computers and electronic mail interfaces are able to exchange information with one another. These protocols are like the post office's specification of how recipient and return addresses should appear on envelopes and which sizes are allowable for envelopes. In the electronic message world, they describe what sequences of characters are required at the beginning of a message to identify the sending and receiving mailboxes.
    电子邮件和文件允许用户在办公自动化系统上编写和传送信息。在70年代早期，ARPANET开发了大量的广泛使用的这类系统。通过标准的报文格式协议，数百个不同计算机和电子邮件接口互相之间能交换信息。这些协议如同邮局的规定：收件人和回信地址须写在信封上，信封的大小。在电子信息世界里，则是在报文的最开始处须有什么样的字符序列，从而确认发送和接收的邮箱。
    Today's organizations have a wide variety of office automation hardware and software components at their disposal. The list includes telephone and computer systems, electronic mail, word processing, desktop publishing, database management systems, two-way cable TV, office-to-office satellite broadcasting, on-line database services, and voice recognition and synthesis. Each of these components is intended to automate a task or function that is presently performed manually. But experts agree that the key to attaining office automation lies in integration - incorporating all the components into a whole system such that information can be processed and communicated with maximum technical assistance and minimum human intervention. This goal can be accomplished when (1) computer, communication, and office equipment are networked and (2) an office worker can easily access the entire system through a personal computer sitting on his or her desk. Then it will be possible to change substantially the way people work in an office.  
    现在各种机构都使用各种办公自动化硬件和软件，包括电话和计算机系统，电子邮件，字处理，桌面出版系统，数据管理系统，双向闭路电视，办公室到办公室卫星广播系统，联机数据库服务，和语音识别和合成。每一项功能都是完成一项人工做的任务或职能。但是专家认为实施办公自动化的关键是集成----将所有的功能整合到一个系统中，这样信息可以在最大的技术支持和最小的人工干预下进行处理和通信。只有（1）计算机、通信设备、办公设备都连网（2）办公人员可以轻松的通过个人电脑，坐在椅子上使用一整套系统，这个目标才能实现，才有可能彻底地改变人们在办公室的工作方式。

NOTES
[1] referring…是分词短语，表示附加说明。term此处代表office automation。
[2] ARPANET美国国防部早期的网络，后成为计算机互联网-Internet。

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