by harry goldstein with randy williams Office work has undergone a revolution in the last 20 years. Typewriters and file cabinets have been replaced by PCs, which combine both functions in one neat package. Those of us who have grown up with computers manage to adapt to new programs relatively quickly, the Windows/Mac OS "desktop" metaphor having been drilled into our heads from a very early age. If you know one Windows-based program, it's relatively easy to learn another -- whether it's a database, spreadsheet or word processing program. As Bill Gates closes in on his dream of making Windows indistinguishable from a Macintosh, even translating skills from one desktop environment to another is becoming a simple matter of point and click, trial and error. But as the paradigm has shifted -- from punch cards, printed text, file rooms, and the telephone to virtual text, document imaging, optical data storage, and e-mail -- there has been a drastic change in the way we work and the ways we communicate with one another. A lot of older, less adaptable workers have already been left floundering for their lives. Now we, the Children of the PC, must ready ourselves for the next big paradigm shift in the work environment -- virtual offices. CONTENTS: Harry Goldstein: The Working Future Randy Williams: Dialing In for Dollars Interview: Scott Wilton , Director of Information Technology at OfficePlus Interview: Joan Greenbaum , author of "Windows on the Workplace" Interview: Brian Boodry , Housatonic Valley Realty Net About the Authors © 1996 Harry Goldstein, Randall L. Williams, and Tripod, Inc. All rights reserved.