A keystroke away.

• Author: Lewers, Christine
• Position: Growing use of digital copiers and desktop computers

Copiers and desktop computers are no longer strangers.

This summer Jeff Hale was in charge of overseeing the leasing and installation of his company's first digital copiers. As manager of office services at Borg-Warner Automotive in Muncie, Hale also listens to what many of the plant's 1,300 employees have to say about the new machines.

"We've had to do a lot of convincing," Hale says, explaining that the digital equipment will do much more than fill the role of traditional office copiers. The switch also means employees are just a few keystrokes away from sending print jobs large and small directly from their desktops to the new, networked copiers.

"The comment I keep getting is 'I can't even run a copier machine. How am I ever going to learn to send jobs from my computer?'"

Hale's company isn't the only one facing the challenge of changing office technology. Shipments of digital copiers equipped to handle computer printing increased 166 percent nationally in 1998, according to Dataquest, a provider of document-management market information.

The technology that drives digital copiers is much the same as what's inside a personal laser printer. The new machines are replacing analog copiers, which operate like cameras, taking a photo of an original over and over again depending on how many copies are needed.

While digital copiers have been manufactured for about four years, it has only been in the past year that their prices have come down enough to make them competitive with comparable analog models, say office-technology experts. Falling prices combined with the potential for digital copiers to help companies cut costs and increase productivity are fueling their popularity.

Probably the most profound differences between digital and analog copiers is that the new machines are multifunctional and connectable to computer networks, says Sue Matchett, a digital copier expert with Xerox in Indianapolis.

Because they scan documents to digital format, the new machines can copy and print, as well as send and receive faxes. Using optical character recognition, some of the latest digital models are even able to scan a hard copy to an electronic file.

The ability to connect digital printing devices to local area networks or mainframes allows users to print from their desktop to the device. This lets multiple users print to one machine, often eliminating the need for a laser or jet printer on each desk, says Matchett.

Then there is quality. The old...