I recently found a very cheap copy of "Gregg Shorthand for the Administrative Assistant", Centennial Edition, 1990. The Centennial materials have always struck me as a little rough, but honest to goodness, this has to be the ugliest book in the Gregg Series. There's not a single photograph or other interesting graphic in the whole book, just page after page of connected matter with accents, borders, headings etc. in an irritating blue color.
Some of the other centennial books have color photos of office environments and shorthand in use, but this book has nothing. I can't imagine anything less inspiring for a student to tackle.
I wonder what possessed McGraw-Hill to put out such a bland volume . . . maybe the whole Centennial project was running out of steam by then?