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 The Better Wordprocessor, 2008-09-04
It is hard to believe it is two years since Corel released X3. When I found out that the new X4 version had been released, I downloaded the one month demo from Corel.
I don't have much use for anything in the suite except WordPerfect. I've been using WordPerfect since before Windows, when it had a blue screen, displayed ASCII characters in Courier font (there were no fonts except Courier), and laser printers cost a small fortune. I work for a number of attorneys -- WordPerfect is the software of choice for word processing in most offices I've worked in because, in my opinion, it is the better product for the job. It may also be because WordPerfect has been around for so long that everyone just migrated without changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Universal File Support
WordPerfect has very good compatibility with other file formats making it nearly universal. It includes PDF file support which Corel continues to improve in this version. It saves directly to PDF format Corel has now added optical character recognition so you can import PDF files directly into a text document. Although it is not perfect, it converts to and from numerous Word formats including RTF, and all versions through 7. It also supports other formats including WordStar, AMI, OfficeWriter, Lotus, Multimate and numerous others.
Skins
Corel also added two themes so that the skin looks more like XP/Vista, and for those who need it, the Word Count feature is on the application bar at the bottom of the WordPerfect window. This new version appears to be very stable.
Exceptional Word Processing Capabilities
When WordPerfect came out, it took over the market. (It was far superior to the software then available, and remains one of the best.) When MicroSoft came out with Word, I had the feeling they did everything they could to make it different from WordPerfect just to use their power in the industry to take over the word processing market, just like MicroSoft did with every other good software idea to come along. (e.g., Mozilla/Netscape, Norton Utilities.)
I have three versions of Word (2000, 2003 and 2007) and WordPerfect 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, X3 and now X4. I use the MicroSoft product only when absolutely necessary -- usually because someone else sends me a document in that format. The new version of Word is unfamiliar - the traditional pull down menus have been placed sideways on toolbars and rearranged so it is uncomfortable to use. If possible, I will use WordPerfect and save it as a Word document using the "SAVE AS" feature on the "file" pull down menu.
The reason I like WordPerfect so much is that it types more like a typewriter. You can set up and use styles if you want, but you can also just hit the tab button to indent the first line of a paragraph. If you want to change the margins for the entire document, you simply change the margins. The rest of the document follows the change. You don't have to change each paragraph.
In addition, you can get to the formatting codes. Hit Alt-F3 and the screen splits in half and displays all of the format codes -- bold, underline, tabs, indent codes, line spacing, column on and off, etc. Then you know exactly what you have done and fix and format it easily. This ability has proven useful on several occasions when clients, who insist on using Word for legal documents, cannot cajole Word to put their unruly documents into the format they want. (This is particularly true when using OCR with scanned or faxed documents.) By opening the Word document in WordPerfect, I have been able to use "Alt-F3" to identify the errant codes and quickly repair them. WordPerfect can then save the document in Word/RTF format with the problems fixed. This is particularly useful when combined with the global search and replace. For example, you can search and replace all [paragraph style] and end up with a manageable document.
Working with columns is also easier. You turn on columns and tell it how many colums you want, set the width of each, and the space between them, and away you go. You have four types of columns to work with -- newspaper, balanced newspaper, parallel and parallel with block protect. I've tried the other software, and if you change text or printers, you can never get the columns to line up the way you want it. With Word, each column change or page change seems to introduce a whole new set of control codes, and a complete set of formatting, and you can never get it back the way you want it. I once tried to scan in a list of names and addresses which were in two or three columns into Word. Each name and address was placed in its own text box. I could never work with it.
Another very important feature is the ability to view a document from the "open document" screen without having to actually open up the document. This way, if you are searching for a specific document or a document containing certain specific information or "language" you need, you don't have to serially open a document, close it, open another document, and so on until you find the one you want. This is particularly powerful when combined with the "find document" feature on the "open document" screen. Using the find button opens a screen which is similar to the windows "search" screen. You can type in a series of words, and WordPerfect will search all files on the hard drive or in the folder/subfolders in which you are working for all documents containing your target search terms. You can then scroll through and look at each document to quickly determine their contents. From the "find" screen, you can access the "quickfinder" program which pre-scans folders on the computer so that searching for documents is nearly instantaneous. Just tonight I needed to find a "Declaration re Ex Parte Notice" to use as a template from among thousands of documents. The entire search took perhaps half a minute.
The most prominent change between WP 10 and 12/X3/X4 is the workspace manager which allows you to switch between legal mode, original (classic) WordPerfect 5.1 mode (with the blue screen), legal mode, standard WordPerfect for Windows mode and Word mode. They have also included and upgraded the ability to publish to Adobe PDF, HTML, and RTF/Word formats.
This is full featured software, and does everything I need. It handles tables, tables of content, tables of authorities, column sorts -- everything I need in a law office. Graphics can be dropped in with a click of the mouse. I'm considered to be almost an expert, and there is a lot I don't know!
One of the great advantages of WordPerfect is that the files are much smaller than Word documents. This means you can transport them on floppy drives.
As a final thought, Word is very powerful and works very well for short documents such as business letters. If you do anything over several pages, you are much better off with WordPerfect.
Take time to get to know the software and you'll be glad you purchased it.
Other Programs:
The Corel Office package includes replacement programs for most of the stuff in Microsoft Office. The suite includes a Microsoft Outlook replacement (Mail), a PowerPoint replacement (Presentation), an exceptional spreadsheet program (Quattro) and Lightning. I haven't yet figured out what Lightning does except act as a notebook of some sort.
WordPerfect X4, 2008-09-02
WordPerfect has always given the user much better control over the formatting of documents, through its "Reveal Codes" function than does Microsoft Word. It can also import documents from Word 2007 and now-forgotten word-processing programs such as WordStar, Ami Pro, and XyWrite III.
2 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
Wordperfect Outstanding, 2008-08-02
Wordperfect Office X4 Standard Upgrade
WordPerfect is an excellent word processor with features unavailable in any other software product, including "reveal codes" and "make it fit", not to mention the only usable legal software integrated into the software. I've used WordPerfect since version 8, and am very pleased with the functionality and user friendly interface. The new X4 version makes converting to WordPerfect from Word a snap, setting up an interface compatible with Word for those users used to Word 97-2003. This makes learning and using WordPerfect easy.
I've used other programs including Word 97-2003, Word 2007, MS Works, and Open Office 2.4 and truly appreciate the difference a well crafted suite can make in daily use. I consider WordPerfect not only equal to Word but far superior in editing abilities. It is the best software on the market today for converting other software formats, not only for viewing but for saving in those other formats as well, plus saving in pdf, html and xml, with far fewer errors than the competitors. If you want a reliable program that is functional across the market spectrum and reaches back to the earliest Dos versions also, then this inexpensive software is for you. I highly recommend it. Five stars.
7 of 7 customers found the following review helpful:
My Attorney Brother Says, if You're a Lawyer You have to have WordPerfect, 2008-06-26
My older brother is an attorney and so he's been a long time WordPerfect fan, but me, I've always used Word, I suppose because way back when, when I got my first computer it was already installed on it (I bought the machine used and it came with a ton of software). When I bought my first new computer, I bought Word and just kept upgrading.
However, now that I've tried my lawyer brother's favorite program, I have to say I kind of like it. Will it replace Word on my machine? Probably not, not because I think it's an inferior program, but because I have Word set up exactly the way I want and I guess I'm a creature of habit. I do, however, find myself going to WordPerfect more and more recently. I've had it about a month now and I use it for quick work, you know a note to myself, or a fast letter.
I think one of the reasons I go to WordPerfect, is because I really like the way you can select a section of your document, then roll over the fonts in the font menu and watch as the font in the selected area changes as fast as your roll down the menu. That is neat. If you're doing a flyer or anything that wants an exotic font, this is cool.
So, yeah, I do like the program. I use it and will continue to use it, but for now, for me, it's still
Word's little brother. But according to my brother, if you're an attorney, then you have to have this program, as it's the only WP out there that knows how to format legal documents.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
WordPerfect Office X4 is GREAT, 2008-06-22
I am a hands-on attorney, who drafts all his documents and have been a WP user since WP first came out and must have a reliable word processing program to do my work. It's WP's easy ability to allow its users to edit formatting codes using the "Reveal Codes" feature that, in my opinion, makes WP superior to the competition (which simply does not offer the ease of formatting printed pages that WP does). I was experiencing some runovers on the right margin (using the full justification format option) while printing to my Laserjet printer and "pdf" files and those same documents now print perfectly using WP X4. I recommend WP X4 to everyone who needs a reliable word processing program.
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