WordPerfect
From Wikinfo
WordPerfect is a word processing program; at the height of its popularity in the early 1990s, it served as the de facto standard word processor, but has since been eclipsed by Microsoft Word.
Originally produced by the WordPerfect Corporation, it was sold, first to Borland, then to Novell and finally to Corel. Soon it was bundled with Quattro Pro and other programs into an office applications suite first called Perfect Office, then WordPerfect Office. WordPerfect was late in coming to market with a Windows version, and the program suffered a decline in popularity from which it has never recovered. Amongst its remaining avid users are some law firms and a few universities. Nor did Corel's attempt to promote it as the standard word processor on Linux systems prove successful.
There has been a recent technology preview of WordPerfect 8 for Linux and in april of 2004, the company released an updated version of WordPerfect 8, for Linux, as a "Proof-of-Concept", to test the Linux marketplace.
WordPerfect was known for using just about every possible combination of function keys. This made it necessary for many users to use a keyboard template describing how to accomplish a function. This was in contrast to WordStar, which it supplanted as the major word processor.
WordPerfect aficionados remain convinced of the superiority of their word processor of choice, pointing out the way in which the Reveal Codes function (which allows the user to toggle between normal editing mode and a mode in which embedded formatting commands are visible and editable) gives the power user very precise control over the text. They also argue that WordPerfect has powerful features for creating tables of authorities in legal documents and correctly counts the number of words in the document, including footnotes.
Those preferring the Microsoft Office suite cite MS Office's better integration between the different programs (such as e-mail programs), and WordPerfect's poor implementation of Windows conventions (in the early Windows versions of WordPerfect) and what they perceived as its lack of user-friendliness. These arguments lost all validity since at least 1996, when newer versions of WordPerfect eliminated those perceived weaknesses. Corel's marketing department has failed to successfully communicate their product's superiority to the general public, drawing laments from dedicated users.
WordPerfect continues to add new features, having just released version 12 of the program.
Older features that are still unique to WordPerfect, compared to Word, include a one-click PDF creation feature, which lets users convert their documents to PDF without buying Adobe Acrobat. It also features a built-in dictionary and a thesaurus which suggests new words from a drop-down box while users type. Unlike Word, all editions of WordPerfect since version 6 also use the same file format, making it easy for users to share documents between newer and older copies.
External links
- Corel's Website
- Wordperfect vs. Word - A user webpage that compares the features of the two programs using a point system
- Almost Perfect, a history of WordPerfect Corporation (and the word processor)
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "WordPerfect" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPerfect, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
