New WordPerfect Releases Reviewed

MikeCapone writes "The Jem Report has an extensive review (all in one page, no flash ads -- what a concept!) of Corel WordPerfect 12 for Windows and the proof of concept comeback of WordPerfect for Linux."

Comments

Re:LaTeX

[tomstdenis]

LaTeX is for hippies who like proper typesetting.

The rest of the world is ready to contend with bloaty 2GB "text editors" that will easily put things in the wrong spot and not be compatible between versions and not have professional macros for document logistics and preamble.

Ha!

The hole it left has been filled

[Rico_za]

From the article:
At the time WordPerfect was easily the most popular proprietary application for GNU/Linux, and the hole that it left opened the door for many people to switch to OpenOffice, StarOffice, AbiWord, KWord, TextMaker and others

Why would I change back from a decent, FREE, application like OpenOffice to WordPerfect? If they're planning on selling it on the name, or because people remember WP, it's too late for that now. OpenOffice has taken over, and could soon be challenging MS Office in a big way.

Re:The hole it left has been filled

[AKAImBatman]

Mod parent up.

Corel had their chance back when they built Corel Linux. But instead of putting the *work* into making native code, improving Linux, and making the experience overall better, they simply used the WINE libs to "port" their same old WordPerfect Suite then heaped it on top of an existing Linux distro. In other words, they did the least work possible and saw the least return. Sun OTOH has put a lot of money and effort into OpenOffice/StarOffice, GNOME, and their new Java Desktop System. This has been allowing Sun to maintain the Desktop/Workstation market while their competitors (HP, IBM, and SGI - poor saps) flounder in the Unix market.

Re:Yay

[grub]

Nice in theory but it will never happen.

1 - They may be able to shave a few megs off, sure, but with MS' fatal infection of creeping featuritis that would be offset in no time.
2 - They're the 800 lb gorilla, "it's up to the other companies/projects to figure out and support the .DOC format."
3 - Protecting their bottom line and investors' cash is their job, they can't help it.
4 - Invented outside of MS? C'mon Tom, you should know better! :)

Let's hope

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

that they stick with what they did best, making a solid word processor with a ample set of features, that LET YOU set tabs, margins, hanging indents, etc. with ease. It was very intuitive app to use.

I know that in MS Word, I curse every day with the damn Autoformat features that try to do everything for you, even when I try to turn the features off, it is still a pain in the ass.

It seems you are trying to write a letter, would you like to:

• Have me format it for you?
• Lockup & Crash, right before a save
• Shoot Clippy in the Head!

Re:No mail client.

[CrazyTalk]

At work we used groupwise, and at the University where I'm taking a night class they use Lotus Notes, so Exchange Server isn't as ubiquitous as you think. Plus, everyone running Windows has outlook express for "free" as well as web mail, so lack of an email client in the office suite isn't that big of a deal.

Re:Yay

[tomstdenis]

Hehehe true dat.

Well making money goodism aside they amalgamate crap together until the user is so inundated with "features" they just assume it's great. Then when they learn that the auto-toc isn't standard and easy to trip up [as I found out last semester when I was forced to use it] or that you have to manually layout figures, tables, etc.... it looks less like "neat" and more like "life sucks".

Sure a WYSIWYG is good for short memos and shit. That's why "write" exists. But for manuals, books, papers and reports LaTeX is always the best choice.

Sadly only 10 people in the world seem to know this ;-)

Of course MS could just make their own port of TeX and call it MSReX or something... claim they invented it. At least then it would be something I'd use.

Tom