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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."
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I've got an old copy of WordPerfect for Amiga. It's the last version they made. (4.1.12?). Got it in an envelope directly from WordPerfect corporation. Wonder if it has any upgrade value :)
Can you save the documents in LaTeX-format?
I really hope they can get some marketshare back, MS Office deserves the competition.
It might even spur MS to really innovate again.
This is the sig that says NI (again)
So if you're looking for a suite that you can use in a Microsoft-centric office, you'd better have another solution for talking to that Exchange server.
Is it just me, or is this remarkably silly? Exchange/Outlook is the hub of most offices' operations these days. Not speaking Exchange's calendar and contact protocols is tantamount to not speaking the Word file format five or six years back.
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.
A history on wordperfect by the great Wikipedia.
an extensive review (all in one page, no flash ads -- what a concept!)
And for all the bandwidth that would save, the webserver is still DOA...
The coolest voice ever.
In the late 90's Corel experimented with the GNU/Linux operating system, developing their own distribution known as Corel Linux and porting their WordPerfect word processor to it. It survived from version 7 to version 9, but in August of 2001 the entire GNU/Linux project was cancelled at Corel and assets sold, thereby ending Corel Linux and WordPerfect Office for Linux. 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. Now with new leadership, Corel has come back with a proof-of-concept GNU/Linux rework of WordPerfect 8; this review will examine this proof-of-concept software as well as the new WP Office 12 for Windows to see just where Corel is headed with their office software.
Purpose
Office suite
Manufacturer
Corel
Platforms
Windows 98SE/NT/2K/XP/2003 (note that Windows ME is not supported)
WordPerfect for Linux requires GNU/Linux with the 2.0 kernel or later and a functional X11 graphical environment
License
Proprietary, heavily restrictive
Market
Home users, small and medium-sized businesses, legal professionals and government agencies
Price (retail)
Available from the Corel e-store for US$300, or $150 for the upgrade. Academic editions are available for $100.
Demo
Click here to register and download the trial version of WP Office 12
Screen Shot
See article for more than a dozen screen shots, or click here for a directory listing of all screenshots related to WP Office 12
Recommended System
128 MB RAM, Pentium III or equivalent processor, 400 MB hard disk space, CD-ROM drive, keyboard and mouse or tablet
It was the promise of WordPerfect for Linux that got me to switch away from Windows in the first place, about a year and a half ago. Being an avid writer I was a die-hard fan of WordPerfect 10 (2002) and I didn't really want to switch if I couldn't use it anymore. Unfortunately after I completed the switch to GNU/Linux I was unable to locate any Linux-related resources on Corel's site -- they'd taken it all down. News came of Corel's money problems and rumor had it that a $135 million stock purchase (about 20% of the company) by Microsoft Corporation had kept Corel afloat with the understanding that they would terminate their GNU/Linux business. I don't know if the latter was true, but given the situation and the reputation of one of the parties involved I would say that it's at least likely.
Not long after, Microsoft sold their shares to Vector Capital at a 90% loss. More recently Vector moved to buy the rest of the outstanding shares of Corel, thereby turning it into a privately held company again. Overall this is a very positive move because it prevents underhanded manipulation by outside companies like Microsoft (again), but oddly there were some who resisted the buyout. It's hard to tell what went on behind the scenes, but the results are obvious and quite encouraging: there is a renewed interest in GNU/Linux porting and now there's a new version of the superior WP Office for Windows.
It's All About Microsoft
One thing that has definitely changed is the market focus of the WP product line. Corel has already realized their niche markets (legal and government), and WP 10 and 11 seemed to pander specifically to them without regard for the competition. Good for lawyers and governments, but not necessarily so good for people who want to do other things.
It's been a little over two years since WordPerfect 11 was announced and released, but I never had the chance to review it because there was some mysterious reluctance to sending out review copies of the software at the time of my request. No surprise that there was virtually no press on WordPerfect 11 except for legal and government-related print publications. That tunnel-vision focus is gone and has now broadened to include small and medium-sized busines
After coming back to WP at about v8-9, and moving through v11, I can safely say this program is stagnant. It seems like every other product bought by a company and shipped out to Russia or elsewhere for development. (Except Turbocad which I love)
See what simple bell you can add so that we can up the version and ship out a new one in 6 months. Fix old bugs? Sure a few, but the focus is more on adding junk in order to name a new edition.
I quit and gave in to MS Office. Why MS office? becuase it works best with windows (MS secret APIs undoubtidly), and my mom uses windows because of the visual aid software available on it. and I can not teach my mother to use Linux, so don't even say it! She is legally blind already..
For document storage, I convert each character into an octal number, than arrange grains of sand into little piles on my basement floor. It works fine; I have no idea why anyone needs anything else.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
This is the best comment ever to explain the role of presentation software:
"Presentation software has quietly become an essential tool for validating otherwise totally useless company meetings; it makes a lot of nothing look like something important (...)"
I would add:
If you don't have anything good to say, put it in a presentation.
This is a glorified WP 8.0. Based on Motif and all. After that bombastic press release, I was expecting a bit too much, I guess; this is roughly the same thing we had in 1999.
When they come back with a decent interface, all of WP12 features and full support for OASIS format, they may have a chance. This is just half-arsed.
Well, I won't comment on WordPerfect for Linux not supporting dictionary definitions... okay, I guess I did. That stinks. But the Windows version, which supports dictionary definitions, requires you to pay for a complete dictionary.. it's the Oxford "concise" dictionary. If I'm paying for a dictionary service, I'd at least want the unabridged definitions, with an option to only see concise definitions. Also, it'd be nice if they offer a free alternative, allowing the user to specify a dictionary server and interfacing it using the DICT protocol. See RFC 2229 and dict.org for an example at what's available for free.
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:
I'm still waiting for their next release of the Java port of WordPerfect.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Maybe this means that a new version of Visicalc is just around the corner!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Where I work, only Corel WordPerfect Office licences are officially approved as budget expenses, and supported by the Help Desk.
Yet, I see more and more MS Office documents pass through my department.
But a lot of the people who use either app still don't know how to write a document properly with tabs and other text formatting functions (e.g. 20 spaces instead of two tabs, pressing Enter at the end of each line, etc.)
Maybe it's time I saw a hypnotherapist...
The Jem Report has an extensive review
And it's outrageous. Truly truly truly outrageous.
[/80s cartoon]
--saint
If they're working on WordPerfect for Linux, might they consider doing an OS X version as well? How tough can that be if they've done the hard work of making it run on Linux? Now there's a market...
When I saw that WordPerfect for Linux was available I grabbed my wallet for my credit card. I clicked the "buy now", only to see that Corel only sell to US or Canadian billing addresses. That sucks since I live in the EU.
/., that will write comments on "how it is to late for Corel", or "Why bother, OO.org is free", or "reveal codes is overrated / not necessary in a modern Word processor" or "I write everything in ed - the standard editor, so you should do too"
I guess that there will be a lot of people here on
Well I disagree with all that. I want my WP for Linux.
-0-
I had been an avid fan of Wordperfect back to the days of the much beloved 5.1 for DOS.
If you wanted or needed to have complete control of your document it beat Word hands down. Over the years Reveal Codes alone has saved me many hours of work trying figure out why formatting didn't work.
The real masters of Wordperfect though were always the secretarial folks in any large company. They could make it sing and dance. They didn't need Wizards and Clippy because they knew that program inside out, and knew how to make it do exactly what they needed.
Word simply cannot be controlled in the same manner as WordPerfect. The automagic features in Word are still a phenomenal pain in the ass. It is still possible to find your formatting totally screwed up with no way to find out what's wrong.
So am I still using Wordperfect?
Only for two things: envelope printing, for which it has the best widget I've seen, and outlining, which it does much, much better than Word because it doesn't try to out-think you or take over the whole process.
Other than those, I have moved almost entirely over to Open Office which avoids most of the really irritating things about MS Word, and does so at a price that WP can't beat.
Three Squirrels
Looking at the screenshot of the upcoming word perfect for Linux, and what-do-you-know... MOTIF again all over?!?
Anyone at Corel ever heard of QT? GTK? how about some common interface with KDE or GNOME? (or both? I could always hope...)
It looks like someone took the old version (6? 7? and just doing some touch ups...)..
nah, no sig... move on..
I STILL use WordPerfect 5.1. (I've even written TeX source with it on my (sorry) Windoze machines: write and save as text in the WP window, up-arrow a few times in the Command Prompt window to (re)run LaTeX on the source, see the changes instantly in the dvi viewer window).
I'm glad to see Wordperfect return to the software stage, but I think it is far too late.
Microsoft Word OWNS the document market by virtue of mass action - no one can fight the torrent of Word documents coming at them from all sides. The stubborn of us, like me, use OpenOffice/Abiword and fight the good fight. But we also get a major benefit - those tools are zero $$$ in cost. That makes a difference, and quite realistically is the only reason they are used on a large scale - if people had to pay $$ similar to what they pay Microsoft, they'd pay it and move on. But free is good for low budget situations. There is the long term benefit of the code always being available and thus in theory the app can survive as long as it is needed, but experimental evidence seems to indicate that benefit isn't enough to counter the Momentum of Microsoft. No one is seriously worried about Word vanishing.
So, I conclude WordPerfect has no chance to be a large scale commercial product. It might survive in small corners somewhere, but the cost of it will turn off the people seriously looking for a Word alternative. It's not open source, so even the small subset who might pay $$$ for an open source app because it is open are out. Their only real potential market is businesses that are going to Linux, but want a commercial word processor and are willing to retrain their folk to WordPerfect. In that scenario OpenOffice is hard to beat, but maybe some companies don't want it. But will that be enough to fund development?
I hate to see this, but it seems to always work like this - market share is EVERYTHING. Even Linux and OpenOffice, with zero up front cost, are only slowly making headway against the inertia out there. Wordperfect doesn't have a ghost of a chance - most of its potential market (i.e. willing to consider something other than Word) has moved/will move to the free OpenOffice suite. If your retraining anyway, why not go for the free, open product?
I don't imagine Wordperfect will ever be open sourced, which is a shame. I used WP8 a little and liked it. Much lighter weight than OO, for one thing. But except as an open source app it won't survive. Too little, too late.
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
I keep hoping for a full office suite under linux, not just a wordprocessing program, spreadsheet, and presentation program, but also a good PIM, and desktop Database application.
I know people are going to say OpenOffice.Org, Evolution, and use MySQL. I already do, but MySQL is a little daunting and big for what I really need. Access is more what I need, something small, easy to use, and quick to set stuff up in, when you are not a DBA.
Don't get me wrong, I love OpenOffice, I use it all the time, Evolution does a great job for me (when I'm not using a web browser, or pine), but as I said the desktop Database is still for me the missing piece.
Maybe it is just me.
Just turn of JavaScript and go to www.thejemreport.com/software/wplinux.php for the full article in HTML (it bypasses the database, which is now overloaded).
-JemA finished, full-featured word processing program seems to be a pretty tall order.
...that have gotten reviewed as "an excellent starting point," ... ...and that never evolved into a serious, finished product... ...I'd have, I dunno, $0.35 or $0.40. Easily.
If I had a nickel for all the projects that have been mentioned in the last few years that manage to come up, with say, a Word-alike toolbar, and a ruler with pretty tabs on it and a feature set comparable to AppleWorks, and partial RTF-format compatibility except for details like font display... that have all the capability you need for a business letter...
Please spare me the products that are at an "excellent starting point." Wake me up when something crosses the finish line.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I'd fork out the cash to buy Word Perfect in a second if they had a CLI interface on it. There are times when I'd just *kill* to be able to open a .doc file without having to pull up X Windows. Does anybody know if there is an option out there to do just this?
Bah, give up trolling - you're crap at it. For those that don't know look here
I've heard people complain about MDI before (going back to my OS/2 days), and I am finally going to ask: just what is supposed to be wrong with MDI? I, personally, prefer the "entire app in one box" interface to the "plaster 6 independent boxes around your screen without telling you which app they are part of" approach (I'll make an exception for visual IDEs, where you need to see separately the window you are working on). So, why do people dislike MDI?
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
With that being said, most Windows users are under the illusion that Windows Font Management is phenomenal when it is not. But drag n' drop or import to /Fonts under Windows makes it seem so as opposed to most Linux approaches to Font Management.
Neither one compares to OS X's Font Management, but I'll take Linux after OS X for Desktop Publishing needs. It just requires a bit more "out-of-the-box" thinking to really understand one's productivity outputs increase with Linux and OS X and decreases with XP.
Still with that being said, Openstep had me more productive with its marriage of simplicity, elegance of a clean UI and openness of its UNIX underpinnings.
I work in an office with a few graphic designers who love the new Photoshop features that are added with each release. Seriously, they come back from seminars raving -- and these aren't droids, they're intelligent and talented professionals.
I know you call a lot of those high-end features "bloat", but Adobe is catering to the professionals who use this software endlessly in their jobs, know that Adobe delivers, and will pay for it (because it's effectively earning them thousands).
It's not worth it to these people to try some freebie (if cost was the factor, wouldn't they just go to Corel or PSP?) that leaves them playing catch-up in features from the very start?
And with Adobe's new Creative Suite, it's quite affordable to get Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign for under AUD$1500 (USD$1k).
For consumers, it's a different story, but if they didn't want the bloat, then there are tonnes of budget options around with more trusting names than The Gimp. Can you imagine parents finding that link in their kids' start menu? Hah.
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
I tried the WordPerfect Office 12 trial download. The first thing I did with it was open up some (very) old documents I have which were saved with WordPerfect 5.1. Normally I would expect the formatting to change slightly because WP customarily reformats your document for the default printer. Much to my surprise, after viewing the first two pages the rest of the entire document was missing!! I tried a few other documents (each of which should have had dozens of pages), and they all showed the same problem -- only two pages came through, the rest disappeared.
... for over five minutes. That's when I gave up and hit "Cancel". Of course, that caused WP to stop responding, so I had to give it the three-finger salute. (To be fair, WP 8 wasn't any good at opening those MS Word documents either.)
By way of comparison, I regularly use WP 8, and it has never had any problem opening up WP 5.1 files.
Just for the heck of it, I also tried opening up another old document which had been saved with MS Word 6.0, since WP claims to have better Word compatibility. Well, it brought up the "Converting document" dialog box with the pages flashing yellow and white furiously
I also tried opening up a spreadsheet I had saved with Quatro Pro 8 into Quatro Pro 12. This sheet had several pages of charts attached to it. Well, the new Quatro Pro completely redid the formatting of my charts. The line styles and fonts had changed. The numeric format of the X axis labels was changed from dates ("Apr 29") to numeric codes (32756...). One of my line series which should have been scaled to the secondary Y axis was instead scaled to the primary axis. And one of the series seems to have been corrupted, because the right end of the line shot back to the left edge of the chart and made a vertical line. Even worse than losing the formatting was the fact that I couldn't fix it.
Personally, I don't care about WP being compatible with PDF, XML, or MS Word. But if it can't even remain compatible with WP's own file formats, I'm not going to upgrade.