Mon 5/5/03 -- Long the underdog, Corel WordPerfect has both filled a niche and maintained a strong following over the years. The latest WordPerfect Office 11 offers added polish rather than major new capabilities: Stronger XML tools will help businesses publish documents in the XML format, and enhanced document-navigation and -routing tools will work well in many offices. But while government, legal, and application-development power users will be tempted, staunch Microsoft Office users will find little to tempt them to switch -- except possibly for the Corel suite's continuing support for Windows versions as far back as NT 4.0 and 98SE, unlike Microsoft Office 2003.
The WordPerfect Office 11 Standard Edition tested here ($300, or $150 as an upgrade) comes with the WordPerfect word processor, Quattro Pro spreadsheet, and Presentations slide-show program. The Professional version, now available only as a corporate-office volume license, adds the Paradox database program to the mix; an educational-market version of the Professional package is $100.
The WordPerfect 11 word processor remains a powerful contender. A useful new Document Map feature helps users navigate within long files -- if you have a document organized by sections, for instance, you can click a section to immediately view that portion of the file, which beats scrolling endlessly through on-screen pages. Another plus is WordPerfect's thesaurus -- actually the Pocket Oxford Dictionary, which provides meanings, history, and pronunciation for some 30,000 words.
An improved Reveal Codes feature offers greater control over document formatting and lets you print codes in order to review them on paper, though this probably isn't a function that most users will take advantage of. As before, the program comes with helpful PerfectExperts, clear instructions that guide you through tasks such as adding headers and footers, setting margins, and more.
It may appeal more to IT managers than rank-and-file typists, but improved XML integration lets you publish WordPerfect documents, Presentations slide shows, and Quattro Pro spreadsheets to XML. This is a strong enhancement to the suite's file-sharing options and encourages the distribution of content to multiple devices.
You can convert individual or batches of files among a wide range of formats, including those of Microsoft Office. Perhaps most important from a filing standpoint, the latest WordPerfect's unchanged document format maintains direct file compatibility with WordPerfect version 6.1.
Deja View
Speaking of old versions, WordPerfect 11 offers an interface mode that mimics the blue-background look of the venerable version 5.1 that ran under DOS a decade ago. Talk about going back to the future. While Corel says this feature was requested by a number of fans, it's hard to imagine who would want to use it, but it's harmless to the rest of us who have moved on.
New routing functions allow for a stronger review process, particularly when documents are written by multiple authors or feedback is needed from a large number of reviewers. WordPerfect increases its appeal to legal professionals with a Pleading Wizard that walks users through the process of creating pleading documents.
In a notable oversight -- or perhaps a case of facing market realities and throwing in the towel -- WordPerfect Office no longer provides an e-mail client or personal information manager. To use the new routing features, users must rely on Novell GroupWise or, gasp, Microsoft Outlook. That said, we were impressed with the suite's ability to use information from Outlook -- for example, to merge contact information into letters and envelopes.
The suite comes with a solid collection of photos, clip art, and fonts and offers strong options for creating or customizing your workspace with different menus, settings, and property and application bars. Users familiar with WordPerfect will find the suite's interface is similar to that of past versions and consistent across all applications -- there was no reason to change a good thing.
WordPerfect Office can publish to Adobe Acrobat PDF files, a feature not offered in Microsoft Office. And its scripting languages let expert users create custom dialog boxes to simplify tasks or add functions.
As for the other applications, the classic Quattro Pro spreadsheet returns with strong charting features and a QuickSubtotal feature that applies totals to a column for fast analysis; a CrossTab Reports feature summarizes data.
Presentations, long in the shadow of Microsoft's PowerPoint, adds a QuickWarp tool to mold objects into preset shapes; a Quick3D tool to add dimension to text; and support for animated GIF images and MP3 and WMA sound files. A useful Show On the Go feature lets you create self-executing versions of slide shows for playback on any Windows PC.
While we didn't evaluate the Professional suite's Paradox database (updated with stronger sharing features, according to Corel), when you consider that Microsoft Office 2003 Professional includes not only Access but Microsoft's Publisher 2003 desktop-publishing package and Business Contact Manager 2003, Microsoft seems the clear ruler among high-end suite bundles.
Still, WordPerfect Office remains capable, stable software -- we encountered no crashes or glitches testing the "gold" prerelease version of the suite on Windows XP -- with first-rate, helpful assistance, particularly from the PerfectExperts. (That's good, since while Corel's Web site offers a thorough Q&A database, there's no way to ask questions via e-mail, and phone support is a costly toll call to Canada plus per-incident or per-minute charges.)
Neither Microsoft Office loyalists nor current desktop or small-office WordPerfect fans may find enough in the newest suite to warrant an upgrade. But if your company can use the new XML integration, WordPerfect Office 11 is definitely worth a look.
