WordPerfect Office 12: A Very Viable Office Alternative The Bottom Line on WPO 12 Wayne Kawamoto
Availability and Pricing
A final, and ultimately vital, consideration: WordPerfect Office 12 costs $100 less than the comparable Microsoft Office upgrade and full-version prices. When you multiply these costs over many licenses, the savings can be significant for small businesses. You can buy WordPerfect Office 12 — Small Business Edition online at www.wordperfect.com and via resellers such as Dell and Softchoice. The suggested retail price is $179 (upgrade version) and $349 (full version).
Bottom Line:
In this latest version, Corel has done an excellent job of making WPO easier to use while also providing a thoroughly capable yet less-expensive replacement for Microsoft Office. The illusion is good enough that rank-and-file users should be able to make the switch with little downtime and few problems. Current MS Office power users, on the other hand, will probably want to stay with Microsoft.
Over the last ten years, Wayne Kawamoto has written over 800 articles, columns and reviews about computers, new technologies, the Internet and small businesses. Wayne has also published three books about upgrading PCs, building office networks and effectively using and troubleshooting notebook computers. You can contact him through his Web site at www.waynewrite.com.
Date of Review: June 22, 2005
Pros: Valuable new additions in version 12, including Task Manager and WordPerfect Mail; Microsoft Office lookalike interface for helping Microsoft Office users quickly get up to speed; integrated Paint Shop Pro image editing program (sold for $99 separately); overall, a more than adequate (for most users) yet less-expensive alternative to Microsoft Office
Cons: Power users will find some Microsoft Office capabilities missing; integrated Norton Internet Security suite only includes a three-month subscription; the Presentations client is the weak link in the suite, especially compared to Microsoft PowerPoint
