Like the mythical Phoenix, Corel has risen from its ashes and has entered the office suite market with a vengeance, in a clear attempt to topple the ubiquitous Microsoft Office Suite from its dominance of the market by introducing version 12 of its suite of office products. WordPerfect Office 12 is now in the retail channels in three flavors, a standard edition, a deeply discounted student and teacher (academic) edition, and a home edition. Each of these three editions is priced at retail significantly below that of comparable Microsoft products, and is commonly available at “street prices” considerably below retail.
Long time word processor users may well remember the dominance that WordPerfect had in the past, once dominating the field, only to lose its position to Microsoft’s marketing power. The new version 12 is a sincere attempt to regain that dominance by offering a product with features, such as the WordPerfect classic “reveal codes” that enabled users to better format documents. Additionally, this product offers compatibility with Microsoft data formats, and a front end that can be in the familiar WordPerfect format, or emulate the Microsoft menu and command set allowing for a zero learning curve for Microsoft Office users. These as well as other features may threaten Microsoft Office’s near monopoly on the office market. This office suite can seamlessly read and write Microsoft data formats, such that documents created in Word can be read, edited, and saved by WordPerfect, or other suite components, back to Microsoft’s native formats, easing any transition between products.
The WordPerfect 12 Home Edition ($89 retail) is the basic version with additional features useful to home (and small business) users. The Home Edition contains the word processor, and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet, which many experts claim is far superior to Microsoft’s Excel. Other interesting features of the Home version include the “Home Financial Solutions Pack” to ease personal financial transactions and recordkeeping; Encyclopedia Britannica Ready Reference 2005, which includes an encyclopedia, thesaurus, atlas, and dictionary; Photobook and Photo Album to edit and store digital photos, Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD version 8LE to create and burn CDs and DVDs; and can create and publish any of its data files in the now universal PDF format, without using an external PDF writer. As an added feature, with cyber security being such a hot issue today, the WordPerfect Home Edition 12 also includes Norton Internet Security Suite 2005, to protect against viruses, worms, hackers, and other cyber threats. The Home version does not contain the Presentations 12 multimedia presentation utility, or Paradox, one of the finest database utilities on the market.
The Student and Teacher version ($99 retail), and the full “Standard” edition ($299 full edition, $149 upgrade edition) are nearly identical in content, and include the Presentations 12 and Paradox programs, in addition to the WordPerfect word processor, and Quattro Pro spreadsheet. These editions do not include some of the Home add-ons such as the encyclopedia, photo utilities, and Norton Internet Security. Both of these additions can open, read, edit, and write Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Both versions also include a “Legal Tools” module, including a legal toolbar, pleadings wizard, concordance tool, and EDGAR. The Standard version also includes Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications version 6.3.
A free trial version and details on all three versions is available at www.wordperfect.com.
It is nice to see healthy competition in the market, as well as different versions priced appropriately for home, academic, and office use. It is also nice to see that Corel has recovered from its doldrums with fresh financing, and is back producing world class products intended to rival the market leader. Personally, I have used Quattro Pro, Corel’s spreadsheet, for many years, and prefer it over Microsoft’s Excel because of its intuitive ease of use, superior graphics, and outstanding data handling capabilities. The Home edition, bundled with its many utilities including those from Norton, Pinnacle, and Corel is actually quite a bargain compared to the individual prices if purchased separately. The Home edition would be a great addition for any PC user, and ideal for a new computer or user. Dell has recognized these facts, and has chosen to bundle Corel’s WordPerfect 12 suite with its new computers, displacing Microsoft Word and Office as its chosen suite.
If you are looking for your first office suite, or a replacement, supplement, or upgrade to your present word processor and spreadsheet, WordPerfect 12 is a very compelling alternative.
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