WordPerfect Office 12

WordPerfect Office 12

Throughout the past few years, I have started to wonder if word processing programmers have run out of ideas for ways to improve their software. It seems all the clever features already have been added. Gone are the days of pioneering such features as auto-paragraph numbering, tables or cross-references. Now all we get are enhanced toolbars, new installation options and different add-on programs.

Don’t get me wrong: WordPerfect Office 12 is a good product. It just doesn’t offer a lot of new features that make you want to rush to upgrade.

Corel improved WordPerfect Office’s compatibility with Microsoft Office products. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right? I tried opening a complicated Microsoft Word document — one with a table, an index of definitions, a table of contents, multiple styles, auto-paragraph numbers and cross references — in WordPerfect. Although the document didn’t display exactly as it would in Word (the table appeared more spread out than it should have), all the features converted well, and better than in previous versions of WordPerfect. Nevertheless, it still probably isn’t a good idea to send a document back and forth between the two programs.

A new feature in WordPerfect Office 12 is the Workspace Manager. When you start WordPerfect, the Workspace Manager appears, offering you four modes in which to work: WordPerfect mode, Microsoft Word mode, WordPerfect Classic (version 5.1) mode and WordPerfect Legal mode.

The WordPerfect mode is the standard WordPerfect 12 interface. The Microsoft Word mode reconfigures the WordPerfect menus and toolbars so they mimic Word. WordPerfect Classic mode switches to a blue screen with white lettering. You also can use the original WordPerfect Classic keystrokes (for example, “F7” to print). This is helpful to those who never upgraded from WordPerfect 5.1, but isn’t really helpful to other users. WordPerfect Legal mode runs WordPerfect with the Legal Toolbar displayed.

If you don’t want to make a selection from the Workspace Manager each time WordPerfect starts, you can turn it off and select a mode from the “Tools” menu while using WordPerfect.

There also are new Compatibility toolbars for working with Word files. If you turn on the “Microsoft Word Compatibility” option by going to the “View,” then “Toolbars” menu, a special toolbar will appear allowing you to quickly save documents in Word format. You also can publish files to Portable Document Format, or Web, Excel, eXtensible Markup Language or PowerPoint formats.

Installation options for upgrade users have been improved. Corel claims you now can upgrade without uninstalling a previous version, although I recall being able to do this when I upgraded to WordPerfect 11.

In addition, customization and preference settings can be forwarded to the new version, but I don’t think all of my settings from WordPerfect 11 were transferred automatically. For example, I always set the Hyphenation prompt to “Never.” However, when I started using WordPerfect 12, I was prompted to insert hyphens until I switched the prompt back to “Never.” This preference didn’t seem to transfer automatically to the new version.

Also, I am waiting to see if a problem I have experienced in WordPerfect has been fixed. Since version 8, I have encountered a bug that causes the Hyphenation prompt to automatically switch from “Never” to “Always.” However, I have not used WordPerfect 12 long enough to determine if this has been addressed.

WordPerfect Office 12 also includes a new WordPerfect OfficeReady Browser. The OfficeReady Browser allows you to search and preview templates in the WordPerfect Office 12 collection, which includes templates from Quattro Pro and Presentations. You can choose from 40 new templates, and more can be accessed on the Web. While not a major new feature, the OfficeReady Browser makes it easier to select templates.

The last new feature is a third-party add-on: the WordPerfect Wireless Office Suite from Zim Corp. The Suite includes three products: Zim SMS Office, Zim SMS Mail and Zim SMS Chat.

With Zim SMS Office, you can have two-way communication between Microsoft Outlook and your mobile phone for e-mail, calendar and reminders. Zim SMS Mail works with any POP3 e-mail account, giving you access to the account on your mobile phone. Zim SMS Chat allows instant two-way chats between your computer and a mobile phone user via short message service text messaging. I installed all of the products, but was not able to get them to work with my mobile phone. I believe the problem is my mobile phone, not the software. As my phone is several years old, I don’t think it supports SMS text messaging.

While I am excited Corel is continuing WordPerfect Office, I am not thrilled with the meager new features in version 12. If you have version 10 or 11, it’s probably not worth upgrading. If you have versions 6.1 through 9, it might be. For these early versions, improved compatibility with Microsoft Office might make the upgrade worthwhile.

Corel Corp.
(800) 772-6735

http://www.wordperfect.com/

Price: $299.99 for full edition; $149.99 for upgrade

Windows 98/NT 4.0/2000/XP

Reviewed by Richard C. Belthoff Jr., vice president and assistant general counsel at Wachovia Corp. He can be reached via e-mail at richard.belthoff@
wachovia.com.

Jun/Jul '04 Issue

PROS
I appreciated the enhanced compatibility with Microsoft Office.

CONS
The lack of new, useful features for the law office. WordPerfect already is a mature product.

VERDICT
Recommended if you have not upgraded from WordPerfect 9 or earlier, but not recommended if you use WordPerfect 10 or higher, unless you need the enhanced compatibility with Microsoft Office.