Corel WordPerfect Office X4 vs. Microsoft Office 2007

There once was a time when WordPerfect was the word processor. I still have fond memories of that laminated “cheat sheet” that listed all the function key commands and was designed to perfectly sit above those same keys on the keyboard. Even after the first Windows version of WordPerfect was released, I continued to cling to the DOS version for another year or two, because I was so sure that Windows thing was just another passing fad. But, I digress…

Actually, maybe I’m not digressing after all. WordPerfect was so firmly implanted as the leader of the word processing world during the late 1980s that it would have taken something huge to threaten that dominance. The name of that “something huge” was Windows.

By the time a stable version of WordPerfect was released for Windows, Microsoft Word had already staked its claim on the Windows operating system and the business world. Over the years, Word has never been able to completely demolish WordPerfect, but it has beaten and bruised it considerably.

However, it’s just possible that the tides may be starting to turn back a little now. When Word 2007 was released with its completely new look, a ribbon that replaced prior toolbar menus, and new OOXML file formats, a lot of longtime Word users were less than pleased. Even though the behind-the-scenes functions and capabilities of Word remained the same, it looked different. In fact, it looked and felt different enough that many compared it to having to learn a new program all over again. And, if you have to learn something new and different anyway, why not learn something that’s new, different, and cheaper?

With the release of WordPerfect X4, Corel was very careful not to change the look or functionality of the user interface very much even though it introduced several new features. Moreover, WordPerfect X4 still gives users the option of what type of workspace they want to use – current WordPerfect Mode, WordPerfect Classic, WordPerfect Legal, and (insert drum roll here) traditional Microsoft Word. For those who have a hard time choosing between using an older version of software because its appearance is more comfortable, and upgrading to the latest version for the added new features, this gives the best of both worlds. We’ll delve a little deeper into those new features in the second part of this series in which we conduct a full review of WordPerfect X4.

Does this mean the future is looking brighter and that WordPerfect X4 may be able to pull a bit more of the market sector in its direction? That’s still a tough one to predict. There are lots of MS Office alternatives out there right now, many of which are making a splash of their own. Though they may not have all the features and capabilities of the WordPerfect Office X4 suite, they do have a decided price advantage with serious contenders such as OpenOffice.org actually being free. Plus, rumors are circulating that MS Office 14 could be released later in the year, and who knows how that may shake things up.

Next Up: We'll take a look at the different editions of the WordPerfect Office X4 suite, including Family Pack 2009, and compare each bundle's offering.

In addition, we'll spend a little time looking at WordPerfect Lightning, Corel's note-taking application, and how it compares to Microsoft OneNote.