Re: Need a wordprocessing tool!

[Chris Kowalchuk <chris -at- bdk -dot- net>]

Since Geoff Hart plugged Word, I just have to offer an alternative.

WordPerfect 2000 (SR2) is one of the most versatile tools I have seen.
It reads and writes MS Word files almost natively (actually, I have been
able to open some Word 97 files in WP 2000 that Word itself was unable
to open--some corruption in the file caused World to choke on it, but WP
was still able to open it). It's own file format is the same as WP
versions 6.1, 7, and 8, so only the interface and engine have changed,
not the file format. It is now a Visual Basic for Applications host,
just like any MS product, which means you can use it to write custom
script in the language that your other Windows products will understand.
It will publish to PDF, HTML and XML, and has an XML mode for formatting
your documents according to those rules. It does tables very well (I've
always preferred WP for tables--not as easy as Word, but way more
precision and control possible). As with Word, I don't think flowcharts
would be appropriate, but it is probably more robust than Word at
placing (and keeping in place) imported graphics etc. And because it
works with Word 97 files so well (same format as is used by Word 2000),
the old excuse that "everyone else uses Word so I have to as well" no
longer applies. This is a big one. I've been using Word for year for
precisely that reason despite the fact that I have always prefered WP.
Thus far in exchanging WP-produced Word files with clients, there has
been no problem and no-one has notice the difference. It's a powerful
too, and well priced. I'd consider it.

Chris Kowalchuk