WordPerfect (Ugh!)

[Michael Andrew Uhl <uhl -at- VISLAB -dot- EPA -dot- GOV>]

TECHWR-L colleagues,

I am a ten-year TC veteran and have extensively used Microsoft
Word for Windows 7.0 (Windows 95), PageMaker 6.0 (Windows 95),
FrameMaker 5 (UNIX and Windows), and Interleaf (UNIX), and with
this job, been forced to occasionally use WordPerfect 6.1. (I
also used Ventura Publisher to do newsletters back in 1989.)
WordPerfect is by far the worst DTP program I have ever used.
WordPerfect is the kind of program that once someone suffers
through the agony of learning it well, they are not apt to let go.
I can't blame them; they've invested too much blood, sweat, and
tears. However, someone's current addiction does not justify
encouraging others to suffer such trials.

In particular, the fact that one has to look at the formatting
codes and remove formatting tags manually, much like an HTML
document, in order to achieve the desired text or paragraph format,
reveals much about the deficiencies of WordPerfect.

The U.S. federal government is a big user of WordPerfect. If that
doesn't explain why you should avoid it...I don't know what to
tell you.

I have gripes about all of the DTP programs I've used, but they
each have their place, except WordPerfect. The sooner it goes away,
the better off we'll all be.

Cheers.

-Mike
--
Michael Andrew Uhl, Lead Technical Writer (uhl -at- vislab -dot- epa -dot- gov)
Lockheed Martin, Primary Support Contractor to US EPA
Scientific Visualization Center
National Environmental Supercomputing Center (NESC)
U.S. EPA Environmental Research Center
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina




--------------------------------------------------------
Christie Christopherson <chrisc -at- ned -dot- cache -dot- net> wrote:

WordPerfect is definitely still on the market and is my #1 choice for
word processing and DTP.

FYI--Corel Corp. now owns the WordPerfect product and has improved it
and marketed it since purchasing it from Novell. Perhaps they haven't
quite marketed it enough if users aren't sure the product still exists.
Corel Office 7 (Professional Edition) has nearly everything a freelance
editor would want. I also own Microsoft Office for the sake of some of
my clients, but if I want to be productive and efficient, I don't use
it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was working on a government proposal with
several other people (using PageMaker), and somehow the original and
backup PM files became unreadable. In just a few hours, I converted
everyone's draft files and compiled them into WordPerfect, including
graphics, and the finished product looked better than it did in PM. The
automatic ToC feature, styles, and other functions worked flawlessly,
enabling us to meet the deadline with a quality document in hand.

One last comment and then I'll quit. WordPerfect contains an Internet
Publisher, which enables users to save WordPerfect documents, including
graphics, to HTML and GIF formats with a couple of clicks.

Several people I know swear by WordPerfect; however, several others
prefer Word. Whatever people feel comfortable using is fine with me, but
I couldn't resist answering your question: (Is THAT product still on the
market?) since I use WordPerfect daily.

Happy holidays.

Christie Christopherson