Customer Reviews
The Better Wordprocessor 
2008-09-04
It is hard to believe it is two years since Corel released X3. When I found out that the new X4 version had been released, I downloaded the one month demo from Corel.
I don't have much use for anything in the suite except WordPerfect. I've been using WordPerfect since before Windows, when it had a blue screen, displayed ASCII characters in Courier font (there were no fonts except Courier), and laser printers cost a small fortune. I work for a number of attorneys -- WordPerfect is the software of choice for word processing in most offices I've worked in because, in my opinion, it is the better product for the job. It may also be because WordPerfect has been around for so long that everyone just migrated without changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Universal File Support
WordPerfect has very good compatibility with other file formats making it nearly universal. It includes PDF file support which Corel continues to improve in this version. It saves directly to PDF format Corel has now added optical character recognition so you can import PDF files directly into a text document. Although it is not perfect, it converts to and from numerous Word formats including RTF, and all versions through 7. It also supports other formats including WordStar, AMI, OfficeWriter, Lotus, Multimate and numerous others.
Skins
Corel also added two themes so that the skin looks more like XP/Vista, and for those who need it, the Word Count feature is on the application bar at the bottom of the WordPerfect window. This new version appears to be very stable.
Exceptional Word Processing Capabilities
When WordPerfect came out, it took over the market. (It was far superior to the software then available, and remains one of the best.) When MicroSoft came out with Word, I had the feeling they did everything they could to make it different from WordPerfect just to use their power in the industry to take over the word processing market, just like MicroSoft did with every other good software idea to come along. (e.g., Mozilla/Netscape, Norton Utilities.)
I have three versions of Word (2000, 2003 and 2007) and WordPerfect 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, X3 and now X4. I use the MicroSoft product only when absolutely necessary -- usually because someone else sends me a document in that format. The new version of Word is unfamiliar - the traditional pull down menus have been placed sideways on toolbars and rearranged so it is uncomfortable to use. If possible, I will use WordPerfect and save it as a Word document using the "SAVE AS" feature on the "file" pull down menu.
The reason I like WordPerfect so much is that it types more like a typewriter. You can set up and use styles if you want, but you can also just hit the tab button to indent the first line of a paragraph. If you want to change the margins for the entire document, you simply change the margins. The rest of the document follows the change. You don't have to change each paragraph.
In addition, you can get to the formatting codes. Hit Alt-F3 and the screen splits in half and displays all of the format codes -- bold, underline, tabs, indent codes, line spacing, column on and off, etc. Then you know exactly what you have done and fix and format it easily. This ability has proven useful on several occasions when clients, who insist on using Word for legal documents, cannot cajole Word to put their unruly documents into the format they want. (This is particularly true when using OCR with scanned or faxed documents.) By opening the Word document in WordPerfect, I have been able to use "Alt-F3" to identify the errant codes and quickly repair them. WordPerfect can then save the document in Word/RTF format with the problems fixed. This is particularly useful when combined with the global search and replace. For example, you can search and replace all [paragraph style] and end up with a manageable document.
Working with columns is also easier. You turn on columns and tell it how many colums you want, set the width of each, and the space between them, and away you go. You have four types of columns to work with -- newspaper, balanced newspaper, parallel and parallel with block protect. I've tried the other software, and if you change text or printers, you can never get the columns to line up the way you want it. With Word, each column change or page change seems to introduce a whole new set of control codes, and a complete set of formatting, and you can never get it back the way you want it. I once tried to scan in a list of names and addresses which were in two or three columns into Word. Each name and address was placed in its own text box. I could never work with it.
Another very important feature is the ability to view a document from the "open document" screen without having to actually open up the document. This way, if you are searching for a specific document or a document containing certain specific information or "language" you need, you don't have to serially open a document, close it, open another document, and so on until you find the one you want. This is particularly powerful when combined with the "find document" feature on the "open document" screen. Using the find button opens a screen which is similar to the windows "search" screen. You can type in a series of words, and WordPerfect will search all files on the hard drive or in the folder/subfolders in which you are working for all documents containing your target search terms. You can then scroll through and look at each document to quickly determine their contents. From the "find" screen, you can access the "quickfinder" program which pre-scans folders on the computer so that searching for documents is nearly instantaneous. Just tonight I needed to find a "Declaration re Ex Parte Notice" to use as a template from among thousands of documents. The entire search took perhaps half a minute.
The most prominent change between WP 10 and 12/X3/X4 is the workspace manager which allows you to switch between legal mode, original (classic) WordPerfect 5.1 mode (with the blue screen), legal mode, standard WordPerfect for Windows mode and Word mode. They have also included and upgraded the ability to publish to Adobe PDF, HTML, and RTF/Word formats.
This is full featured software, and does everything I need. It handles tables, tables of content, tables of authorities, column sorts -- everything I need in a law office. Graphics can be dropped in with a click of the mouse. I'm considered to be almost an expert, and there is a lot I don't know!
One of the great advantages of WordPerfect is that the files are much smaller than Word documents. This means you can transport them on floppy drives.
As a final thought, Word is very powerful and works very well for short documents such as business letters. If you do anything over several pages, you are much better off with WordPerfect.
Take time to get to know the software and you'll be glad you purchased it.
Other Programs:
The Corel Office package includes replacement programs for most of the stuff in Microsoft Office. The suite includes a Microsoft Outlook replacement (Mail), a PowerPoint replacement (Presentation), an exceptional spreadsheet program (Quattro) and Lightning. I haven't yet figured out what Lightning does except act as a notebook of some sort.
Pleasantly Surprised 
2008-09-03
I found lots to like about Corel's WordPerfect Office X4. And, speaking as an unhappy employee forced to use WordPerfect back in the Dark Ages, I can attest to the improvements that Corel has made in this suite of Office applications. Here are a few of the pros and cons of this program as I've experienced them:
PROS:
WordPerfect X4 is easy to use, and it is easier to manage my blog with text from WordPerfect than with text written in Word 2007.
Same with Quattro X4 - easy to use, fast-running. No complaints here.
WordPerfect Office X4 comes with a tutorial video that shows you how to do all manner of interesting things with your office suite. I've only completed half of it, and I've already learned some new time-saving tricks.
I've used the PDF maker to great advantage, and I'm very pleased with the results. I also appreciate not having to buy Adobe Acrobat yet again.
CONS:
WordPerfect is designed to work with documents from every conceivable word processor. Ahem - isn't that a bit of overkill, or could it perhaps be managed during program installation so that my computer doesn't have to host such a big program?
WordPerfect Lightning was a big problem for me. It did not work and play well with the rest of the programs on my computer. I finally uninstalled it because it popped up unexpectedly and interfered with my ongoing work.
I have yet to try the month's free trial of Corel's Visual Intelligence, but I can report that it is a subscription-based service. Every year you get to pay again, and, somehow, that rubs me the wrong way. I'll buy a program (I know, I know, I'm only leasing it), but I don't want to buy the same program over and over every year. So I consider this feature, which may in fact be very good, to be a pain.
Overall, I find more pros than cons with WordPerfect Office X4. It's not perfect, but, as a regular user for two months, I've found that it meets my needs most of the time. I won't be going back to Microsoft Office.
Three and ½ stars!
A great program 2008-08-28
I am one of those folks who loves Wordperfect Office - it is the oldie and goodie in the word proessing world, that is familiar and updated to use easily for everything.
It is a great addition to my computer programs and if you are writing many things via computer, Wordperfect remains one of the best out there.
I couldn't get it to work on my PC! 
2008-08-28
I will have to update my review at a later date, as I was unable to get this product to fully work on my PC.
Nice Office App 2008-08-21
I love love LOVE the PDF capabilities that come with Wordperfect X4. The spreadsheet is incredibly easy to use. All in all a very nice application.
A Very Good Word Perfect Version 2008-08-15
Create eye-catching documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with WordPerfect Office X4. All the tools you need are here. Open, edit and save Microsoft Office documents and 59 other formats, such as Open Document Format (ODF) and Office Open XML (OOXML). Save hundreds with the built-in PDF tools: Import, edit, archive and export PDF documents; Adobe Acrobat is not required. Control who can view, copy, edit or print your work by adding a password to a PDF you create. Take notes and collect and reuse information, ideas and images from virtually anywhere with a new digital notebook. It also includes data analysis software to get insight from your data and online services to help you stay connected.
Data analysis and visualization tools Digital notebook to organize your information Compatibility with applicable Microsoft Office documents Open scanned PDFs to edit and reuse the content Open text-based PDFs to edit and reuse the content Turn documents, spreadsheets and presentations into PDFs to share with the world Leverage business tools and applications Licensed for business use WordPerfect MAIL application for communication, lightning fast searching and RSS feed usage Presentations Graphics X4 graphics manipulation program Volume license pricing available Take notes and capture information and images from the Web, emails and other documents Share information with others and exchange ideas online and off 200 MB free online storage Free 2-hour training CD included
File Conversion Issues, Otherwise Good 2008-08-08
Unfortunately Corel stopped making WP for the Mac shortly after I bought the program a decade ago. The thing I liked best was its ability to handle book-length documents without freezing or crashing.
I explained this to my son, who griped at me about Word recently. He needed to write a lengthy school assignment, so I got him the latest version of WordPerfect. Installation was easy. He wrote his paper, and then converted it to Word format so I could edit it. When I tried to open it on my Mac, all I got was gibberish. I'm not sure if something was lost in the PC-to-Mac translation or the WP-to-Word translation.
Other than that, my son enjoys using WordPerfect to complete his schoolwork. The interface is more user friendly.
Still learning 2008-07-25
I'm still learning all the features of this software. So far, it has met my needs, so I'm pleased with it.
A focus on WordPerfect 2008-07-24
So many of the other reviewers have said what I would say about Wordperfect Office x4 that I'll keep it short. I didn't use the most of the programs much as my main use of office suites is word processing.
I got this suite for my laptop which runs on Vista. My desktop runs XP and I have a copy of MS office that works on XP. Short of buying another copy of MS office, I needed a word processing suite that would convert my word files back and forth with a minimum of formatting destruction. I do genealogy and among my projects is a detailed transcription of family letters in book format with photographs and images interspersed among the text along with complex uses of headings and footnotes. When converting between different programs, headings, picture placement, etc will be changed due to the nature of how different programs format documents. This essentially has limited me to using Word on my desktop. I've tried several editing suites, including Open Office. All were a bust.
Wordperfect however, did a great job. Not only did documents for word show up correctly in Wordperfect, but they translated back correctly too. Formatting, complex headings and section breaks, all converted flawlessly. That to me is a great bonus going for Wordperfect X4. It really is compatible with Word. With the vast majority of the office and professional world using Word, this compatibility is a strong selling point for me.
Added to that, WP actually has adjustable menu setup settings, so you may set the menu and tool systems to be configured much like Word is. For someone who works mainly in Word, this is a godsend. It helps avoid relearning where everything is. While some things will still be different, it goes a long way to make that transition easy.
Another feature that is of great interest to me is the ability to publish files to PDF format. Being a genealogist, I do a lot of file sharing with other genealogist. PDFs with their compact size and sharability across platforms are the perfect way to do this. Word perfect makes it easy to do and even allows several types of PDF conversions, from highly compact versions to a commercial printing version. Word does not offer this option at all.
Would I personally convert from Microsoft Office to Wordperfect? I've used Word for so long that I think it would be a bit of a stretch. WordPerfect to me has some features that are superior to Word, but for the most part, for my purposes, Word has been sufficient. Still, for a casual user such as myself WP is a good option.
Very good 2008-07-24
I like this word program better than microsoft Word. It is more versetal and easier to learn. Overall I would say its a superior program over microsoft. I would highly recomend it.
