WordPerfect Office 12

Microsoft Office dominates the productivity-suite market and has become the de facto standard in the corporate realm. Yet it has been unable to wipe out Corel's WordPerfect Office suite, a powerful, less-expensive alternative that has managed to prosper -- albeit with a tiny fraction of Microsoft's market share. WordPerfect Office 12 retains the package's core strengths -- the venerable WordPerfect word processor, Quattro Pro (spreadsheet) and Presentations -- while adding several interface enhancements, including the ability to mimic the interface and keyboard shortcuts of Microsoft Office's main programs -- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

All isn't perfect, however. WordPerfect Office 12 is still dreadful at importing Microsoft Office documents, particularly Excel and PowerPoint files. In our tests, Excel charts were dramatically altered, and PowerPoint presentations' text and graphics were routinely scrambled during the import process. We're not saying that WordPerfect Office 12 is a poor product -- far from it. In many ways, it's easier to use than Microsoft Office, particularly for users who frequently upload PDF, HTML and XML documents to the Web. But we strongly advise corporations and educators debating a cost-saving switch to WordPerfect Office 12 to test the program's importing skills before making the leap.

Installation & interface
Installation WordPerfect Office 12 comes on two CDs and is simple to install. The first CD includes the core programs: WordPerfect 12, Quattro Pro 12, Presentations 12 and Zim's SMS.com, a utility for transmitting email and instant messages to and from mobile devices. You'll quickly notice the absence of a standard email application. The second CD includes a variety of third-party utilities, including Acrobat Reader and Internet Explorer and Corel's OfficeReady Browser, a handy template viewer. In our tests, setup was fast and painless, taking about 10 minutes. A full install of the three core programs -- WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and Presentations -- required just 373MB of disk space. More good news: users upgrading from WordPerfect Office 11 and earlier editions can install version 12 without first uninstalling their old copies, which wasn't the case with previous upgrades. Interface Corel WordPerfect Office 12's best enhancements are interface related. Topping the list is the clever Workspace Manager, a pick-your-interface menu that pops up when you open WordPerfect, Quattro or Presentations. Designed to ease the transition from Microsoft Office, Workspace Manager mimics the keystrokes, menus and toolbars of Microsoft's suite. Microsoft Word users, for instance, can work in Word Mode without struggling with WordPerfect's different look and feel. Upgraders benefit as well. Workspace Manager also allows you to work in WordPerfect Legal Mode -- a boon for the legal profession, where WordPerfect remains popular -- or Classic Mode, a DOS-era throwback to the blue-screen, version 5.1 interface that's sure to please Neanderthals and fans of keystroke commands. Word Mode doesn't exactly replicate Microsoft Word's interface, however, and new users may find themselves stumbling a bit at first. For instance, the Word toolbar lacks a Print Preview icon, although you'll find one (with a slightly different look) on the WordPerfect toolbar directly above it. Another handy new tool is the Compatibility Toolbar, which allows one-click conversion to HTML, PDF, XML, Excel, PowerPoint or Word. To convert a Presentation 12 slide to Adobe Acrobat's ubiquitous PDF, for instance, simply click the Publish to PDF icon on the Compatibility Toolbar. It's that simple. Microsoft Office, by comparison, doesn't offer any PDF-conversion tools. Just be aware that although WordPerfect 12 and Presentations 12 support PDF publishing, Quattro Pro 12 doesn't, and the suite supports Adobe's Acrobat 5.0 format rather than the newer 6.0 version, which creates smaller PDF files quicker.

Features
The individual programs in Corel WordPerfect Office 12 are pretty much unchanged from those of version 11, but that doesn't mean version 12 is a tired retread. In addition to the Workspace Manager's interface enhancements, including the ability to mimic Microsoft Office toolbars and icons, the new OfficeReady Browser makes it simple to view and select a WordPerfect, Quattro Pro or Presentations template. OfficeReady, a standalone application, features an Explorer-like tree that organises template folders by task: Academic, Company Finance, Family & Home and so on. Click a template, and it appears in thumbnail form in a viewer window. We particularly liked the OfficeReady Browser, which vastly simplifies the task of tracking down templates -- a sometimes challenging task in other suites. One gripe: the preview pane could use a magnification feature to view template details. Currently, you need to launch the template in its host program (for example, Quattro Pro) to view it in its full glory. Alas, not all is perfect with WordPerfect Office 12. Our biggest complaint is the suite's inability to accurately import Microsoft Office documents, particularly Excel and PowerPoint files. In our tests, version 12's import filters routinely made a mess of PowerPoint presentations, stripping text from slides, eliminating transitions, altering formatting and distorting images. They scrambled Excel charts, lost formulas, and in one instance, converted the symbol for the British pound to the American dollar sign -- talk about a sudden drop in the exchange rate! Another problem: Excel macros wouldn't work in Quattro Pro. Granted, home users and small businesses converting maybe a dozen or so Microsoft Office files probably won't mind the inconvenience of redoing a few presentations and spreadsheets, but it's still a time-consuming process. For medium- to large-scale educational institutions and corporations considering a cost-saving switch to WordPerfect Office, the inconvenience might be too expensive, and they should thoroughly test version 12's importing tools before making the change. Fortunately, Corel offers a free 30-day trial download of the suite.

Service & support
Corel's support could be better. With previous versions of WordPerfect Office, you got 30 days of free phone support, but that is no longer the case. Phone support now costs £15 per incident (via a toll-free number), or you can purchase a one-year plan that provides you with 10 incidents for £90. There's also a small business-orientated plan that offers 15 incidents for £175. Finally, in the UK only, there's a pay-as-you-go option where calls cost £1.50 per minute (higher from mobiles and some networks). There's good news, though. Corel has added free unlimited email support, meaning you can fire off technical queries via Corel's support site for as long as you own WordPerfect Office. Response times could be better. In our tests, Corel took longer than the industry-standard 24 hours to respond to our email questions. Do-it-yourselfers will like the online knowledge base, a content-rich repository of troubleshooting advice.

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