History of the Changes in WordPerfect

WordPerfect 5.1

This is the famous, blue screen, white text interface (one could, through a series of keystrokes, see what the final result would look like, but it was not WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). There was at least one product offered to make WP 5 WYSIWYG.

WordPerfect 6

New Features:

WYSIWYG.

WordPerfect 6.2

Corel buys WordPerfect. This was the last DOS version of WP produced.

WordPerfect 7 (for Windows 3.1)

Errata:

First version produced for Windows specifically. Corel buys WordPerfect. There is a radical interface change to look more Windows like. Many die-hard WP fans never forgive Corel for this.

New Features:

When working in a table, the toolbar changes.

Changes:

The File manager, always built into the older versions of WP, became more Windows-like, which some old WP users complained about.

WordPerfect 7 (for Windows 95)

First version produced for Windows 95 specifically. Came out coterminous with the previous two versions (as well as a version for UNIX and a version for Macs). This was supposed to be the first Office program which was truly 32-bit (which is why this version would not run with Windows 3.1, but the aforementioned WP 7 version would run on either version of Windows).

WordPerfect 8

New Features:

Although the idea of a property bar was introduced in WP 7, it was only for a few environments. With WP 8, there were dozens of property bars specific to dozens of different environments (e.g., being in a footnote, working with selected text, being within a table, being within an outline). Therefore, the features that one needed for any particular environment were theoretically to be found on the property bar (which could be customized). While it was relatively easy to transport special keyboards and toolbars from one version of WP to the next, I was unable to figure out how to transport property bars.

One can change the settings so that a document will open on QuickMark (which can be set to be inserted every time a file is saved—therefore, you can open up a document right where you last left off.

This was the version where you could use a mouse click to begin your document anywhere on the page.

Changes:

Interface changed again to appear more like Microsoft Office.

The file manager again changed its interface to be more MS like.

New Features:

“Correct other misspelled words” introduced.

WordPerfect 9

New Features:

Real-time preview introduced, which was a marvelous invention. Many formatting changes could be seen before they were applied (text font, size, color, etc.). When I produced documents which were to be distributed, and everything needed to look centered, balanced, etc., this was a marvelous tool which allowed me to pick the correct formatting the first time out. I no longer would choose something, apply it, step back and see how it looked, and then returned to try another formatting change.

Additional Information:

WP 9, SP 4 is one of the most solid versions of WP to be released. This is only available directly through Corel and not via a download.

The first line of each WP macro was changed, so that all previous macros must be changed in order to work in WP 9 (simply insert “//” at the beginning of the first line or erase the first line, and your macros, for the most part, will work in versions 7–11).

WordPerfect 10

New Features:

One can publish any WP file as a PDF file, making all WP documents and almost all formatting completely transportable.

31 different property bars.

A dictionary became a part of the tools offered to WP users. When one of these tools is selected, a tabbed dialogue box with a dictionary, thesaurus, a speller and a grammatical aide all pop up simultaneously.

Clicking anywhere in a document now includes on the same line where there is text.

For a long time, under Ctrl+W, one had access to WP’s 1500 font symbols. However, the additional symbols which automatically accompanied any given font were not so easily accessed (I recall in WP 5 & 6, one had to use the Alt key in combination with the numbered keyboard to retrieve those symbols—and the catch was you needed to know what number combination brought up which symbol). This was one of the few advantages of MS Word, which allowed easy visual access to this additional symbols. Beginning with WP 10, when you accessed the WP symbols, the Current Font Symbols also became available. I recall that Current Font Symbols was always one of the categories available to us in previous versions of WP, but that there was nothing in those boxes in previous versions to select from.

For the first time, one’s keyboard shortcuts could be exported to a file (a spreadsheet actually). Probably the only limitation here was that the WP symbols one placed onto one’s keyboard were not exported as those symbols, but were simply indicated by the word script or by the letter H. Personally, I think that the spreadsheet should have been set up to be more than two columns.

Bugs:

QuickCorrect begins to act up. Sometimes, the second bracket or parenthesis disappears; sometimes hyphens, en dashes and em dashes disappeared as one typed. Some words are indicated to be misspelled, even though they are not. If you are pretty certain of the spelling of any particular word, and yet it is underlined in red, you can right-click it, choose skip and the red underlining will be removed. Most of the time, this red underlining disappears on its own. If you put an abbreviation into QuickCorrect, this would expand unless if it was the last word in a sentence, in which case it would remain in its unexpended form. These problems are “fixed” in SP1, which disables “Correct other misspelled words.” Now, just like MS Word, only words which are put into the QuickCorrect list are changed.

There was a problem with copying text that had a different colored font within that text. One change of color would be preserved, but the others were not. I would have to turn on reveal codes, go to the place where a different color was supposed to be, and delete the color marker which preceded that phrase.

This is the first version that would not work on one of my computers (and, don’t ask me why, but I could not get this to function on this computer until I also had installed WP 11, which may have been a coincidence). My understanding is that certain computers and configurations had trouble running older WP products as well.

If a drawing is made in presentations and dropped into a WP document (either by selecting and dropping it into the document or by saving it and inserting the file into the document), any words or letters on the drawing will be completely out of proportion to the drawing itself, unless the drawing is dept at its original size. The workaround here is to do the drawing and document in some version previous to WP 10, and then, when opened in 10, it will look fine.

Fixes:

I believe that Corel fixed the problems above with SP1 (or SP2); but, at the same time, disabled “Correct other misspelled words.” For those who did not really use that feature, then WP 10 or 11 are good choices, as they both add several new features. For those who really appreciate this little feature, then you may end up doing most of your work in WP 9.

WordPerfect 11

New Features:

Files are automatically named.

Clicking anywhere in a document now includes within the cells of a table.

When a document is converted to a PDF file, now hyperlinks are preserved. Acrobat reader 5.0 is supported.

One new feature which received a surprising amount of attention is being able to return to the old WP 5.X screen, which is white text on a blue background. I cannot understand why someone would not rather see what their finished document looks like without additional keystrokes, but who knows—perhaps someone requested this.

Documents can be published to XML.

You can print documents with reveal codes.

Rather than release a separate legal edition of WP, the legal tools are built into WP 11. A document can be published directly into EDGAR.

There is more interaction between Outlook and WP. Documents can be sent from WP to Outlook; addresses and other information can be brought into WP from Outlook. Corel used to produce an Outlook type program, but so many people used Outlook or Outlook Express that I assume that continuing to produce such a program was not really viable. I’ve never been happy with anyone’s software in this regard. I hear that Eudora is good, as well as GoldMine.

All in all, I see very little reason to upgrade to WP 11, and I am a strong WP supporter. In my personal opinion, their concentration should have been on getting WP 10 right and marketing. One problem that I have noticed with WP is that each new edition disappears from the stores within one month’s of its release, whereas, for instance, old versions of MS products will remain in quantity on the shelves up until the night before the new versions are released.

Changes:

When text is cut, it is done intelligently. That is, sometimes additional spaces are removed as well.

The document color is identical to the window color (therefore, your background is not necessarily a stark white).

Document tracking has been improved (I’ve never collaborated, so I can’t really comment on this feature).

WP 11 appears to be much more stable than the initial release of WP 10.

Bugs:

The bugs introduced with WP 10, for the most part, were not solved by WP 11.

Additional Information:

There are several new features in WP 10–11 to recommend them. However, I personally would continue to do most of my work in WP 9 SP–4 and open a document in WP 10 or 11 when I needed to make use of any of those specific new features.