I have
loaded and run WP 9 quite successfully on Windows 2000 as well.by Gary Kukis; updated January 19, 2003
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The last three versions of WordPerfect which were put out by Corel after Corel took over WordPerfect are all three
extraordinary programs. They are all designed for Windows 9x, although WordPerfect 7 and 8 were specifically
designed for Windows ‘95 and WP 9 for Windows ‘98, they all seem to run quite well on Windows ‘98.
I have
loaded and run WP 9 quite successfully on Windows 2000 as well.
We all have our favorites. I, having become less and less enchanted with MS products, usually use WP 7 at home, mostly because it doesn’t look like a MS product. WordPerfect’s subsequent look in versions 8 and 9 is much more like MS Word and for users of MS Word who plan to exit the overpriced upgrading of MS Word, will want to go with either version 8 or 9 (people who have used Word for a long time will want to use WP 9). I do use version 8 at home occasionally, and always in the office, however, and I use version 9 at school. Versions 8 and 9 suck up a lot of resources, which is not a problem for the newer computers (200 MHz and above with 32 RAM and higher). However, depending upon RAM and other factors, version 7 might be your best choice if you are using a computer which runs at 100 MHz. Not only is speed a factor, but stability is a factor as well. The less resources, the more often you will have to reboot (as you have no doubt found with Windows 9x in general). No matter which version you choose, most people will find any of these versions easier to use and more feature-full than any of the MS Word products on up to MS Word 2000. I see WordPerfect 7 and MS Word 2000 are being fairly evenly matched, with WP 7 as having the slight edge (they both have some good features that the other does not); WP 8 and 9 are superior to all versions of Word so far.
Now you may think that with these various flavors of WordPerfect that 8 is better than 7 and that 9 is better than both 7 and 8; however, that is incorrect. From the standpoint of stability, required resources, interface, and documents created for the web, in some respects, it is almost like we have three different products here. I personally prefer the interface of WordPerfect 7, mostly because it doesn’t look like MS Word. But then I use WP 8 exclusively for saving my work as HTML documents. However, only WP 9 allows me to publish a document in PDF format and only WP 9 has instant preview, which is important to those of us who are anal retentive. Therefore, I have all three versions and have no reason to remove one version and use a different version exclusively. The differences between the three programs are often slight, but, in some areas, they are significant—important enough to cause one to purchase one rather than the other. Now, where can you get WordPerfect 7 and 8? You would have to go to ebay or some other auction or used item alternative. And, WP 7 is an outstanding product whose available supplies are limited—therefore, if you decide that is the product for you, the search may become more intensive.
A reasonable question is: if WordPerfect 7 is so good (and it is), why did Corel continue to put out new versions? First of all, for any software company, they are in the business to make money. You cannot put out a great piece of software and then let that be your lifetime legacy. You have to make changes (ideally, improvements) so that you can sell more products. |
We will compare several features: Customization, Documents, General Environment, Graphics, Menu, Navigation, Tables, Toolbars, Tools, View, Web Features, Miscellaneous Considerations and Miscellaneous Features. If you don’t particularly want to wade through a lot of this, then check out the Summary or the Final Scores at the very end.
Also, in this comparison, I made some judgment calls as to which version had the better feature. In many cases, the differences between them may not be important enough for you.
Summary: In no wise do I want to give you the idea that any of these versions of WordPerfect is merely adequate. I used WP 7 most of the time at home because 98% of what I need to do can be done via WP 7. However, I do not use it simply because I am unable to change to a different program. I used WP 8 at work until the day that I got my copy of WP 9 and I have stayed with 9 at work. The equation editor is far superior in 8 and 9. No matter which of the three programs that you use, I suspect that you will be happier with them than any other word processing program on the market. For some of you, your needs at this point in time would not really make one version superior to another. If you are new to computers or to Corel, then let me recommend WP 9. If you are new and broke, then let me recommend WP 7 or 8; you can purchase these through eBay or any number of on-line auctions, as well as through several different software companies (I have seen the entire Corel WP 8 office suite for as little as $11 on the Internet). If you have used MS Word and don’t find it meeting your needs (or find it to be too convoluted), then WP 8 or 9 would be your best bet.
Each version has its own peculiarities which recommends it. Version 7 lacks the Microsoft-like environment, it comes with a specific graphics and a specific table menu heading, and it is not confused by using the advance feature several times on the same line. The version which I have (7.0.2.19; no updates) has been very stable under Windows ‘95 and ‘98. WordPerfect 8 also tends to be very stable (I have version 8.0.0.393 without updates) has also been very stable and looks more like a Microsoft product (a negative, in my opinion). For whatever reason, this version seemed to open up more documents with more accuracy than versions 7 or 9. The equation editor of version 8 is light years ahead of version 7; I use the former all the time and the latter not at all (it just isn’t intuitive enough). Although WP 9 improved its equation editor, I am not yet convinced that it was an improvement. Some people have used workaround’s to use their WP 8's equation editor under WP 9. Also, in dealing with weaknesses, I know of several incidents where WP 8 (and, in fewer cases, WP 7) did not appear to be compatible with Windows NT. So far, that does not appear to be the case with WP 9. It is possible that those reviewers who raved about WP 9's stability were operating under the NT OS. Now, areas where WP 9 has improved is that the drawing options found in Word ‘97 are now found in WP 9; and real-time preview is a marvelous idea.
If you are a math teacher, then you will not want WP 7 (unless you are familiar with their old equation editor, which sucks); if you want stability and a full-blown product, I would go with WP 8 (although the most recent version of WP 9, with service pack 4, is a big improvement in this area); if you are anal-retentive and you keep experimenting with the font and the size until your document looks perfectly balanced, then you need WP 9.
Now, I did not produce this document simply for WP fans. 95% of the time, you will come to like any version of
WordPerfect more than Microsoft Word or Word Pro or Star Writer (those who don’t generally have never given
any recent version WP a try). You will find WordPerfect more intuitive, easier to use, and it has more powerful
features. I have, in other comparisons studies published on the web, placed WP 9 side-by-side MS Word 2000,
and, in the most thorough comparison, have shown WP 9 to be the superior program, by far, when it comes to
features, power and ease-of-use. I want to say something about ease-of-use. I worked with a brand-new teacher
a few years ago—this is a teacher who, when using a computer, had just learned that double-clicking on an icon
would start up a program (she was a novice). I put a copy of WP 8 on her computer, gave her about 20 minutes
of instruction (and later on, another 20 minutes of instruction). She produced in her first year many test and
worksheet documents which looked professional, clean and balanced. By contrast, other members of our
department who used MS Word, and had used MS for several years, and most of whom had MS Word on their
computers at home, were continually adding additional mathematical markings to all of their documents after they
had been printed. By contrast, their documents, even without their additional marks, were inferior to those of the
novice computer user. Now, in some cases, the problem was that they did not know that MS Word could add the
markings that they added by hand (MS Word simply is not as user-friendly); in other cases, adding these markings
was their only option, as MS Word ships without about 150 poorly organized symbols whereas WP ships with 1500
reasonably well-organized symbols. What I am saying to you is that, if you are a teacher of math, science or a
foreign language; or if your documents require several specialized symbols; then you want some version of
WordPerfect.
You will find even WP 7 (a 1996 product) to be a superior product to MS Word 2000, even though
four years is an eternity in the computer software business.
WordPerfect 7 |
WordPerfect 8 |
WordPerfect 9 |
WordPerfect 10 |
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Strongest points: |
WordPerfect 7 does not have a Microsoft appearance; it comes with a graphics and tables menu, is not confused by many advances on the same line, and my version, 7.0.02.19 (without updates) has been very stable on Windows ‘95 and ‘98. Also, the thesaurus is excellent. |
My version (8.0.0.393 without updates) is very stable; the equation editor is outstanding, as is the thesaurus. I could import menus, toolbars and keyboards from WP 7 without causing stability problems. WP 8 is outstanding for converting a document to HTML. In conversing with a user of MS Word, he was surprised that so many of the formatting was retained by WP in such a conversion. |
The biggest plus is real-time preview; I use it all of the time. The ability to draw shapes is nice. This version might be more compatible with Windows NT, although one of my friends who has Windows NT claims no stability improvement. I have personally used this on Windows 2000, with no problems (but it was for a short period of time) If you want to save your documents in a PDF format, then you must have WP 9 or 10. |
Although WP 9 seemed to take a move backward in publishing to HTML (the colors of the fonts were often not preserved); WP 10 removes the ability to edit HTML documents, but provides a better result when publishing to HTML than all the other previous editions. Publishing to PDF also preserves hyperlinks, which is great if you have a web document with hyperlinks whose format you want preserved entirely. Upon installation, WP 10 took in the WP 9 QuickCorrect information, so that I did not have to begin from scratch here. It did not import any previous toolbars, menus or keyboards, however. I wasn’t certain how I would take to the addition of the dictionary, but I have used it on several occasions, which indicates to me that it was an important addition. Since I have always made the most of modified keyboards, using as many as four different keyboards on the same computer, the fact that you can print out your keyboard shortcuts now in a table file is helpful. The table menu was also restored to WP 10; they ought to restore their graphics menu as well. |
Weakest Points: |
The equation editor is very un-intuitive; one cannot do as much drawing as one can with WP 9. |
I have heard of problems with Windows NT. WP 8 lacks the drawing options of WP 9. If you use a lot of advances in a single line, this may not print correctly. Final versions can generally be printed perfectly by WP 7. |
My version (9.0.0.664; with two service pack updates) tends to be rather unstable. Some don’t like the changes which have been made to the equation editor (although there is a way to substitute in the equation editor of version 8). I personally like the newer equation editor. The thesaurus available in the update is only half-finished. The existing thesaurus is very limited in its scope. A very important negative about WP 9 is that the importation of keyboards and toolbars from previous versions seems to reduce the stability of WP 9. I have not noticed this, however, with SP 3 or with SP 4. Another problem with SP 4 and before is that when I use a menu or toolbar command, I always get a dialogue box on first use, for which I must click abort. After I do that one time, everything is fine. My toolbar was created in WP 10 and the menu was created in WP 8, so perhaps that is the problem. This occurs on all three computers that I use. Next problem is that I have had my speller shut down on me to where I cannot add additional words or place any additions into my QuickCorrect. This has happened on two computers. |
This is the first time that I have bought WP within a couple weeks of its coming out, but what I ended up with was particularly bug-ridden. Given that I use MS Windows ‘98, Corel was aware of any conflicts or problems that could have occurred and they should have been fixed prior to this release. The equation editor is all messed up. I had hoped that we could set the default font for it (as there is a command for equation font). You cannot. Many of the Greek letters do not come out to be the Greek letters one would expect in equation editor and I have had it shut down on me several times. In fact, I purchased the earliest version of WP 10, and its instability is unparalleled among WP products on my computer. I cannot open several macros to edit without it shutting down. There is a new feature called Corel Recovery Manager (or some damn thing), which collects information on what happened (I don’t know whether this information is ever really transmitted to Corel). What it does not do is instantly save your work. A big problem with this initial release is that it makes changes to particular punctuation marks (I have had it continually remove the second parenthesis or bracket for no reason). I have also had correctly spelled words underlined as misspelled in WP 10. I could right click them and choose add (there are no variant spellings offered in this case), and then it is fine until it feels like doing it again. Now, I am a strong supporter of Corel and what they have done with WordPerfect. What I want to do is to give you an unqualified recommendation to go out and buy this latest version. However, my copy of WP 10 was so bug-ridden that I cannot recommend it. We need to wait until a few updates or SP’s come out first. |
Conclusion: |
WordPerfect is such an inexpensive product (go to ebay and type in Corel WordPerfect), that almost anyone can afford to have all three versions. Space is often more of a consideration than is price. I do a lot of formatting and have several varied uses for this product, so I have all four versions on each computer. With the projects that I do at home, I don’t use real-time preview much, so I do most of my work on WP 9 (I used to do it in WP 7). At school, I use real-time preview with practically every document, as the documents I produce are printed and distributed; I therefore use WP 9 and 10 there (although occasionally I used WP 7 to print a document which contains a lot of advances). |
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WordPerfect 7 |
WordPerfect 8 |
WordPerfect 9 |
WordPerfect 10 |
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Total Number of § ‘s |
21 |
37 |
40 |
49 |
Comments |
Unfortunately, the total number of §’s does not tell the whole story. WP 10, at least in its first incarnation, is very buggy. If you are looking to move up from WP 9, I would wait about six months (until a couple of SP’s have come out). If you are moving up from MS Word any version, you might find WP 9 the better choice right now (which will have to be gotten off the Internet; ebay should have a lot of copies available). If you have WP 9, but you want better Internet publishing capabilities, then, by all means, pick up WP 10. You may find yourself working often in WP 9, however, and then publishing from WP 10. |
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Addendum on WordPerfect 9 SP 4: Recently (October of 2000), WP put out Service Pack 4 for WP 9. It is not a download, as are WP SP’s 1–3, but is a separate CD (they ship it to you for the modest sum of $9.95). I had a few problems with Corel Suite 2000 which did not seem to get solved with service packs #1–3. I ordered the CD and installed it. There were some dramatic changes. First of all, the location of the macros and templates had changed. I keep my macros under one folder right off my D drive, as I use nearly 350 macros (really), not including the macros which WP ships with (which I rarely use), so I therefore change the macro folder and then organize my macros on the hard drive. That is easy to change under Location of Files under Settings (which is found under Tools on the menu). The changing of the template folder threw me for a loop, as I was not expecting it. WP had kept that under the Corel Folder and under Templates. When the WordPerfect Suite is removed using their removal software, many of the customized settings are left, as some of the folders are left behind (e.g., the Templates, which includes the menus, toolbars and keyboards). It is recommended that you uninstall the WP 2000 Suite prior to installing SP 4 (which is simply an entirely new program). This time, with the new installation, you must either change the location of the default template or the location of the template folders in order to retrieve some of your original settings. I assume the reason that these things were moved was so that it was less likely that you would erase your custom settings if you uninstalled a version of WP (their uninstall program does not remove custom settings, e.g., keyboards, templates and macros), but if you went back and wiped out the WP folders, then they would be gone. These things are now placed in the Windows directory, so they are less likely to be removed by accident. I have worked with SP 4 long enough to determine that it is relatively stable, although, after 4–8 hours of computer use (and using several different programs), I often have to reboot. At home, on a system which is not networked, I have to reboot about every other day, and it appears to be related just as much to the use of Winfax and my connection to the Internet as with WP.
At home, I had lost my QP toolbars in my original installation of Corel Office 2000. I had them for awhile and then they disappeared. Now, they continued to appeared under the Settings but I could not get them to actually become a part of the interface (I may have been the only person with this problem). When I uninstalled Suite 9 and reinstalled it with SP 4, the toolbars returned and behaved. There was one bug in WP Office Suite which seems to have been solved. When I used to hit home+home+up, I would go to the top of the document, but, often, the document would appear to have disappeared (it had not; it was simply a blank-looking screen). I have not had that problem with SP 4. However, I have experienced a plethora of other problems with SP 4 in WordPerfect. When I opened this document to work on, for instance, the margins were all out of whack (actually, all of the text was doubly indented from both sides, with the dotted lines for the margins further out). I guessed perhaps the document style was off. That was not the problem. To solve the problem, I opened this document in WP 8, selected all of it, and then pasted it into a blank WP 9 document. Everything was fine. I have not had similar problems with smaller documents however. Some of the relative sizes of the WP characters have been out of proportion on one particular computer (a Gateway, if memory serves; but this was not true of two other Gateways that I was aware of in the same network). I have opened some documents at school with square root signs which should extend two lines and they are shorter. I open the same document in WP 8, and they open fine. This has only been the case with several characters which are larger than one line high. Obviuosly, this is irritating, and I have no idea why it occurs on one computer but not on a computer which is (supposedly) identically configured. Another problem I have experienced is with certain macros. When I go to run my first macro, I get a dialogue box which advises me to abort, retry or ignore; clicking on abort generally allows the macro to complete its cycle and to function correctly (although, not always). Then, all of my macros will continue to work throughout that session; however, when I close WP 9 and then fire it up again, again, the very same macro will act up again upon first use. What I have done is the first line of most of my macros reference a particular language version of WP, which name apparently changed slightly for the SP 4 version of WP 9. I placed two forward slashes on that first line of those macros and now my first macro, under SP 4, asks me if I want to abort, retry or ignore; I choose abort, and usually, everything is fine after that. My guess is that if I rewrote all my macros in WP 9, that would eliminate that problem; however, who wants to rewrite 350 macros? WP 10 runs all of my macros without incident (however, I have had several instances in WP 10 when opening three macros caused WP 10 to shut down—and this was on a computer with a reasonable amount of speed and memory).