WordPerfect 9 vs. Word 2000 vs. Word Pro 9 vs. Star Writer 5.1

by Gary Kukis (revised January 15, 2003)

In order to help you navigate this document, which is well over 30 pages long, the blue text is hyper-linked text. Immediately below. I will compare WordPerfect 9, Microsoft Word 2000, Lotus Word Pro 9 and Star Writer 5.1 in a table, side-by-side, feature-by-feature; I will cover Bookmarks, Borders and Fill, Columns, Compatibility, Customization, Dialog Boxes, Ease of Use, Editing, Fonts, Footnotes, Formatting, Graphics, Headers and Footers, Help, Installation, Keyboard and Shortcut Keys, Macros, Menus, Navigation, Price, Status Bar, Tables, Toolbars, Tools, View, Web Capabilities and Miscellaneous. I have also added a section called Cool, Unique and/or Exclusive Features. At the end of this table, I will have a final scorecard wherein I have tallied the number of features in which Word is superior and in which WordPerfect is superior. As a quick preview, I was able to find 150 areas in which WordPerfect was superior to the word processing programs in the other three suites; 56 where Word was superior, 41 where Word Pro was superior and 25 where Star Writer was the better program. If you happen to use more than one office suite and you know of any additional areas in which one suite is superior to another, then please e-mail a description of these features to me, especially if you know of an exclusive feature (I am not finished with this comparison yet. Features which are roughly similar in number and ease of use in the two programs will generally not always be compared or contrasted. I will also share a few thoughts concerning help and additional web comments and macros in more detail, as well as make some additional comments at the end. You will note that not all of these links work; that is because I still have more work to do on this document. Also, because Star Writer died several times, there will be areas where I did not compare Star Writer to the other suites. See additional notes on WordPerfect 9 SP 4 in the comparison between WordPerfect versions 7–9.

PREFACE

Introduction: The following is a comparison between Corel's WordPerfect 9, Microsoft Word 2000, Lotus Word Pro 9 and Star Office, as taken from their respective office suites. I must admit that I already have a bias toward WordPerfect in general. However, I also believe that I am able to rise above that bias when comparing these programs feature-by-feature. I have spent months scouring the Internet for sites wherein Word was seen as the word processing program of choice. I engaged in dialogue, I argued, I cajoled, and I was unable to get the very people who were dedicated to the use of MS Word to give me a list of comparisons between the two programs which showed Word to be a better program. What I did get, without any solicitation, were a list of particular areas where WordPerfect could do things that MS Word could not from WP afficionados. Below, I have listed probably the most complete comparison of these programs that you will find anywhere. Certainly, some of the differences might seem rather esoteric to you, but a majority of the differences observed were a result of projects which a WP person had to do using Word (most WP users also must use Word, thereby giving them a better perspective on the two word processors). Often, they found that Word could not do what is a simple task in WordPerfect. Of the 100+ areas in which WP is clearly superior to Word, perhaps only 20–40 of these are areas which are pertinent to you. However, I guarantee you that whoever you are (given the fact that you are reading this), you will find at least 20 places where WP will decrease your work load considerably. And if you are involved in the time allocation of those who work for you, a significant amount of time will be saved by staying with or switching over to WordPerfect (this is apart from cost).

Allow me a few generalizations if you would: Word 2000 added several important features that were in WordPerfect 8. Two which quickly come to mind are (1) you can see the resultant font from the font drop-down box; and, (2) Word now allows you to point and shoot, so to speak. If you want to begin your document a few lines down and in the middle, Word now allows you to double-click where you want to begin (or, continue) your document. WordPerfect has had both of those features since 1997 (in WP, point and shoot is a one-click operation). On the other hand, a feature from Word 97 which WP added was a whole new scope of graphics shapes. It was ironic that WP, produced by Corel, famous for Corel Draw, was bested for several years by MS Word in one particular area of graphics. Word '97 allowed one to insert a myriad of graphics shapes along with fills for these same shapes; WordPerfect 9 now offers that as well.

Word 2000 has some new touted features as well: (1) install-as-you-go. The first time install-as-you-go went into action, I thought to myself, this is pretty cool. I was importing a WP document, and Word needed to install the filters to read the document, and did so right there on the spot within five minutes. By the fifth or sixth time, I hauled the disk out and installed everything on the disk, as I was getting tired of that feature. That did not solve the install-as-you-go feature. Since I installed what I thought was a full install, there have still been times when Word requests insertion of their disk to add just one more thing. (2) The second highly touted feature of Word is the clipboard—one can have nine separate documents and/or graphics hanging out in the clip board at the same time. This is a share-ware program which was available back in the DOS days which was compatible with DOS programs. Since I never needed this feature, I never installed it. I haven't used it with Word either. I know that such a program is out there which can be added to Windows for WordPerfect, Word Pro or Star Writer users. (3) The third new important feature of Word is the automatically customized menus. That is, at first, only the often used menu items would be visible; then, if you waited for a moment, the other menu items would also appear. I must admit that I turned this feature off early on. Now, this is a personal preference. I will arrange my menus so that I can find what it is I want to find when I use a program a great deal. When the program does this for you automatically, things aren't quite as easy to find sometimes as you would like them to be. That is, they may not be found in the same order that they were in before, because some item has dropped off your list due to non-usage. To me, this is not an advantage, but then, I can turn it off, so it is a neutral feature which might be good for new users.

WordPerfect also has an install-as-you-go feature. I noted this with some consternation when I installed WP 9 with service pack 4 on my computer. As I often do, I install everything and, sometime later, went to use the help menu—and, lo and behold, no help. I had to install the help from the CD (why on earth would this be seen as a optional item and why was it not installed when I chose to install everything?). In theory, I like the idea of install-as-you-go. In practice, it is a pain in the butt. Both Microsoft and Corel should have, in the installation process, a dialogue box listing the items which one could choose to install now or later.

WordPerfect has primarily one new feature which I thought was over-rated until I used it, and that is real-time preview. You can view the changes which would result in your document (or a selected portion thereof) by a change of font, an attribute of same, the size, the color, the justification, as well as a change of the number of columns before actually applying that feature.. There are also some real-time aspects to the graphics portion of WordPerfect. When designing tests and worksheets at school, I use this real-time preview feature all of the time—it is primarily because I am anal-retentive and I like things to match up and look balanced. Now I don't find myself applying a set of features and then going back and tweaking them until they look right. I can tweak the features and changes until it looks the way I want it to in the document, and then actually apply those features.

With regards to Word Pro—obviously, you have heard that Lotus will no longer produce Smart Suite. Whereas this is not a major loss to me, I realize that for some of you, it will be. This does not mean that you need to give up your present office suite, if it happens to be Smart Suite, and replace it tomorrow with MS Office or Corel Office. His suite will probably do everything that you need it to do for another 2–5 years. Unless there is some pressing reason for you to change to another suite, if you are happy with Smart Suite, just stay with it. It is a nice, full-featured suite.

Also, let me say a few things about Star Writer and Star Office. I compared office suites that cost $100 and up (for upgrades) with Star Writer, which comes as a part of the free office suite, Star Office. As you read the comparisons, I want you to bear that in mind. Whereas, I personally would not want to spend a lot of time using Star Writer 5.1, I write for 3–4 hours per day. However, you might turn out a few office memos and a little typed correspondence and various other literature which does not require a full-featured word processor. You don't need to buy a Mercedes if all you're going to do is tool around on the golf course all day long. My point is, if your do not have a need for the features that Star Writer lacks (and Star Writer does not lack for too many features), then take my advice and get the free download of Star Office. There is no need to buy an expensive, full-featured office suite when you do not need one. And let me quickly add, Star Office has a lot of great features and you will never regret owning it—and you will certainly never regret its cost (how many owners of MS products can say that?).

Finally, let me say what I didn't like about these suites. WordPerfect 9 appears to be half-baked at times; the thesaurus is inferior to previous versions insofar as it has options for fewer words. I couldn't open documents into WP from Word that I expected to be able to open. A second thing which I did not like about WP is that, in their attempt to be more like Microsoft Word, they have rearranged the menu again. WP provides a MS Word-like menu already. There really was no reason to change the WordPerfect 9 menu as well. One of the changes for the worst was that, under format, there used to be a submenu called document (which was previously right below the submenus line, paragraph, page). This was very logical and it should have been left that way. What WP should have done is, at installation, ask if the person installing the software is a Microsoft Word user and then offer to make the MS Word menu, toolbars and keyboard the default settings. Making the WP 9 menu into a hybrid version of WP and MS Word was a mistake. Furthermore, WP removed the graphics and tables menus. It is not as though there is a lack of space at the top bar of WP. In my opinion, all features should be found in the menu somewhere.

Okay, how about the other suites? Now, in Word 2000, when you open a second document, opens an entire new window of Word. I don't know that this is a system drain, but I find it easier to maneuver in a word processor if the windows are subordinate to the program and not vice versa. Star Writer 5.1 has the worst help of any of these processors. If I couldn't figure out how to do it, I stopped going to help for help. It wasn't worth my time. Finally, in Word Pro 9, I became frustrated with the menu, which seemed to be the most illogical menu of all (with Star Writer running a close second). To compensate, Word Pro 9 does offer several other menu options.

Now, on to the comparison....

Bookmarks
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Bookmark dialogue box.	At the bookmark dialogue box, you can set bookmarks, edit them, rename them, delete them, go to them or go to them and select the text. It is quite intuitive. §§	You may go to, delete or create a bookmark from this box.	You may create, go to or delete a bookmark from this box.	You can insert and delete a bookmark only.
Going to a bookmark with selected text.	WP simply goes to the bookmark.	For hyperlinks and bookmarks to function if your document is changed to HTML, the hyperlinks must be to bookmarked selected text.	Word will go to the bookmark and select the text.	Word Pro will go to the bookmark and select the text.	Star Writer will go to the bookmark and select the text.
Going to a bookmark with unselected text.	WP goes to the text.	Word simply goes to the bookmark.	Word Pro simply goes to the bookmark.	Star Writer goes to the bookmark.
Naming bookmarks	Whatever text is selected or whatever text follows the book-
marked place is the name of the bookmark, meaning spaces can be included.	On subtitles of chapters which I write, I often have this keyed to sort of a table of contents at the beginning of the chapter. WP saves me quite a number of steps when creating a hyperlinks.	A bookmark cannot have a space in its name (when I did this, I was given no explanation as to why I could not name the bookmark what I wanted to name it).	Spaces are allowed in naming a bookmark.	Spaces are allowed in the naming of a bookmark.
QuickMark	This is a tremendous feature. A QuickMark may be set at any time; it is a temporary bookmark. I use them all of the time in macros to get my cursor placed back where I started the macro. Also, a WP can be set up to insert a QuickMark wherever the cursor is when a document is saved, and then when WP opens that document, it can be set up to go immediately to that QuickMark. §§	This is a great little feature which, surprisingly, has not been duplicated by the other programs. It is one of those that when you have it, you use it.	Not found here.	Not found here.	Not found here.
Setting a bookmark having selected text.	The text that is selected is the default name for the bookmark (it can be easily and immediately changed). §	This saves you a great deal of typing if you use a lot of bookmarks. If you rename your bookmarks, then the amount of typing is almost identical.	You must name the bookmark.	You must give a name to the bookmark; there is no default name.	You must give a name to the bookmark.
Setting a bookmark without selecting text.	If you do not choose the text, then WP takes where the cursor begins, adds a few words, and that is the name of the bookmark (it can be changed in an instant). §	You must name the bookmark; the dialogue box may be hovering over the text so that you must move it, if you want to name it by whatever is written.	You must give a name to the bookmark.	You must give a name to the bookmark.
Unique features	Bookmarks can be moved using the bookmark dialogue box.	Neither feature is important enough to give a § to.	A hidden bookmark can be created with Word. Even after reading the help file, I did not grasp what was being done here.	Didn't notice any.	Didn't notice any.
Borders and Fill
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Borders	WP 9 has 94 different borders and it is easy to add new ones. The line borders are very customizable. The graphical borders are essentially like watermarks (although they do not operate the same way). §	Although Star Writer and Word did not have the fancy borders like Word Pro and WP, these could have been inserted as graphics and made the size of the page.	Word also comes with a very large selection of borders. The border color has become much more customizable; the size and shadow are not quite as customizable. There were no fancy borders.	Word Pro takes a palette approach and the border of a page is handled from a page layout pallette. It had a huge number of options. The graphical borders offered were extensive, but there were no pictures. They were more like very fancy borders. §	Star Office had the most limited number of borders; however, when it came to lines and shading, they had as much as the other office suites.
Borders	When in a border, one can move forward and exit that border either through reveal codes, using the arrows, clicking past the border with the mouse or turning the border off. §	Another option in Word is to type in the text first and a hard return in Word and then add the border so that it does not include the hard return.	Once I got into a border at the end of a Word document, I could not go outside of that border. Inserting a section break solved that.	Word Pro was most similar to Word in this respect.	I had trouble turning off the border for specific pages (in fact, I could not figure out how to do it, and their help was not). I tried section breaks, but that didn't seem to do the trick. It was somewhat easier to work with paragraphs.
Borders	A border can include groups of paragraphs or can be applied to individual paragraphs. If you continued to add hard returns, the border contained the hard returns and additional text. To exit a paragraph border, one could either use reveal codes and then go past the border; or, one could simply click with the mouse. §§	It was easy to place a border around one paragraph in Word. Select the text, chose border, and then paragraph and the border desired. With point and shoot, one could click outside of a paragraph border in order to leave it. §	Although Word Pro was similar to Word, the border could be modified with a right click (which could then bring the text dialogue box up). §	It was much easier if the paragraphs were written first, then they could be individually bordered. However, when a paragraph border continued, a right click or a click to paragraph... allowed the border to be discontinued for the new paragraph. There were several times when I was trapped inside a border and had to remove it for everything in order to get out of it.
Borders, terminating	Borders could be discontinued, applied to the entire document, or just to the one page from the border dialogue box. On the negative side, WP inserts another page after the introduction of a border. This has caused me to print blank sheets of paper at time when I forget to delete it (I don't follow their reasoning here). §§	I liked WordPerfect doing what it claimed to do; a page break would allow an easy insertion of a new border. Borders could be easily turned on and off from the same dialogue box. Word and Word Pro both required a section break as well.	Although the option to apply to this page only was lacking, there was the choice apply to this section only. In order to change borders, a section break (insert -> break...) had to be inserted and then borders could be applied to that section only. One could click outside of the border to get outside of a paragraph border. §	Lotus Word Pro had section breaks which were similar to Word's. The key was to go to create -> section.	I could not, for the life of me, get a page border to discontinue for awhile. I could not get outside of a paragraph border.
Borders, editing	The border in WP could be edited from the standard dialogue box.	The border in Word could be edited from the standard dialogue box.	Only Word Pro allowed a right click editing of the borders (a right click on the page brought up the page format option, which brought up the combination dialogue box. §	The border in Star Writer could be edited from the standard dialogue box.
Fill, colors for paragraphs and pages	In WordPerfect, when it comes to placing fill within a border or in a table, you have a choice of a million colors, which actually look good and not as if they are three or four different colors thrown together in a pattern. WP's colors could be customized. §	Word's fill improved considerably with this version, rivaling WP's, also allowing for customized colors. §	Word Pro also had a fine selection of colors–256 of them.	80 colors available.
Fill, styles for paragraphs	The fills could be separated into 65 different styles, apart from a simple percentage of fill. §§	There were no styles or patterns for paragraphs that I could discern.	72 different patterns could be applied to a paragraph. Turning it off was difficult. §	A background color could be applied to a paragraph, but no special effects.
Textures	87 different textures, but a bit more difficult to access than Word. §	Word's location for these textures is the same as for patterns. In WP, you have to insert the file as a graphic.	24 different textures. §	No textures.	No textures.
Columns
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Column types	4 different column types to choose from (newspaper, balanced newspaper, parallel, parallel with block protect). §§	Only one real choice in columns—

newspaper.	Parallel columns.	A balanced newspaper column is the only option.
Discontinue columns	Go to the columns under format and click on discontinue in the column dialogue box.	Go to column dialogue box and choose one column and choose from this point forward.	Choose create -> parallel columns.	Go to insert -> section... -> columns
Formatting columns	33 border choices, plus shadow and fill options. Under the border and fill, one could choose to have a line between the columns or no. §	Very limited in formatting. You could choose to have a line between or not.	Nothing by way of formatting choices.	The line in the center could be made thicker or not. It's length could also be changed.
Inserting columns	This was automatically applied from that point onwards. §	You had to choose from that point onwards, otherwise the whole page got reformatted.	Choose create -> parallel columns.	Go to insert -> section... -> columns
Resizing columns and margins	This could be done with the mouse or from the dialogue box.	From the dialogue box or from above columns on column bar (you must be in that column to resize it from the column bar).	From using the mouse (this was a bit awkward; you could not change one column without changing the other; i.e., the spacing remained the same). I couldn't always get the double arrow and the hand didn't seem to do what I wanted it to do.	From the dialogue box or from the column bar above, as in MS Word (you must be in the column to change it).
Typing in next column	Either use the mouse to click into the next column or Ctrl+Enter. §	I could not figure how to go from one column to the next. The only way I could figure it would be to type until I got to the end and it would go into the next column.	You could mouse click from being in one column to get you into the next.	This was automatic; you continued into the next column as a balanced newspaper.
Compatibility
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
File Save as	WordPerfect, as presently shipped, can save files in 75 different formats. §§	WP only saves up to AmiPro 3.0 and not in Word '95.	Word will save in 29 different formats, but not any recent version of WP and no version of Word Pro.	Word Pro will save in 42 different formats, including WP and Word. §	Saves in 15 different formats including Word '97 and not in any version of WP.
File Open	WordPerfect opens files written in 54 different formats. Downloads from Corel will increase this number. §§	WP also ships with "Quick View", which opens, edits and prints about 70 different formats. As you see, MS Word makes the least effort to be compatible with anyone else. However, if the WP fonts are installed, I have seen it display complex WP documents.	Word opens files written in 23 different formats. I have seen it open some fairly complex WP documents when the WP character sets were installed on the computer.	Word Pro opens about 50 different types of documents, including recent versions of Word and WP. §§	Star Office opens about 84 different types of formats, although it is unclear how many would be opened in Star Writer. These include recent version of WP and Word (but not Word Pro). §§
Suite toolbar	WordPerfect's DAD bar allows all applications to be easily accessed in one click from this OS toolbar. The program icons appear to be sitting in the icon tray. Adding various application is easy and if you maximize your space with auto-
hide, then you will appreciate Corel's approach here. §§	From Word '97 to Word 2000, there have been some definite improvements. With the advent of Windows '98, where toolbars can be easily made, all of these suite toolbars are obsolete. One great advantage of this toolbar over Corel's is that the icons are easier to group.	The old office launching bar appeared to only allowed certain Microsoft products to be launched. The new one is greatly improved, adding the feature auto-hide. Adding another program was easy. §	It was easy an intuitive to add other programs to Lotus's drawers; however, it was not always easy to access this toolbar. When I reinstalled Lotus, it placed its icons in the icon tray, which I liked much better than their suite bar.	Suite toolbar automatically included most every application available.
Comment:	I did some cutting and pasting between WordPerfect and Word in order to get some text to work with in Word. Even though I took the exact same text and dropped it into Word, it was formatted very differently on two occasions. In one, the drop caps appeared where they should; however 6 lines of text were indented instead of 4, so it didn't look right. The second time, the caps were sitting above the paragraph completely.
Additional comments:	Microsoft users often make a big issue out of compatibility and some people advocate Microsoft Office so that we have compatibility. In all actuality, it is Microsoft which is only compatible with the exact same Microsoft products. If you have Word '95, don't expect to be able to read a Word '97 document; or if you have MS Works on your computer, don't expect to be able to easily transfer complete files between Works and Word '95, Word '97 or Word 2000.
Customization
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Customizing a toolbar (display options)	Most of the button which I use had different icons; there were some exceptions, however. The tool tip could be customized. §	I liked having easy access to 400 different icons in Star Office; I liked being about to have three options with each icon in Word, and I liked being able to customize the tool tip in WP.	Once an icon was placed on the toolbar, several options could be set, including icon, text or both for that individual icon. 42 icons to work with, along with cut, paste and edit. §	It wasn't clear how to cut and paste icons, nor, once they were edited, how to apply them. You couldn't choose between icon, text or both.	Although several of the features lacked icons, there were nearly 400 different icons to choose from to apply to the various functions. §
Customizing a toolbar (display options)	Individual buttons could be customized from scratch or other icons could be copied, pasted and then modified. §§	It was fairly easy to customize a button in Word. The options seemed to be a little more complicated, but I could intuitively determine what to do without going to help. §§	Icons could also be edited in Word Pro. Icons could not be copied, pasted and modified, as in Word and WP. §	There were a large number of icons to choose from, but they could not be customized. I wanted a simple f(x) in order to enter a formula and I could not find anything like it (and their icon was lame).
Customizing a toolbar (display options)	Each toolbar could be individually placed, with the option of text, icon, or text and icon. Number of rows could be set as well. As many toobars are desired could be used. §	Word Pro and Star Writer were very weak in this area.	I was not able to set the number of rows with Word, but as many toolbars as necessary could be used. The toolbars could be individually placed anywhere on the screen. §	Word Pro was by far the most limited here. There appeared to be one row of icons, no matter how many toolbars were available. It was easy to choose the environment for each toolbar, but with a one row limitation (unless you choose to go with a pallette), it was not very helpful.	Although number of rows did not appear to be an option, the standard text, text and icon, or icon only was an option.
Customizing a toolbar (how many functions are available?)	About 550 different functions are available.	It was really too difficult to try to determine the quality of the selection here.	Over 1000, although over 100 are dedicated to drawing a very specific shape, and a considerably number are dedicated to going to a particular web site.	About 550, although a considerable number are dedicated to running a program or inserting an individual Greek letter.	Over 1000 commands, although some are as trivial as the type of wrap relative to a graphics box. Many of these buttons applied to other types of documents in Star Office. Macros were not included in this.
Customizing the toolbar (what does a button do?)	We have an icon and a short description of the function. Also, holding the mouse over the button on the toolbar gives you a description as well (if you are thinking of removing a button). §	When you choose the icon, you must press another button to get a description. You do not know what an already existing icon does while editing a toolbar.	Next to each icon is the description and for existing icons, a description is given if you hold the mouse over the icon (this is in the dialogue box, not on the toolbar itself). §	Both icons that can be added and existing icons reveal their function via the mouse. The explanation tended to be briefer than the other word processors. §
Customizing the menu	WordPerfect ships with four different menus (including a Word '97 menu) and more can be added if necessary. These four can be copied and customized. §	If you did not know that a menu was a toolbar in Word, then you could easily become confused.	The menu in Word is simply a toolbar. When you choose to customize any toolbar, they are all available to customize simultaneously, including the menu.	Word Pro ships with 5 menus (including a WP, a Word and a Word Pro Lite) which can all be customized. It was quite intuitive.	The menu could be modified and a new menu could be created, but it was not as intuitive as WP (or even as much as Word). Right-clicking on the menu would not allow customization of same.
Customizing a menu	Menus operate differently than toolbars, and therefore do not use icons.	Word's menus are simply toolbars. A toolbar can be set up with similar functions in WordPerfect (there are drop down menu items which come with icons).	Word's menus can use icons.	No icons for menu.	No icons could be used in the menus; the function of the menu was different from that of a toolbar.
Comment	More information concerning menus can be found under Menus.
Customizing a toolbar or a menu	WordPerfect's Menus, toolbars and property bars all act independently. When you choose to modify one of them, you cannot simultaneously modify another.	A menu is a toolbar, for all intents and purposes. Word does not have property bars.	Word Pro ships with five menus (including a WP and a Word menu), all of which can be customized.	Star Writer ships with a menu, but several can be added.
Customizing a toolbar or a menu	All commands are in alphabetical order in their respective categories. §	Until I discovered that All category in Word, it was difficult to find the feature that I wanted in Word.	The commands are not in alphabetical order except under the "All" category, where they are. §	Very, very tough to find the icons that you want, as they are not categorized or in alphabetical order. They appear to be in the order that you might want to access them.	All the commands are located in a pallette for the toolbar, but not always organized as you would think.
Customizing a right click menu	There have only been one or two occasions during which that I wanted to customize a WP right-click menu. They offer more options from the get go than Word or Word Pro. However, the latter two can be customized. §	Although it cannot be customized, WP was very careful in its original selection of right click options, particularly for tables.	The right click menus were well organized and very easy to customize, once I asked help (which was very helpful here). Go to tools -> customize -> toolbars -> shortcut menus. Note that each of the three categories given is simply a heading. §§	From file -> user setup -> menu customization, one can edit up the right click menu (which is specific to twenty different environments). §	I couldn't figure out to customize the right-
click menu for Star Writer.
Keyboard	Every key of the key board can be customized. 99 different keyboards can be set up. Keyboard will run macros, menu items, type out text, and start other programs. Assignments to keyboard are all kept track of and easy to read. §§§	Several keyboards can be set up in Word, but only one per document. Each template can have its own custom keyboard. However, you cannot use two different keyboards on the same document in Word.	Only one keyboard can be mostly customized. The keyboard can run macros, type text or run a menu item. One cannot easily view all previous assignments to keyboard. §	There is a very limited assignment of the F keys to certain styles.	The keyboard could be customized and you could move from one keyboard to the next, although there was no indication as to which keyboard was being used. §
Toolbar Icons	All features of WP have a corresponding icon. All features or commands have an accompanying description. A few icons in WP are duplicated. §	Some features of Word do not have an icon. Some features or commands do not have an explanation or comment. Icons are not all unique in Word; that is, two similar but different functions (like save and save as...), can have the same icon. When there is no icon for a feature in Word, one can be designed and/or an icon can be copied. However, it is not immediately clear how to solve this. When a picture is added or copied, the text continues to show. Rather than the selection Icon only the selections are: default style, text only (Always), text only (in Menus); image and text. You can figure out which choice is the right one by eliminating the other three. Once the changes are made, there is no "okay" button to press. One must simply click elsewhere to end the process (otherwise, you could undo your changes).	As mentioned, the customizing of a button can be done, but it is less clear how to apply it and whether or not it will remove the original icon altogether.	There were nearly 400 icons to choose from, which were easily accessible when customizing a toolbar. It did not appear as though the icons themselves could be customized.
Toolbar Spaces	When customizing the toolbars in WP, spaces can be easily added. Two or more spaces may be added in WP to separate icons. §	The key to adding spacing is to right click a particular button and choose "start a new group." Two or more spaces could not be added. As is often the case with Word, you have to know the combination in order to determine how to use the feature.	Spaces were easy to add. §	There were spaces in the toolbar, but I could not figure out how to add new ones (and help was not).
Dialog Boxes
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
File open dialogue box	WordPerfect's file open dialog box can be sized. §	.	Word's cannot.	Can't be sized.	The file open dialogue box can be sized in SW. §
File open dialogue box	WordPerfect's file open dialog box can be set to fill up the screen. §	None.	Word's cannot.	Nope	Although there was not a one click method to do this, it could be done. §
File open dialogue box	WordPerfect's open dialog box comes with an extensive menu. §§	None.	Word's does not as there are a very limited number of things that you can do within Word's file open dialog box.	Ditto for Word Pro.	No menu.
File open dialogue box	WordPerfect comes with a document preview which can be increased in size and even "torn off." §§	None, other than to purchase a 3rd party utility.	Can't be done in Word. You have no control over the preview box at all, which makes it worthless in many cases. §	No preview at all.	No preview.
File open dialogue box	The open file dialogue box in WP is like accessing MS Explorer. You can drag and drop files with your mouse; use the keyboard or a right click to copy, cut, and paste files. A simple right click on a file in WP gives me a dozen plus options (some of these are from third party programs like Quick View). When you are in WP's file open dialog box, it is like being in Explorer except with more options. §§	You can always open up the explorer menu. However, then you lose file preview (unless you have Quick View installed, a §50 program which came free with most or all versions WordPerfect 8).	You have fewer than a dozen options of what can be done while in Word's open file dialog box.	Ditto for Word Pro.	The least number of options.
File save dialogue box	Save or save as automatically and seamlessly connects you to Windows Explorer; whatever you could do in Explorer, you can do from WP.	WP had this feature back with WP 7.	You can now access favorites from Word's save as dialogue box, which is an important improvement. As with the other dialogue boxes in Word, there are a very limited number of things that you can do.
Font dialogue box	15 options apart from size, font, color, shading and underline styles. Kerning and spacing found elsewhere.	Hard to choose the best out of these. Word Pro should have had what the font looked like.	A few more options than WP, but most similar to WP here. Special on-screen font effects found here only.	Font box could be left open. Although fewer font features than WP, there were a whole host of formatting features available here. Box can be left open while changes are being made. An okay button would have been nice. Why wasn't there the example of what the font would look like?	A large selection of choices here, including kerning and spacing. The only feature that didn't seem to fit was hyperlinks.
Ease of Use
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Accessing various functions and features	Almost anything one needs to do in WP can be accessed through the menus, toolbar, keyboard or right clicking. Most functions can be accessed in all four ways. §§	Both programs can set up tool bars to access whatever functions need to be accessed.	In order to access many of the functions of Word, I had to modify the menu by adding items which were not there before. Several times, I came across by accident a method of accessing a function. If I had inserted a header or a footer, for instance, then went into this box with a double left click and then right clicked it, I gained access to page numbering.	Right-clicking brings up a good number of options including various function boxes.	Right-clicking brings up a good number of options, including various function boxes.
Making it simple	WordPerfect ought to have a simplified menu with only the most basic features for new-comers.	I write a lot; at least 2 hours a day, and often as much as 4. However, not everyone needs the power that I need.	A step in the right direction: Word 2000 has a feature where only the most used menu items show up on the menu. §	Word Pro has a Word Pro Lite menu. Unfortunately, you have to know where to go to access it. §	No such feature here.
Menus	The menus are much more logically laid out. Formatting a paragraph, a page, a line or a document, for instance, are all found under format, as is make-it fit. §	You can rearrange all of the menus in Word, but that is somewhat of a pain to do.	To find the feature to shrink text, one has to go through page preview and then click on the correct icon. It is difficult to determine how to formal pages, lines and documents.	I found Word Pro's menu to be one of the very worst and most disorganized. The saving grace is that Word Pro offers 4 other menus. §	I had been told that Star Writer is a non-
MS Word-clone. However, its menus seemed to be very logical and well laid-
out. §.
Editing
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Delete a word	In WordPerfect, Ctrl+Backspace or Ctrl+Del will delete a word, no matter where the cursor is found in the word. §	I find it necessary more often to delete an entire word than just a piece of one. When I do, I don't like to sweat the insertion point. Such a macro could be written for Word, but it would not function correctly unless the cursor was placed inside the word (not at the end or the beginning). To write a macro to cover all cases would require one to move forward and backward one word and then move one letter from where they are, in order to get into the middle of a word.	Where the cursor is found in the word makes a big difference in Word. If you are at the beginning of a word, then it is Ctrl+Del to delete the word; Ctrl+Backspace will delete the previous word. If you are in the middle of a word, then neither keystroke will delete the word. Both are required. Help had nothing under word or delete, although there is a command which reads delete word (this command deletes the next word or the remaining characters in a word.	Word Pro operated just like Word.	In Star Writer, ctrl+back started where the cursor was and took out that portion of the word. If at the beginning of a word, it took out the next word. Ctrl+del did pretty much the opposite going the other way.
Expand a document	One can expand a document as well as shrink it in WordPerfect. You wouldn't use this often, but let's say you shrunk it, didn't like it, then you could expand it to any desirable number of pages. Certainly, you might expand a 1.5 page document to make it look more balanced. §	The only workaround is to manually change font, font sizes and margins until you get what you want. This can involve hundreds of keystrokes and mouse clicks versus 2 or 3.	You can't do this in Word.	There is no expanding a document in Word Pro except by changing the font and margins.	Ditto for Star Writer.
Find	You can search forward and backward. §	You can only search forward.
Find	At the end of the document, you are prompted to search from the beginning of the document.	Although you are not prompted at the end of the document to search from the beginning, when you click find next, you return to the beginning of the document.
Find and Replace	In WordPerfect, you can search out codes (338 codes, if I have counted correctly) and easily replace them with anything, including 86 codes. To clean up an e-mail message, it is very easy to get rid of the unintentional hard returns and keep the intentional ones (if they added 2 hard returns between paragraphs). §§	To change all bold to italics in WP requires a macro. For the other three programs, a macro tied to the repeat function could remove all of the hard returns in a document.	You can search out and replace only 21 codes in Word (and hard return is not one of them). That e-
mailed letter that you want to fix up before you save it isn't so easy to fix up in Word. I was unable to remove several hard returns in a document. I have since found out that to find a hard return in Word, you search for a paragraph mark or ^P.	I couldn't figure our how to search for any codes, although it seemed as though I could search for some formatting codes. I couldn't remove hard returns in a document. My guess is that a hard return would be found by searching out ^P.	Although I could search for 26 different attributes and one box brought up the various fonts and other formatting options, I couldn't make this work. I couldn't remove hard returns in a document. My guess is that a hard return would be found by searching out ^P.
Find and Replace	You cannot change a particular word from one font and size to another with a simple find and replace in WP. You would have to write a macro and then use the repeat function of WP.	This would have to be done in WP with a macro (which would be easy to do, but more time-consuming than Word).	You can change every occurrence of a word to a different font and size. I found this to be very intuitive and easy to do, although I personally wouldn't use it. §	Can't do it here.	Couldn't do it here.
Find and Replace	One person wrote me concerned that match case works for find or for replace independently in WP.	Although this appeared to be the case, I did not have a problem with this (I could not come up with a scenario where this would be an issue, including her illustration).	When match case is selected, it automatically works for find and for replace.	Separate search and replace capabilities like WP.	Match case applies to both search and replace.
Reveal Codes	One can look at the codes in WP and see what is going on "behind the scenes." One can edit a document directly in the "reveal codes" screen portion. §§§	Once you use the reveal codes feature in WP, you won't want to be without it.	Word has no comparable function.	Not here either.	Nor here.
Shrink a document	WordPerfect, when told to apply its make-
it-fit function, you may choose several different things to allow WP to modify, including margins, font size and line spacing. Furthermore, when you choose the amount that WP should shrink the document to, it will do that. §§	In the other three programs, you could only manually adjust this bit by bit in word to get close to one page and to expand to two pages.	To shrink a document, one had to first go to "Print Preview" and then choose "shrink document." Word shrunk a 1.3 page document to less than 3/4ths of a page. There were no real options; just a button to click. §	No such feature in Word Pro 9	No such feature here. It can only be done manually.
Shrink or expand selected text	You can choose a paragraph or more in WP and ask WP it make it to fit within certain space parameters. §	Do it manually in the other programs.	Nope.	Nope.	Nope.
Smart Case Toggle	If initial caps are applied to a title, like "the wind and the rain", the result in WP is "The Wind and the Rain." §§	Go back and change the prepositions and articles.	If initial caps are applied to a title like "the wind and the rain", the result in Word is: "The Wind And The Rain." §	No such option; it is either upper case or lower case.	I can't find where this can change caps to lower case, vice versa, or do an beginning caps for a group of words.
Fonts
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Access to special 3rd party characters	Other characters from other sets are accessed by going through the font dialogue box.	To see other special characters from 3rd party fonts in WP, one would have to use the ALLFONTS macro to see all of the different characters on their computer. Once I have run this once, I keep this document on my hard drive for later reference. Another workaround is to have a full set A–Z as a special document, and then view this with different fonts using instant preview.	Word allows one to access whatever special characters have been installed by 3rd party fonts. Word did seem to gather together all of the special character sets together. §	Word Pro, from the same dialogue box, allows you to see each different font as a font set and they can be chosen randomly by double-
clicking. Several different characters can be accessed from different sets. Word Pro did seem to gather together all of the special character sets. One very big plus is that some different character sets can be gotten in whatever font it is that you are using. That is, if you need, for instance, a 3/4ths symbol, in technical font, Word Pro can do that. §§§
Font	One can change already typed font following cursor by simply changing the font. If text in WP has previously been selected and changed, then that formatting is retained. §	This can be approximated in the other 3 suites; it just requires more steps.	You must select the text which has already been typed in order to change it.	Same as Word.	Same as Word.
Font colors	An infinite choice of colors. §	Word 2000 catches up to WP 7, 8 & 9.	An infinite choice of colors. §	About 260 colors.	About 80 colors.
Font Effects	11 (Redline and Italics are the additional font effects). Outline feature worked, but could not be seen on screen. Character and word spacing available through a different dialogue box.	Word can use the color red; WP can use different font (however, WP is unable to emboss or engrave every font). Italics are available in some fonts in particular for Word and WP. Only Word has the cute, on-
screen effects.	12 (double strike-
through, emboss and engrave are the extra fonts). Various types of underlining also available. Character and word spacing available through the same dialogue box. Word also had a half-
dozen on-screen font effects (like sparkle). §	Lacked outline, shadow, redline, emboss, engrave and double- strike-
through.	Lacked redline, emboss, engrave, strike-through and double strike-through.
Fonts included	WordPerfect ships with 1000 fonts. §§	Buy more fonts.	Word ships with over a dozen additional fonts.	Didn't notice.	Don't think there were any (it's free, remember).
Font size	It appears that any size, large or small, is possible.	Any size is possible.	Any size is possible.	Any size is possible.
Font size	Fonts can be done to the nearest 10th of a point.	Fonts can be chosen to the nearest 0.5 pt.	Nearest 10th of a point.	Nearest 10th of a point.
Special characters	WordPerfect ships with 1500 special characters which can be accessed from any Corel program via Ctrl+W. There are math symbols, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, etc. If you need it, it's here. §§§	If you have WP installed on a system, then Word and Word Pro can make use of the special characters. Finding just the symbol that you want is much easier in WP than Word or Word Pro because of the way these characters are organized.	Word ships with about 150 special characters. Inserting a symbol took about 2–3 seconds for the dialogue box to appear. The second use was almost instantaneous.	Lotus ships with 100–200 special characters (3 character sets). When you choose insert -> character, there is a box with all these and other characters available at the top of the screen.
Footnotes
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Beginning a footnote	Inserting a footnote is a one step operation. I have it tied to the keyboard, but it is also one click from the menu. §	This can be fixed in Word by placing "insert footnote now" on the menu, keyboard or toolbar.	Every time a footnote is created, there are two mouse clicks; one to initiate process and one to choose whether that is what you really want to do.	This was a two-click operation in Word Pro as well. I don't know that I wanted to wade thru their commands to make it a one-step operation.
Browse by footnote	You could browse by footnote in WP. §	You could browse by footnote in Word. §	I could not figure out how to do this in Word Pro.
Editing a Footnote	A footnote can be edited by using the menu or clicking once on the footnote itself. There are five separate commands that can be added to the keyboard, menu or toolbar. §	The typical student writing a term paper will find WP so much easier to deal with in this regard.	A right-click or a left-
click on the footnote allows you to edit it. I could only find the options of styles (in general) and insert footnote which could be added to the menu or to a toolbar.	A right-click or a left click on the footnote provides access to editing it. Their smarticon setup gave a lot of options, but it was quite disorganized and I could not find any of the footnote options.
Footnote Exit	When doing a footnote in WP, one can simply exit that footnote by F7 (the universal DOS exit keystroke for WP). You can also exit with your mouse. §	In Word, you must exit using your mouse. Under the index, again there was nothing under "exit" or under "footnote -> exit."	I could exit with the mouse or with the escape button. §
Footnote Font	Changing the font in WP involves two dialogue boxes. Click on footnote and then options. §	I never got the hang of changing the font without introducing an outline format, which gave me two sets of numbers for each footnote. One could be easily erased; but it had to be erased for each footnote.	This could be done, but it was not easy or completely intuitive.
Footnote Separator line	This can be changed by accessing footnote options in the menu. It takes about 2–3 mouse clicks. You don't have to be in a footnote to change the separator line. §	Although help in Word seemed to indicate that the separator line could be changed, there were six steps in the directions, which were nearly 150 words long.	While in a footnote, a right click brought up the dialogue box to change the separator line. §
Footnote Style	From one very simple dialog box which leads to four simple dialogue boxes (one which leads to three others), you can change the spacing of the footnotes, the indentation, and provide the same rich formatting for a footnote as you would for anything text paragraph. A change in the footnote style does nothing untoward to the regular text. §§	I can accomplish the same thing in Word and in WP; it's just that WP requires about half the mouse clicks and is much more intuitive. I was unable to figure out how to modify the style of the footnote without affecting the rest of the text in Word.	From at least 12 different dialogue boxes, one can change the font of the text and the font of the footnote itself in the footnote. When I changed the style in my footnote, I also ended up changing the style of the text in general (I'm certain that this can be done without ruining the other text style). Help didn't.	By carefully following the directions given under help (which were moderately complex, but easy to follow), I was able to modify the style for the footnote without affecting the style of the body of the text. §
Footnote Style access	Menu: Insert -> footnote -> options. Now, a property bar pops up specific for footnotes, but it was not very helpful. I ended up inserted additional footnotes without meaning to.	Both programs should have offered at least two ways to access this feature. WP's property bar should have been better and included an options button.	Right click while in a footnote and click on styles.	Footnote options could be gotten from the main menu and from a right click inside a footnote, but the style options were not there.
Formatting
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Fit document	When you shrink or expand a document to any given number of pages, that is the end result. You can control what formatting will be changed; the font size, margins or line spacing. §§	If anyone ever tells you that Word has a similar feature to WP's fit document, this means that they do not even have a clue as to how different these programs are in quality.	You can shrink Word documents by a page, but the result is often unpleasant. A 1.2 page paper would be shrunk to half of a page; to expand the size, it might go to 1.7 pages. Also, this is a hard feature to locate however, help made this an easy find. §	No such thing in Word Pro	No such thing in Star Writer.
Indenting	In WP, you can left indent an entire paragraph with F7, and indent from the left and right with ctrl+shift+F7 (old-
timers will probably use the 6.1 keyboard, where this is F4 and shift+F4). A backspace will back off the indentation as it would a tab. The paragraph formatting will give this in a mouse click or take you to the dialogue box for more complex indenting. §	A paragraph can be selected in any program and the margins set for that paragraph. WP's method simply requires fewer keystrokes.	One can indent from the left and right in Word, as long as you learn the keystrokes, and it becomes a hidden format which you must know the combination to undo. This can also be done from the paragraph dialogue box, which is easier. Left and right indentations could be set.	The text dialogue box group allows paragraphs to be indented in several ways. Adding an indent could not be undone with a backspace. Indentations from both sides had to be the same, even from the dialogue box.	From format, choose paragraph, and then the indentation can be set for the left, right and for the first line. §
Indenting	Indenting in WP can be applied to different lines in the same paragraph. §	Whatever you do by way of indentation to any part of a paragraph in Word affects the entire paragraph.	Whatever you do by way of indentation to any part of a paragraph in Word Pro affects the entire paragraph.	Whatever is done to one part of a paragraph applies to the rest of the paragraph.
Justification	Left, right, centering, full justification and all justification available. §	Select text in Word and keep changing the spacing until it fits as you would like it to.	All justification not available.	All justification not available.	All justification not available.
Justification	Any line can be left justified, right justified and/or centered. §§	Use tables or a series of tab's to approximate what WP does easily.	Only one justification for each line.	Each line has its own justification.	Each line has its own justification.
Justification	Full justification will expand and compress text (and you can choose by how much). §	None.	Full justification expands, but does not compress text.	Full justification will expand, but it will not compress text.
Justification	All justification allows a header or a title to be stretched from margin to margin. §	One can experiment with letter and word spacing in MS Word to get the same desired effect, but it takes ten to twenty additional keystrokes.	Word cannot easily do this.	I couldn't even figure out how to change the spacing of the text or the words.	Spacing could be changed, but you would have to stretch a title from margin to margin by trial and error.
Line height	The height of the line can be set to be relative or absolute be choosing either spacing or line height. §	The line height in Word can be set to be relative or absolute. Three is also an at least selection. §	Line height is strictly relative.	The line height in Star Office is very similar to Word's. §
Make-it-fit	In WP, you can select text within a document and make it fit to a specific number of pages. §	Not here.	Not here.	Not here.
Margin set	Left and right margins can be set for any amount of text, including a portion of a paragraph. §	Although margins can be set separately for selected text, it will affect the entire paragraph in Word.	Margins appear to affect the entire page.	Margins affect individual paragraphs, but can be set to be different on the same page.
Margins set with menu	Click format, margins and set. The margin dialogue box could be accessed via the keyboard. §	Click file, page setup, margins. I could not add this feature to the keyboard.	I could not customize the keyboard.	Click format, paragraph and a dialogue box will pop up.
Margins set with mouse	Can be done by mouse applied directly to the margins one sees. When using the mouse, the margin value can be seen and it changes as mouse moves. This is a very cool and intuitive feature. §§	(1) Change to margin, note the reading, and change it again if it isn't right. Or, (2) Double-click ruler (if your ruler is showing) will bring up the margin dialogue box. I couldn't find documentation for this under help in Word.	Can only be done through mouse applied outside the body of the text. You can only approximate your margin until you let go of the mouse.	Top and bottom margins could be set with the mouse.	Left and right margins could be set with the mouse above the document, but it would affect the entire document. A line break allows for the left and right margins to be changed on the same page.
Page formatting	You can subdivide a page in whatever way you would like, similar to PageMaker. §§	You can work with tables to achieve this. Section break is similar, but not quite the same. WP has section breaks as well as subdivision of a page.	Word cannot subdivide the page.	Word Pro cannot subdivide a page.	Apart from columns or tables, the page cannot be formatted to separate subdivisions.
Page Numbering	Dozens of options with regards to placement, font, additional text, etc. Can be accessed through format. Furthermore, everything that you need to do with regards to the number of any page can be done from one dialogue box. §§	In Word, you must click into the page number and select it to change the font.	In Word, you can change the position of the page number but it is not obvious how to format the text itself (e.g., use a smaller font); nor was it obvious how to add the standard text to the page number.	Doing a page number and a header together was awkward and didn't always work out.	I finally figured out how to use page numbering. It is mentioned under page formatting, but the general numbering style is chosen there. From the insert menu, you choose field, and insert the page number. I put it as a header and selected the page number to adjust the font. It was awkward.
Page numbering	Pages could alternate on the inside or outside. §	WP allows for more advance publishing.	The placement of page numbers was quite limited.	The placement of page numbers was very limited, as were the options.	The set up from format and page could allow for different printing options.
Quick Format	Text and paragraph formatting can be copied using a right click and then used elsewhere in the document. §§	Word has no comparable feature. There is something called auto-format, but it did not work the same way nor was it as powerful. Furthermore, it was less intuitive and it was therefore more difficult to use. It appeared to work once and then it turned itself off.	Fast format in Word Pro was quite intuitive, but changing one portion which was fast formatted did not change the others. It was much easier to figure out and use than Word's version, albeit, not as powerful as WP's. §	I found no similar feature in Word Pro.
Quick Format	Quick Format allows you to maintain some consistency in your document. If you change the font size of your original heading which format you copied, then the other headings which were so formatted will also change. §§	The headings and paragraphs can all be formatted to look the same in Word, but not through an instantaneous change. You must apply a chosen style or a recently designed style which to your entire document.	Word does not have a similar feature to allow this kind of immediate change.	Changing fast formatted text in Word Pro does not affect the other text.	No similar feature found.
Styles	Sometimes there are styles in a document which I want to duplicate. One easy way to do this is to open reveal codes and select and copy the codes that you want to use in another document. §	This can only be done by copying styles or using styles in Word.	There's no reveal codes, so styles can only be copied through the dialogue box.	No reveal codes, so this method cannot be used.
Styles or templates	80+ different templates. The entire menu has hundreds of different styles in the other Office Suite programs (accessible through WP). These are real styles where the entire page of one style is very different from the entire page set-up in another. §§	You could make them up from scratch in Word. I personally make little or no use of the shipped templates in WP.	20 different styles and templates. A myriad of paragraph styles (about 90), which differed mostly in font size and indentations.	There were 45 templates in Word Pro which were all very different and the formatting was easy to follow from the dialogue box. §	There were a fair number of templates, although a great deal of them were simply different backgrounds for a presentation. They were accessible while working on a text document. §
Word and letter spacing	You can adjust the spacing between letters and between words in WordPerfect and this is expressed in percentage. §§	Manually add spaces between words in Word.	You can adjust the spacing between characters but not between words and the spacing is given in terms of points. §	I couldn't figure out how to do this in Word Pro.	There did not seem to be a differentiation as to what was being spaced. The only spacing choices given were standard, expanded and condensed. I couldn't discern a difference.
Graphics
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
3D	An object in Presentations but not in WP, (e.g. a rectangle) can be easily changed into a 3-D object. §	Open Presentations, create the graphics image you want, then select it and copy it into WP.	An object in Word can be easily changed into a 3-D object. §§	I had trouble opening up Lotus's presentation program (probably too much open at the same time).	There were 3-D effects in the drawing module, but they were not easy to use.
Captions	In WordPerfect, the captions can be placed anywhere relative to the picture. A right click on the object reveals a menu, caption being one of the choices. The caption dialogue box is quite extensive and complete. The other programs do not compare in this area. §§	In Word, if you created a separate text box, that could be moved about as a caption. If you needed to move the graphic, then you would need to move the text box as well. Obviously, this is not much of an issue unless you deal with graphics, then it becomes quite important.	You first select the graphics box, and then choose insert->caption. Surprisingly enough, a right click did not give you a caption option. If you don't like the way the caption looks, you must delete the caption and try it again (as per Word's help).	Getting a box in the first place was not easy; it was not clear how to get a graphic into the box (text was easy, however). If a caption is too long, it gets cut off. That can be fixed with a right click and frame properties. The caption is another box placed near or inside a box.	Select the picture and then choose insert->caption, just like MS Word. Editing the caption was easy; you just click into the box where the text is and begin to edit it. However, re-
positioning the text did not seem to be an option. Furthermore, the text could be places above or below, and that was it. One feature of Star Writer is that you could have more than one caption, but they could only be placed above or below the graphic.
Clip Art	Comes with 10,000 clipart images. §§	Buy additional software or download some graphics. According to one person, the full install of MS Office 2000 yields 16,000 pieces of clipart (I don't have the full version, so I couldn't check it). Both WP and Word offers sites on the web for additional artwork (and lots of it).	I couldn't determine how many clipart images that shipped with Word, as there is nothing given in the help, I could not figure out where the clipart was hidden on my hard drive, and the way it was organized (which was not bad) allowed for clipart to be counted twice (I would guess fewer than 500 images, however).	There did not appear to be any clipart in Word Pro. There was no obvious way of inserting it from elsewhere (other than copy and paste). I could easily copy and paste out of the other three programs.	This comes with some limited graphics (certainly less than 500), which could be sorted better than they are.
Clip Art	Clip art could not be extended off of a page, but it could be taken past the margins.	One must crop clip art in another program and then bring it back into WP.	In Word, a piece of clip art could extend beyond the page and that extended portion would be automatically cropped. §	Obviously limited in its capability (see above).	The clipart could extend past the margins.
Cropping clipart	This can be done, but it is very convoluted for WP. Right click, choose image tools, choose that magnifying glass, and then chose the portion you want to crop. It took me several tries. §	WP can do a lot better than this!	Cropping with Word was just as convoluted as with WP. It could be done, but it was not easy. The cropping menu is similar to that found in Star Office, except that it worked. §	Can't do.	This appeared to have a cropping menu, but it really did not crop the picture.
Graphics Boxes	In WP, there is a choice of 14 different custom boxes (plus, you can modify any of these or add as many custom boxes as you want to this selection). §§	If you have certain box attributes that you use, then the insertion of same could be part of a macro or inserting a previously designed file.	In Word, you can insert a text box and then modify its attributes. Once you have a graphics box that you like, you can either copy and paste it throughout your document or save it by itself in insert it when you need it.	A style of box can be created in Word Pro, once you get the hang of it. It appeared to be easiest to create the box and the look, then right click it, choose styles, and name it. Not all attributes transferred with the style, however. §	Prior to inserting a box, you had a plethora of choices as to how to modify it; however, I did not see an option for saving a particular style.
Graphics drawing in document	It is now possible to draw certain images directly in WordPerfect without opening up Presentations (this was done automatically in previous versions so that some users did not realize that they were using a different program). Now, the same shapes and lines which are found in Word are now found in WP. §§	One of the few areas where Word was superior to WP in 1997 was the ability to add quick graphics, e.g., boxes, circles, etc. Now this can be done similarly in both programs.	One may draw a graphic image right in Word. The drawing is quite fluid. §§	Rectangles and circles can be drawn directly into a Word Pro document, but with less variety than Word or WP.	Rectangles and circles can be drawn directly into a Star Writer document, but with less variety than Word or WP.
Graphics Fill	Various graphics, e.g., circle, squares, etc., can be filled with a plethora of graphics, textures, etc. §§.	WP mimicked Word's modus operandi in filling an image. Right click image, choose properties, and fill.	Clip art and pictures and patterns may be inserted as a coloration of an object as well as an overlay. §§	For some reason, I could not get the graphics fill to function. I could not find it. I recall this working reasonably well several versions ago.	A new toolbar pops up in Star Writer which allows an image to be modified when you select it. It is not as good as WP or Word, but it is adequate. §
Graphics Menu	WordPerfect has no graphic menu category; you must choose a different menu or make your own (up to 60 options can be added). §	You can add this category to the Word menu along with the features.	Word does not have a specific graphics category. You must make your own in Word as well. §	No real graphics menu. However, you may change over to a WP menu, which has a limited graphics menu.	No real graphics menu.
Graphics toolbar	There is a customizable toolbar designed strictly for graphics when a graphic is chosen. There is another toolbar which may be used which deals with graphics. §§	WP combines the best of Word and Star Writer.	Word has a very good graphics tool bar within Word. Each additional graphic added to a Word document off the Word tool bar is treated separately. §	The older version had a reasonable graphics toolbar. I don't know if I have simply taxed my systems memory or whether it is no longer there.	When a graphics image is chosen, then a graphics specific toolbar appears. §
Real-time preview:	This is very cool—select an image and then, on the property bar, choose fill. There are 64 different fill styles which you may see in your image on your document before you apply them. §§	Corel needs to do this for textures as well.	Not here.	Not here.	Not here.
Right-clicked graphics menu	Right clicking an image yields 18 options for the right click menu (surprisingly, cut and copy are not among these options). §	Right clicking an image produces fifteen options, an improvement from Word '97.	Right click menu produces 18 options, which, oddly enough, are not as helpful as though in WP.	A right click produces only 8 options, but they are more helpful than Word Pro's 18.
Rotation	WordPerfect graphic boxes can be rotated any degree. Just right click, choose rotate, and then use your mouse to rotate it. §§	Word should make this easy to do via a right click. This is a much easier task in WP and Star Writer.	Word graphics can rotated only from the graphics toolbar. Select the image, draw, then rotate and flip. There is a button for free rotate on the toolbar. §	Couldn't figure out how to do it.	Once the image is right-clicked, the drawing toolbar appears, and the rotate button can be clicked. §§
Watermark	There is a choice on the menu for a watermark. When an image is retrieved, it is automatically lightened and it is in the background. In any case, it is a simple process. §§	If you are using Word and watermarks on a regular basis, you had better do much of this by macro.	In word, watermarks are placed in headers and footers. A page watermark could be created by inserting an image onto the page, expanding it to full size, changing the wrap, and then modifying the contrast and brightness.	6 steps given, including a short film (and, once all of this is done, there is a limited choice of watermarks).	There may have been a way to do this, but I couldn't find it on the menu (and don't bother using help).
Final comment	If you use a lot of graphics, this is a no-brainer. When I took a class in Page Maker, I asked if there was anything that Page Maker did that WP did not. The teacher was not aware of anything. If you use a lot of graphics, then WP is the only reasonable choice here.
Headers and Footers
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Headers and Footers	Two headers and two footers can be inserted by WP. One or both can alternate. In WP, when a new header or footer is chosen, then a new one begins (so you could have a section heading on odd pages, and a chapter heading on even pages, both of which can change throughout the document.. §	You may insert one header and one footer in Word. With a section break, a new header can be added.	You may insert only one header and one footer in Word Pro or two, if they are on different pages..	A page break appeared to wipe out the heading and page numbering, so that could be changed. However, it is not as easy as WP, where there things can be changed in the document individually.
Headers and Footers	Because you can insert two headers (or, two footers), they can be placed on every other page as is often done in books. §	You could manually insert a new header or a new footer on every page and make certain the remarks note that it is for that page only.	This cannot be done in Word.	Headers and footers could be placed on every other page, and it was fairly easy to do so. §	Without inserting page breaks, I could see no easy way to put different headers on different pages.
Styles	I have always found it easy to change the style of the headers and footers. I never had to go to the help menu for this. §	Word Pro was slightly less intuitive and WP.	Headers tended to be independent entities in Word, meaning that they could be changed manually on every page.	Once I changed the style for one header, the others would change as well. §	Changing the header on a later page, changed it for earlier pages.
Help
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Helpful hints:	If you use macros, you will need to add to the menu macros help (see Macros for that).	Help -> contents [or, help agent] and then click on the binoculars. I could not figure out how to go directly to search help, which would be very helpful.
Installation
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Install as you go	Although you could install components later, WP did not call for the disk to install a feature. In WP 9 SP4, I chose to install everything. However, the Help files were not installed for whatever reason. I had to locate the disk in order to install them. Under SP4, WP did call for the disk for additional installation.	Some of what WordPerfect and Word left out I found to be necessary (e.g., the help files for macros in WP and the filters for Word). What was most irritating with Word is that it called for the disk a half dozen times before I tried to install everything. Even after that, Word still called for the disk for things that weren't installed.	Word, when a feature that you needed wasn't installed, would call for the disk and install it on the fly.	Not observed.	Not observed.
Install what you want:	It was easy to pick and choose what you wanted to install.	In Corel Office, you have to be aware that the "X" without the bright white background meant that not all components were being installed.	It was easy in Word to pick and choose what you want to install.	Not observed.	Not observed.
Overwriting of dll's	When WP was installed, there were no options given concerning dll files.	At the end of the installation, Word listed each dll file separately and asked if it should be overwritten by an older file. §	Not observed in Lotus.	No such options given by Star Office.
Settings retained	The settings from WP 7 and 8 were not transferred over into WP 9 at installation.	Although these settings could be transferred, the result was a less-stable WP 9.	Word 2000 automatically transferred the toolbars and settings from Word '97. §	I did not have an earlier version of Lotus Office Suite installed.	I did not have a previous version of Star Office installed.
Suggestions	There should be an option in the installation menu which clearly allows the transference of specific items, e.g., keyboards, file locations, dictionaries, toolbars, etc. WP would have to have the option of these things being transferred from specific versions of WP, as some users keep more than one version on their computer (it is more rare for a Word user to keep two consecutive versions of Word on their computer at the same time).
Keyboard and Shortcut Keys
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V	Copy, Cut and Paste	?, Cut and Paste.
Alt+Shift+D	none	Date field
Ctrl+D	Date text	Delete word
Ctrl+F	Find and replace	Find
Ctrl+J	Justify Full	Justify paragraph
Ctrl+I, Ctrl+B, Ctrl+U	Italics, bold and underline	Italics, bold and underline	Italics, bold and underline	Italics, bold and underline
Ctrl+P, Ctrl+Shift+P	Print..., Print document	Print, Font size select
Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+Shift+Q	Find QuickMark; set QuickMark	Reset paragraph, Symbol font
Ctrl+R	Justify right	Right paragraph
Ctrl+S	Save	Save
F1	Help	Help
F2	Find and replace	Find and replace
F3	Save as...	Auto text
F4	Open	Redo or repeat
Alt+F4	Exit WP	File close or exit
Shift+F4	New blank document	Repeat find
Ctrl+F4	Close	Doc close
F5	Print	Open
Ctrl+Shift+F5	Insert Paragraph #	Bookmark
F6	Next Pane	Other pane
Shift+F6	Previous Pane	Other pane
Alt+F6	Next window	Next window
Alt+F7	Flush Right	The other justifications of this line remain in tact in WP	Next misspelling
Shift+F7	Center Text	Ditto	Language
F9	Font...	Update fields
F12	Table	Save as...
Shift+F12	Borders/Fill	Save
Shift Del, Shift Ins, Ctrl Ins	Cut, Paste, Copy	Cut, Paste, Copy
Customization of keys	Almost all keys and key combinations (apart from those reserved by the Windows OS) can be customized in WP, including the letter keys. In other words, if you learned to type on that other keyboard (is it Dvorak?), then you can change your keyboard to match what you are used to). §	Almost all of the keys can be customized (not as many as in WP, however). There is an extensive assignment of properties already to Word's keyboard. You cannot reassign the basic keys.
Keyboards	Ships with several keyboards (you may have up to 99 different keyboards with any one template)	I have 4 keyboards which appear to have come with WP 9; however, they may have been part of a template copied from a previous version of WP. Those who have used WP in the long ago past will want to use the DOS WP 6 keyboard	MS Word ships with one keyboard (which is mostly customizable). On the negative side, if you use your template on another computer, in order to use your customized keyboard, then do not name it normal.dot, as it will supplant the other default template, thus wiping out their customizations. If you are going to heavily customize your keyboard (or anything else in Word), then name your template something like myname.dot and set that as your default template. I have not tried using a foreign keyboard, which can be added from the Windows menu.
Printing keyboard shortcuts	I know of no way to do this in WP.	The shortcuts in Word (except for assigned macros) can be printed or saved in a document. §
Viewing shortcuts	Since I placed the keyboard in use on my status bar, I click keyboard (on the status bar), select the appropriate keyboard to view, edit, and then I can view the shortcuts. Otherwise tools -> settings -> customize -> keyboards -> select the appropriate keyboard and then edit.	In any of these programs, it is a good idea to devise a keyboard map, if you do much by way of customizing to your keyboard. I found a simple table format to be the easiest (I customize my keyboard entirely).	You print the shortcuts (check help for how to)
Additional comments	I did not list each and every shortcut; I listed a number of shortcuts which appear to be pretty consistent from program to program.
Additional comments:	There should be a way to print out the shortcuts on the keyboard.
Additional comments:	With all of the shortcuts keys found on these various programs, the em dash and the en dash should be assigned a shortcut on all of these programs. I have personally placed them on my hyphen key under Alt+hyphen and Ctrl+hyphen, respectively. I have never had any problems recalling what key to use for instant access to these dashes. I should mention that, as a math teacher, the hyphen key is just too short for a subtraction sign; however, the en dash is absolutely perfect as a subtraction sign.
Macros
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Change of case macro	I have a macro in WP which allows me to place my cursor anywhere in a word and then change its case (unless it is the first word of a sentence). §	I often need to convert from a lower case to an upper case in a word (or vice versa).	The commands concerning case change are found under format. This is a command which can be assigned to a key. §	I could not do this in Word Pro.	I could not do this in Star Writer.
Correction of typing errors:	I wrote two macros and added them to my keyboard to correct these problems. No matter where I am in a document, if I notice that I have mistyped a the or an and, I simply press Ctrl+E (or +D) and the error is immediately fixed and I am back right where I was when I noticed the mistake (this all occurs in a split second). Go to these macros below: §§	I tend to make a lot of typing errors, some of which I solve using QuickCorrect. However, one which I make a lot is that I type a space between the h and the e in the, and place the e with the following word, yielding two misspelled words (I do that same with and, which yields one misspelled word).	Although I could use find and replace to solve the problem, I had to insert and then remove a bookmark. The problem I ran into was the replacement of th e at the beginning of a sentence. It did not automatically capitalize it. I would have to write a separate macro for that. Assignment to a key was fairly easy. §	Although I could use find and replace to solve the problem, I had also placed a bookmark and then erased that bookmark as a part of the macro. I could not figure out how to add this macro to the keyboard for use in the future.	Although I could use find and replace to solve the problem, I had to manually relocate myself back to where I was when I noticed the error. I was able to set a bookmark but I had no clue as to how to get back to it. I could not add this to the keyboard.
Ending a macro	Tools -> macro -> record	Advantage of WP: fewer toolbar buttons needed. Disadvantage of WP: you must realize that you begin and end a macro with record.	A box pops up, which allows you to end the recording of the macro.	A box pops up, which allows you to end the recording of the macro.	A box pops up, which allows you to end the recording of the macro.
Initiating a macro	Tools -> macro -> record	Tools -> macro -> record new macro	Tools -> macro -> record	Tools -> macro and a dialogue box appears.
Macro help	Extensive; there is actually a whole different module dedicated to this. Although you can get to this module circuitously through the normal help menu, you will want to add this command to your menu (or toolbar) if you use macros a lot. You right click the menu, edit that menu, and go to the category help and choose macros... It says online Help on using macros; but it gets this from your disk (I personally install the macro help, knowing I will need it). Although WP is deficient in this area, it is still way ahead of its competitors. §§	Here is a serious flaw in WP's menu. There are two commands, macros online, which opens up Explorer, which will then go to Corel macro web page. The other, which is under the category Help is unfortunately not on the menu and must be added. It appears, by the comment, to be the same as macros online, but it is not.	No index for help with various macro commands.	There is an extensive menu on the various Lotus script commands. I couldn't figure out how to place it directly on the menu, however. §	Are you kidding? Not nearly extensive enough (it is not much worse than MS Word, however).
Macro language	Relatively simple. §	Moderately difficult.	Bizarre.	Some of it is relatively simple. The problem is that where it is difficult, there is nowhere to go for help. There is apparently a nice system put together for writing and editing macros without a help system in place to guide you.
Macros	Almost every WP user has a few macros which they use. There are easily a hundred sites on the web with various WP Macros for the taking.	Most of the people I know who use Word do not use any Word macros (in fact, only people who I have visited with on-line use Word macros. I don't know of anyone in real life who does. There are no macro resources on the web comparable to WP's.	I don't know if I have even seen an amateur web site for Word Pro (there must be one).	I don't know that I have seen an amateur web site for Star Writer, although there is a great deal of enthusiasm for this program—much of it from anti-MS types.
Naming macros	Few limitations as to length or spaces. §	If you use several hundred macros, as I do, you want to be able to figure out what's what.	Limitation of length and spaces.	Spaces not allowed.	Limitation of length and spaces.
shipped macros	There are 25 macros which ship with WP9, among which are: adrs2mrg (copies the address book into a merge data file), allfonts (creates a list of every font in your Windows system and shows a complete sample of the text), checkbox (places a checkbox into a document which can be clicked to add or remove a checkmark); closeall (closes all open documents and prompts you to close those that have been modified); cvtdocs9 (allows multiple documents from another program to be formatted for WP9); savetoa (saves a document wherever and also saves it to another drive—in this case, drive A). §§	Anyone is going to find a macro in WP9 that they will use again and again (I used a modified version of savetoa daily for a backup of my work). Every time I set up a new computer with new fonts, I run allfonts.	There were only two; one allowed for a mass conversion of documents (no parameters were given beyond that).	No shipped macros that I could find.	I finally found some shipped macros, although I was a little afraid to run them as I didn't know what they did. To find these, go to tools -> macros -> organizer and then put check marks in all of the boxes.
Storage of macros	As separate files; their location can be modified. These macros could be placed into any directory or sub-
directory, but only two of these could be listed under location of files. This means that when a macro is added to the keyboard, toolbar or menu, the entire path must be chosen if it is not in one of those two specified directories (this is a yes or no question which you are prompted to answer).	In WP, you go to the Macro file and open it and edit it separately. In the other programs, you go to macros and then edit the individual macros from there.	Inside Normal template.	In their default template (I think).	In the default template (I think).
Menus
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Copying of menus	Whatever menus that you have elsewhere can be copied over into WP 9 without losing any other settings. §	Portions of someone's default settings cannot be copied into someone else's default settings.	Didn't test Word Pro in this regard.
Copying of menus	Menus from previous versions on computer are not automatically copied into WP 9 at installation.	This must be done by hand in WordPerfect.	The toolbars from Word '97 were copied into Word 2000 (and a menu is simply a toolbar in Word). §	I didn't test Word Pro in this regard.
Creating a new menu	In WP, you can create a new menu from scratch, but you are really working from scratch.	Although WP had a list of menus, you had to add all of the menu selections.	Once you figure out how to make a new menu, MS has some set menu categories as well as the appropriate functions to go with the categories. §	Once you got to the editing of menus, it was fairly easy to determine how to make a new menu, as well as how to customize it. Word Pro came with built-in categories and groups. §
Menus	Menu items do not have pictures.	Toolbar items in WP have pictures and they are customizable by a right click.	Menu items have pictures which are easily customizable. §	No pictures for Word Pro menus.
Menu placement	The menu is always on top.	A toolbar of all menus could be set up in WP and that could be moved to anywhere in the workspace. Icons could also be added here.	Word's menu can be moved as a menu in Word is simply another toolbar. For this reason, icons can be added to the menu in Word. §	Menu is always on top.
Menus shipped with product	Four menus: an Internet Publisher menu (which appears whenever you are in an HTML document; a MS Word Menu (for those going from Word to WP), and the WP 8 and the WP 9 menus. §	There are limitations as to what you can do with an HTML document; the Internet menu in WP automatically confines you to those limitations.	Only one menu ships with Word, so if you are used to another word processing program, you might as well get use to Word.	Five menus are shipped with Word Pro: Word Pro Standard, Word Pro Lite (a very good idea), a MS Word menu, and WP menu, and an old Ami Pro menu (Word Pro's predecessor). §
Menu Organization	Under the heading format, one can find line, paragraph, page, document; and one can format those items. §§	After the simple typing of text, most people do more formatting than anything else in a document.	Under the heading formal in Word, paragraph is there. I don't know where I would go if I wanted to format a line, page or document in Word.	I found Word Pro to be slightly better organized than Word.
Menu Organization	Sort is located under tools next to merge. To open a template, one must go to "new" first. §	Sort is located under tables. Opening up a template for a document was found in styles.	Sort was found under text. A tools menu is needed in Word Pro.
Menu Organization	Making a document fit a specified number of pages is found under format. §	In Word, once you learn where something is, and you use it a lot, then you remember where it is. However, finding it in the first place is often a pain.	Shrinking a document can be found if you go to page preview under file, and then you must click the correct icon.	No such item in Word Pro.
Menu Organization	No one will agree on the perfect menu; however, I believe that WP has the most reasonable set up. §	To insert a header or a footer in Word, you go to "View" rather than to "Insert" or to "Format."	No format or insert menu; however, the page and text menus were reasonable.
Right click menu (table)	Inside a table, a right click gives you 18 options. §	This can be changed in Word, but the right click in WordPerfect gives you options not available to Word users.	Inside a table, a right click gives you 13 options.	14 options.
Right click menu (text)	Text yields 14 options. §	See above.	Text yields 9 options.	11 options.
Right click menu (selected text)	Selected text yields 14 options. §	See above.	Selected text yields same 9 options as simple text.	11 options.
Right click menu editing	WordPerfect does not allow for this.	Even so, there are still more options with WP's right-click menu.	Word lets you edit the right click menu. §	I don't believe that you can change the right-click menus in Word Pro.
Comment	See Customization of menus for more information on the menus.
Navigation
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Ctrl+up arrow	To the beginning of a the present paragraph at first word of the that paragraph . From there, it will go to the beginning of the first word of the previous paragraph. §	Maybe I am just used to it, but since I personally type a lot of papers using two hard returns, it is more useful for me for the cursor to begin at the beginning of the paragraph and not at the beginning of an empty line.	To the beginning of a line immediately after a hard return.	To the beginning of a line immediately after a hard return.	This did not navigate me anywhere; it did something weird to the document (it appeared to removed a hard return).
Ctrl+down arrow	To the beginning of the first word of the next paragraph.	To the next beginning of a line after a hard return, whether there is a paragraph there or no.	Same as Word.	This seemed to insert a hard return.
Ctrl+left arrow	To the beginning of that set of continuous characters; if at the beginning of a set of characters, it goes to the beginning of the previous set of characters.	Certainly you could argue here as to which is preferable.	Like Word Pro.	To the beginning of the next word unless it is followed by a period or other sentence terminator, and then it goes to the end of the word (not the sentence), and next click takes you to the beginning of that word. Parentheses will also cause the cursor movement to get weird. It will stop before and after the first half, but only before the second half.	Like Word Pro.
Ctrl+right arrow	To the beginning of the next set of characters.	Like Word Pro.	Similar to above but the curosr moves forward.	Like Word Pro.
Page Up and Page Down	These do exactly what you would expect them to do. You go to the top of the next page or the top of the previous page. §	Word users either don't use these buttons or have gotten used to their text disappearing from view. As a WP user, when I use Word, this is just another one of the frustrating aspects of Word which needed be.	You go up and you go down, although it is not clear how much. Often, the text disappears out of view, when using page down, but page up does not automatically reverse the position.	Page Up and Page Down seem to go the same amount of space up and down, but not a page. You cannot use Page Up to go to the top of the first page.	Page Up and Page Down both took you the same distance up and down, but not a page.
Scroll bar	In WP 8 and 9, the document moves in real-time as you use your scroll bar.	This was a feature which was not in WP 7 or Word '97.	In Word 2000, the document will move in real-time when you tug on the scroll bar.
Price
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Cost	Early on, you can usually find complete suite versions of Corel WP Office 2000 for as little as $20–30. This are often OEM versions, which are not really legal to sell (and come with one CD only). You can usually find the full-tilt version in the stores, as an upgrade, for around $100 (if you want Paradox and Dragon Naturally Speaking, you'll pay about $60 more). Take my word for it—you want the upgrade. Other options include buying the Corel family pack ($60–100), which has WP and Quattro Pro (and a couple other programs). Another very viable option is to pick up the academic version of WP—it will not have a manual, but it will only cost about $40. This is available for students, educators, and pastors (try your local college bookstore). There are differences between WP 7, 8 and 9. If any of these differences are important to you, you can install more than one version of WP on your computer at a time without incident. Copies of WP 7 and 8 are available on the web usually for around $15–50. §§	This is worth its own section.	As an upgrade (which is generally possible for most computer users), you will pay in excess of $200 for the cheapest version of MS Office (in most cases, you will get everything that you really need in the cheapest version). If MS Office 2000 requires a previous installation of MS Office, you can usually find Office '97 on the web at ebay for about $30 or less. You can install Office '97 and 2000 coterminously on your computer (although, I don't know why you would want to).	The millennium edition of Lotus Millennium Edition Suite can be gotten for as little as $9.95 on the web—you should be able to locate it for no more than $30. §§	If buying a computer broke the bank, you want this suite—it is free as a download off the web. §§§
Status Bar
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Customizing status bar	Printer, date and time can be text or icon, either by the intuitive right-click or through tools and then settings. Even the size of the text and the width can be customized. There are far more things that can be added to the status bar than there is room for. §§	In picking out my favorite choices for WP's status bar, there are still 11 not used. In Star Writer, you can choose every display option and still have room left on the status bar.	The status bar cannot be customized.	No customization possible.	Status bar can customized slightly, but not through a right click. Various customizations may be saved, although I don't quite follow why, given the limited customization that can take place.
Date insert	Date and or time can be inserted by a click on the status bar in WP. §	This can be gotten as a menu item only in Word (and it can be added to a toolbar).	No date or time on status bar.	No date and time insert from status bar.
Important displays	The font, its size, and whether it is bold or italicized are found on the status bar. §	With the many toolbar buttons I use, I don't have room for bold or italics, so my status bar keeps me informed (when I go to the end of a line, at the end of a word or the bottom of the page, etc., it is nice to know what the text is going to be like.	Text information not to be found on status bar but on toolbar.	Text font, size, and basic attributes found on status bar. §	Text information not on status bar, but on toolbar (the object bar, to be specific).
Important displays	When given enough room, your various documents are found on the status bar. You can even drag and drop text and images using this status bar. §	A second document is placed on the Window's toolbar but not on the status bar. Text can be dragged and dropped, but it is done in such a way as to indicate versions of a document (i.e., it might end up red or crossed out).	Other documents found only via the Window option on the menu.	Star Writer has a second status bar, if you will, which displays the open documents, as well as the running applications. It is similar to the Windows toolbar. You cand rag and drop text and graphics between documents using this status bar. §
Important displays	Time and date. §	No time or date.	No time or date.	Time and date. §
Location of cursor in text	If I change the margins in WP, the position on the status bar is relative to the edge of the paper. §§	It's better to have something than nothing.	When I change the margins in Word, the positions on the status bar remain the same relative to the margin. §	Must display rulers to see the exact position.	Location is not to be found on the status bar.
Interactivity	Status bar can be used to insert the date or the time, to change the font, to edit or change the keyboard or to bring up the go to dialogue box, all via a single click. §§	Find and replace can be invoked from status bar, as can the recording of a macro.	Primarily font changes can be made using status bar. However, go to and help may also be accessed.	Fields and page or document set up can be accessed via a double-click on the status bar. Date and time cannot be inserted from here. §
Printer	When working with two or more printers, WP displays which printer is being used on the status bar. §	Which printer is being used also has an effect on the look of the document itself.	If there are two printing options, there is nothing in Word to immediately let you know that you might be using the wrong printer.	Printer not shown.	Printer not shown.
Viewing cell address of table	Automatically found in the status bar. §	A macro can be run in order to view what cell you are in.	Not automatically found anywhere.	Not found anywhere.	Location in table found on status bar. §
Tables
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Adjusting the size of a table:	In WP, the width and height of a cell can be adjusted by the mouse. §	In Word, the width and the height of a cell can be adjusted using the mouse. §	Only the width of a cell can be adjusted by using the mouse.
Borders	When a cell is chosen, then, by default, the cell options are displayed under borders and fill. §	The default selection, even when a cell is chosen, is the entire table.	The default selection for a single cell is that single cell. §
Border	Borders tend to remain inside the individual cells. The final result of customizing the borders of WP tended to look more professional. §	There is a wide variety and selection in all of the programs when it comes to borders and fill.	Some borders, when chosen for a particular cell, go outside the boundaries of that cell.	Some borders, when chosen for a cell, go outside the boundaries for that cell.
Cross formulas	Numbers and cells in other tables can be referenced in formulas in a later table. §	Instead, what you would do in the other programs is make a huge table and then format it so that it will appear not to be a table in the middle.	I couldn't do this in Word.	I couldn't do this in Word Pro.
Cutting and pasting in a table	Select the row(s) that you want to move, cut -> rows; then move to the insertion point and paste. The rows that you selected are not emptied but removed entirely. Wherever you choose to paste, these rows will be inserted. You will not lose the text which is there. §	Also, in Word, if you simply select and then drag the rows, they will erase what is in the rest of the table.	In Word, you must select the rows, cut, then you must select the empty rows again and delete them. Then, wherever you choose to move those rows to, you must create an equal number of blank rows and then paste. It is a pain to move a row.
Decimal alignment	You can align the decimals in WP. §	In order to decimal align columns in Word, block the column and set a dec. align tab where you want the divider to be. You don't have to tab in each cell, the whole column will automatically align.	You cannot align the decimals without adding spaces.	You cannot align the decimals without adding additional spaces.
Editing a table	With the mouse, a row could be selected and moved; all cell formatting moves with it. §	In this version of Word, an entire row can be selected and then moved; however, the cell formatting stays behind.	Rows can be selected and moved, but the cell formatting remains behind.
Editing a table	If you select a row and then mov it up or down in a table, the other rows will automatically adjust and show up above or below. The previous rows will not be overwritten. §	This is a very tricky move in Word. Sometimes when an entire row is moved, you wipe out the row to where it is moved; other times everything proceeds as it should.	You cannot really select a row in Word Pro.
Editing a table	In WP, you can add, remove and resize rows and columns and it the table behaves as you would expect. §	I joined the cells in the top row in Word (I would do this for a header row) and then tried inserting a column. The top row got suddenly larger and had an additional column which was not aligned with my new column. What's up with that?
Exiting a table	You can always easily put your cursor before or after a table, no matter where you placed the table. You can either do this via reveal codes or hit home three times plus the up arrow. §

Beginning text before or after a table should be an easy thing to do.	Since the inception of point and shoot in Word, you may easily place your cursor and begin typing after a table. This is not so easy if you didn't open up a line before your table.	You can place text prior to and following a table fairly easily in Word Pro (just hit the home and up arrow, then hard return to get a line above the table. Click below the table to begin typing after a table (your cursor won't go where you click, but it will allow you to type outside the table.
Entering a formula	In WP, you need only type an equal's sign (=) or a plus sign (+) followed by whatever formula you choose and you immediately have a formula without even clicking on the formula symbol. §	Doesn't work that way in Word.	Doesn't work that way in Word Pro.	As soon as an equal's sign is typed, you are in the formula bar. However, simple formulas (like =c2+d2) did not correctly compute.
Entering a formula	Any formula can be entered. If it cannot be computed, then zero is the answer. The advantage here is that the numbers in the other cells can be added later. §	Entering a formula without numbers in the respective can be done, but then, when numbers are added into those cells, the formula does not automatically compute the answer.	A formula must be workable in order to enter it into a cell.
Formatting	Easy to rotate text. §	Easy to rotate text. §	Could not figure out how to rotate the text in the cells.
Formulas	Can be accessed by menu, additional formula bar, or right click. §	Do the table in Excel and then cut and paste	Can be accessed from menu only (although this could be added to a toolbar and edited into the right-click menu).	Can be accessed by the menu only (although this could be added to a toolbar and edited into the right-click menu).
Formulas	98 formulas ship with WordPerfect. Keys below the "F" keys and on the number pad can all be used for basic functions. §§§	This is fairly easy and intuitive in WP, and I am certain that this could be done in Word and Word Pro; I was unable to do it after studying help for several minutes.	Word improved again in this area. I was able to set up some basic formulas after a bit of work. This was not easy, however. Nearly 20 formulas ship with Word. Although the help can be followed here, this is definitely not very easy to do.	Ships with 6 formulas and I could not get it to work. I couldn't get the keys below the "F" keys or the number pad keys to set up the most elementary function either.
Formulas	Formulas can be copied and relative cell references are maintained (using the § sign can make these absolute references). §	Relative references are maintain; however, you must select the copied text, right-click and then choose update fields.	Formulas can be copied and relative cell references are maintained. §
Formulas, changing the values of reference cells	When the value of a cell is changed, WP can be set up so that the formulas which refer back to that cell are automatically updated. §	Once you change the values of reference cells in Word, you select the value in the cell, then you must click on insert formula and then click okay.	Changing a reference cell triggers an automatic updating of the dependent formula cells. §
Formulas as numbers	There were 10 ways to format numbers in any given cell (or group of cells). Each of these could be modified in a half dozen or more ways. §	Since I use tables in WP a great deal, it is important to be able to format the numbers as money, to determine the number decimal places, etc.	I could not figure out how to format the numbers in a cell.	Almost as many types of formatting available with Word Pro as in WP; a veritable plethora of currency formats. §
Initial size	Changing the font size automatically will change the row height.	Changing the font size automatically changes the row height.	Changing the font size changes the row height.
Initial size	Changing the line height will change the size of the rows of the table. Changing the spacing only kicks in when there is a hard return involved (as it should be). §	Any amount of text height can be determined with WP, which is helpful for the worksheets which I must produce.	Changing the spacing of the lines will also change the table which is inserted afterwards.	Once the table is made, then the height can be changed by selecting the table (or some portions of some rows) and changing the number of lines for any text.
Insertion of a row	Right click table, choose insert, and the options are number of rows and whether they are inserted before or after (this can be gotten from the menu as well or from a button). Formatting features are taken from that row. §	Insertion of a row can be gotten from the menu (choices include inserting before and after). Some of the formatting from the top row was brought down (I don't know why).	A row can be inserted only from a right click; it is only added after the row where the cursor is.
Insertion of rows	As above. §	Many more mouse clicks in Word and not nearly as intuitive as WP.	Select the number of rows that you would like to insert in your current table (you need not select the entire row), then go to table -> insert -> and choose rows above or rows below (this can also be done from the table toolbar (the only way suggested in MS Word's help).
Rotate a Table	A table can be inserted into a box and the box contents rotated 90°, 180° or 270°. §	I could not get a table or a box to rotate in a document.	A table can be inserted into a box and the box rotated 90°, 180° or 270°. §
Updating	WP can be set up so that, when a number is changed, then the cells based upon the various formulas in the document are automatically updated. §	This should be the default setting in WP.	You can select what you want updated and then press F9 or, select update under print which is under options and your document will be updated prior to printing.	When numbers in cells are changed, the cells dependent upon formulas are updated automatically. §
Viewing cell address	On the status bar, you always know what cell you are in. §	I seem to recall that there is a macro that you can write for MS Word to let you know where you are.	There is no screen indication of where you are in Word. For a small table, this is unimportant; for a spreadsheet table, this is unacceptable.	There is no indication of where you are here either.	At the bottom, on the status bar, your cell address is noted. §
Viewing formulas	When the formula bar is showing, the formulas are found in the formula dialogue box. §	You can find that formula in Word and Word Pro, if you don't mind the additional keystrokes.	Must select value of cell, then table, then insert formula and a dialogue box will come up with the formula in it.	Must right-click and go to formula edit.	When the mouse is brought over the cell, the formula is given like a tool tip. §§
Comment	There are those who I have talked to who tell me that if I need to use tables, then just go to a spreadsheet program. What they fail to understand is that, at first, a spreadsheet program can seem pretty daunting to a new user. Furthermore, I don't need a sledge hammer when a simple hammer will do. And, most importantly, when I do bring a table over from a spreadsheet program into a word processing program, I find myself having to totally reformat the table so that it looks the way I want it to.
Conclusion	One of the marvelous things about WordPerfect is that its tables behave very much like spreadsheet tables. I learned to use a spreadsheet program after using WP's table feature for several years. I have taught high school students how to use a spreadsheet program (we have MS Excel at our school) without ever have had a single lesson in the use of a spreadsheet.
Toolbars
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Number of toolbars	Ships with 20 toolbars, including a MS Word toolbar. §	Ships with 16 different toolbars.	Ships with about 15 different toolbars.
Placement	Toolbars can be individually placed. §	Toolbars may be individually placed. §	Toolbars are on top only.
Property bars	WordPerfect has the unique property bars which appear when a different environment is entered into. There are about 40 different property bars. They can be customized and placed differently than the toolbars. §§	Whether you have selected text, are in a footnote or in a table, there will be a context-specific toolbar that will pop up automatically in WP. In Word, you must add or change your toolbars.	Not found here.	Not found here.
Toolbars	Toolbars can have several rows. You can design just one toolbar with everything on it. §	In Word, several toolbars can be designed and several used at one time.	Toolbars are only one row long. §	Only one toolbar of one row; and several toolbars do not completely fit on the screen at the same time.
Addendum	There is a great deal more to be said, but most of it can be found under customization.
Tools
WordPerfect 9	comment	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Adding words to dictionary	Spell-check automatically will use your added words to offer suggestions for misspelled words. §	Spell-check automatically will use your added words to offer suggestions for misspelled words. §	Although Word Pro will add words to a customized dictionary, it rarely offers those words as possible corrections (except when it comes to capitalization).
Automatic spell-check	Excellent automatic spell-check feature.	I was unable to locate Word Pro's automatic marking of misspelled words at first. It is under view-> show/hide. None of the word processing software corrected a misspelling unless the misspelling and correction were in the dictionary WP 8 did this.	Excellent automatic spell-check and automatic spell-
correct feature.	Automatic spell-check and spell-correct feature.	Automatic spell-check and spell-correct feature.
Caps fix	If you leave your Caps Lock on, WP will fix that when you type a normal sentence (i.e., capitalizing the first letter). §	Word does this as well. §	Not here.	Not found here.
Individual spell-check	A misspelled word can either be right-
clicked for a corrected spelling, or that spelling may be found in the prompt-as-you-
go box. §	A misspelled word can be corrected via a right-click; there was no prompt-as-
you-go toolbar box. §	Individual words cannot be spell-
checked. However, the spell-check can be left on while typing, so that individual words can be dealt with.	Right-clicking gives some options for misspelled words. §
Outlines	WP, under Tools, offers 6 different outlines and 6 numbering styles, including the most common outline which I grew up with. You can create an additional style of outline or numbering, as well as modify an existing outline style. §	When showing a student how to use MS's outline features, I was surprised that the most common outline style was not there apart from the headings. In other words, for the student to create such an outline, he would first have to go in and modify one of the existing outline forms.	MS offers 7 outline styles and 7 numbering styles, excluding the most common outline form that I grew up with. Actually, it was there, but, for whatever reason, would not continue automatically with a hard return. It also inserted various headings as a part of this outline. These styles may be modified, but you cannot create an additional style of outline.
Outlines	As a part of the outlines feature, one could from that window apply various styles to text (this would be in order to maintain consistency throughout a project.	This can be reached or effected in other ways in the other programs, so it is not necessarily a superior feature.	Not found here.
Outlines and Bullets	11 bullet styles including one in an outline format.	7 bulleted styles (it was not obvious that they were in an outline format). However, MS allowed for 60 small pictures as a part of their bullets, which was cool. §
Repeat	In WP, you click on repeat first, choose how many times you want the next keystroke to be repeated, and then execute the keystroke. Most often, you would use a macro with this. §§	I never even knew about this repeat function until a reader pointed it out.	The repeat function was set into motion after the keystrokes that you wanted repeated. It was unpredictable as to which keystrokes and how many would be repeated. In any case, each click gave one repeat—not very helpful if you want to run 50 repeats of some action.	Word Pro did not appear to have a repeat function.
Sort	Five types of sort; new sort can be set to automatically be saved as a new file. Sort can be customized. Custom sorts can be saved to use again. WP differentiated between hard returns and items to be sorted. WP could sort by the second or third word, which might be separated by spaces or by tabs. §§	MS Word will sort second and third fields if these are placed into a table or if tabs are placed between the words. Word Pro was unable to sort a list of words which came immediately after a table. When I moved them further down, it did fine.	Fewer sort options. No true custom sorting. When I double spaced items to be sorted, the hard returns became part of the sort. Only the first item could be sorted in a list with several "fields." If a tab was inserted, then the second field could be sorted first. §	Word Pro offered a great many sort options and was probably the easiest to understand. It could sort by the second or third word, whether or not spaces, commas or tabs were inserted. §§	Could not locate a sort function here.
Spell-check	When you accidentally type two words without a space between them (e.g., twowords), WP spell check catches this and offers the alternative of place a space between them. §	Word does fix some words which are run together without a space (like "onthe") because it is specifically built into their spelling tool.	Word doesn't offer this option either through a formal spell-checking or through a right-click. Word automatically changed a couple of common words placed next to each other without a space but was unable to offer a solution for the simplest of mis-
typing's.	Word Pro 9 not only caught the misspelling of placing two words together without a space, but offered the correct solution when spell-
checked. §	Star Writer offered aren't for arenot, but did not offer are not as a corrected spelling (Star Writer didn't correctly catch any pairs of words typed without a space between them.
Spell-check	Here's a nifty feature of WP's spell check: if there is only one possible alternate way of spelling a word (for instance, you type the word "zspelling"), WordPerfect will correct this even though it is NOT in the Quick Correct word list. §	Word will only correct what you tell it to correct. That is, if you have told auto-
correct that "zspelling" should be "spelling", it will change it. If you don't, you will just have to catch it later with spell-check or change it because you notice it's underlined.	MS Word 2000 also does this automatically (although Word 97 does not). §	Word Pro only replaces that which is in the correction base.	Star Writer only changes the words entered into its data base of corrections.
Suite toolbar	WordPerfect's DAD bar is placed as an integral part right on the Window's taskbar, which can be hidden to gain more space. §§	The office launching bar either takes up precious space or is hidden, but there is no easy access if it is hidden.	Word Pro's suite bar behaves like MS's.	A negative of Star Writer is that it tends to take over the entire desk top when you open up Star Office.
Template	In WP, you can devise a template which not only includes text formatting, but tool bars, menus, and keyboards. In other words, an entire working environment, parts of all of which may be moved from one computer to another. §§	When you change the environment in Word, you change it for everyone. When someone else uses Word, they have to change everything back. In WP, you merely open a different template.	In Word, a style or a template carries a keyboard and menus and toolbars, but it is an all or nothing. You cannot take a keyboard from two different templates and a half dozen toolbars form a third template for your own template.	I haven't worked with this yet.	I haven't worked with this yet.
Template	Since a template is a working environment, several people can use the same computer and have a completely different working environment with two clicks of a mouse.	Word also allows you to have separate working environments on the same computer. At one time this was necessary; however, more and more offices have one computer per person.	I haven't worked with this yet.	I haven't worked with this yet.
Template	When a template is moved from one computer to another, the previous template is not removed nor are its characteristics lost. §	You can rename the template in Word to something else and that can be moved. However, only one template can be used in each document.	If you move "Normal.dot" to another computer, then the custom items in the other program of Word are lost.	I haven't worked with this yet.	I haven't worked with this yet.
Thesaurus	In the first release of WP 9, the thesaurus was far inferior to previous models. In fact, all that was provided was a drop-
down box with a reasonable choice of words. I don't know if this was fixed with the updates or with a better install, but the thesaurus is actually more full-featured now than before, although it is a little clunky. However, one can always go back to the drop-down box.	This new version of a thesaurus appears to be half-baked in this newest version of WP. Although, for some words, the new thesaurus offers a great deal; it is, right now, an unfinished thesaurus.	Word's Thesaurus feature is a little easier to navigate than WP's, but it offers a little less by way of features and alternatives. §	Word Pro's Thesaurus was not easy to find at first, but it did allow for a reasonable number of choices and was easy to use. Unlike WP and Word, double-
clicking on a word replaces the original word with the new word. §	The Thesaurus dialogue box looked very much like Word Pro's, although double-clicking yielded another set of synonyms, as in WP and Word. §
Thesaurus	For the word previous, WP's drop-
down box offered no synonyms; always offered 24 synonyms. The actual tool Thesaurus offered no suggestions for the word previous either. §	I am thinking that previous must be an anomaly in WP, as there are a plethora of alternates found in WP 7 and WP 8.	A right-click on previous yielded four synonyms; the Thesaurus feature (also available via a right-click) provided a few more (when the other synonyms were checked out). A right-
click on always yielded 8 synonyms (and the thesaurus a few more). §	There is no easy access to this feature, e.g., a right-click or a prompt-as-you-go box.	There was no easy way to access this feature, although it was found under tools, where one would expect.
Tasks	Although it would never occur to me to use a template for writing a letter, I attempted to write a letter in Word and WordPerfect. Word was slightly easier to use and it did access the Corel address book (which surprised me). WordPerfect offered many more options with respect to the style of the letter, but was more difficult to determine how to insert the recipient's address. I have to relay an incident at my bank. While making a deposit, I noticed that two women were discussing how to do something on a computer. A teller from the other side of the bank was yelling out suggestions. I casually asked, "You're working with Microsoft Word, aren't you?" They were. As I left, the teller giving suggestions told them that they could try the letter template included with Word.
View
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Auto scroll	A new feature in WP 9 is the autoscroll button (on the WP 9 toolbar). One click, and you can scroll your document at whatever speed, hands free. It works similar to the mouse with the middle scroll button, except it works with any mouse and it is more fluid. §§	This is great for proofreading a document.	Not here.	Not here.	Not here.
Comment	When a comment is hidden in a WP document, there is a symbol in the margin which calls attention to the reader that there is a hidden comment. It can be clicked on to read and/or edit the comment.	WP's placement in the margin seems more prudent than in the middle of the document. However, in Word, when you hold the cursor over the comment, the contents may be read without clicking on it. Hopefully, both will learn from the other's program.	In Word, when viewing hidden comments is allowed via the options menu, the symbol shows up in the midst of the document (but does not print).	Word Pro will insert a comment if you go to create -> comment note; the note automatically puts in the date, time and the author. Double-
clicking on the yellow box will bring up the comment. §	To insert a comment, you go to insert -> note... and then write your comment. If you click on author (as if several people are reviewing the document) the date and time are stamped, and then you type in your name. The comment is a yellow box in the document which, when you double click it, it reveals its comments.
Document Heading View	At the top of the screen, the open document is marked unmodified if you recently saved it (helpful when you have several documents open). §	Word just lists the name of the document at the top.	Word Pro merely puts the title on the top.	The name of the file is on the second line in a toolbar box.
Document View	Only one toolbar button is required to toggle between page view and default view (there are actually three different view toggle buttons in WP). If you have a particular percentage that you like (I like about 79%), WP allows you to toggle between that and a full page in one mouse click. §	Since WP is WYSIWYG (as long as the correct printer has been selected), the full page view has always acted as a print preview.	In Word, you must put two buttons on your toolbar to go from one view to the other. You would have to write a macro to go from whatever to a specified percentage in one click.	In Word Pro, where space on that toolbar set up is at a premium, a button will toggle you back and forth between the two views. Also, Word Pro automatically added my default percentage (91%) to its view menu. §	There is a button which allows you to go to the previous view, but when I was assigning it an icon, Star Writer shut down again and I will have to re-load it.
Document View	WordPerfect can view two adjacent, active, side-by-side, editable pages of a document.	Word's ability to view two non-adjacent pages simultaneously was not important to me until recently, when it became necessary to use such a feature. So, in WP, I simply opened the same document twice (I could only edit one of them) and then sized and positioned the two windows appropriately)	Word can simultaneously view two pages, and page 3 is found directly beneath page 1. §	Word Pro had the largest selection of various views, including a way to vew your document in three different ways at the same time (all screens could be edited). There were 4 different split views. §§
Document View	WP is essentially what you see is what you get. From the earliest version of WP, I have never given much thought to margins. In almost any view. § what will print is what you see.	This is simply one of the many things which Word users get used to. Many of them do not want to change to a new program because they have to work so hard to learn the nuances of this program.	I recently wrote a letter in Word, getting in a little practice, and when it printed, I noticed that the margins didn't seem to match what was indicated on the top (and, the document printed way off center). When I went to the margin dialogue box, I could see everything was out of kilter (and had I got to Print Preview, I could have seen the same thing).	The view of the margins and the page was just what you would expect. §	The view of the margins and the page are just what you would expect. §
Font Preview window	There is a font preview window available in WP which opens down and displays in very large letters the font highlighted. It is big enough for small screens, bifocals and baby boomers to read. You do not have to go to the font dialogue box to access this. §§	Why did it take MS Word so long to catch onto this feature? WP didn't catch on until WP 8, by the way.	Word 2000 improved this feature and now has a drop down font face, with the fonts large enough to read. §§	Word Pro has a font pop up display, but you must know what your fonts look like to use it wisely.	No large display in Star Writer either.
Formatting Preview:	One of the very slick features of the newest version of WP is being able to instantly see what a change of font would do to your document (as well as a change of font color, font size, justification, different kinds of fills, etc.). §§§	When I saw this demonstrated, I thought that I would never use it. However, being anal-
retentive about how my documents look, I use it all of the time, particularly for 1 and 2 page papers.	Can't do it here.	Can't do that here.	Can't do that here.
Keyboard assignments	When you choose to edit one of your keyboards, you can scroll through the assignments which have been made (I don't know of a way of printing this out, however).
Margin view	You can see the margins in WP documents (or turn them off). §§	No visible text margins.	You can see the side margins in Word Pro. You can't turn them off, however. §	You can turn on or off the text margins. §§
Opening a blank document	When you close all of your documents, a blank document set to the standards of your default template appears. §	It is just an extra mouse click or two; however, these extra clicks add up.	You close your documents in Word and nothing is left.	Once you close your last document, you must open a new document.	Once you close out your documents, you must open another one or a blank one to start.
Page breaks	They look like page breaks. IN page view, the page break is a double line. §	You can get a normal page break view. IN the normal layout, the page break is a light gray line with the words page break. §	Page breaks look like page breaks. IN draft view, there is a tiny page inserted as the page break. §	You can get a normal page break view of a document. However, you cannot go to a view where the page breaks are clearly represented, but the empty space is missing.
Print Preview	WordPerfect now has this under its print preview feature. Complete editing features are available under Print Preview. §	Although WP is WYSIWYG, users of WP have been clamoring for this feature for some time.	Word has had Print Preview for some time. However, the document is limited as to how it can be edited. Essentially, all you can do is shrink the document here.	Several pages can be viewed and edited, but not necessarily as a print preview mode.	Two or four pages can be viewed, but not edited.
Print Preview	Up to 2 pages can be viewed and edited in print preview. §	In Word you can have two or more editing windows open for the same document and they can be edited. §
Reveal Codes	Just what is going on behind the scenes in your document? Reveal codes gives you full scoop. If you double-click on a code, the appropriate dialogue box will pop up. I've used reveal codes many times for macros (as there are some things coded in your document that you cannot see). §§§	Unless you have used them, you don't realize how important a feature this is.	Very limited codes within a document. It just isn't the same.	Very limited codes within a document. It just isn't the same.	Very limited codes within a document. It just isn't the same.
Split view on document	WordPerfect did not offer this.	The important use of this feature is that you can cut and paste from a document onto itself with a bit more flexibility.	Word has a nifty feature where you can view any two parts of a document at the same time. §	Word Pro, as mentioned, as a mega-split view, so that the same document could be viewed and edited 3 ways at the same time. §	No feature like this in Star Writer.
True WYSIWYG	All headers, page numbers, etc. appear on the computer screen as they will in the document. §	Tables and margins do appear as broken lines on screen in WP, but these can be turned off.	Although Word is almost WYSIWYG, not everything looks on screen like it will when printed.	Word Pro is almost WYSIWYG; some things, e.g. page break codes, show up on screen, but obviously are not printed.	Since the margins could not be turned off, this was almost a WYSIWYG program.
Window	There are a number of ways to tile several documents (cascaded, tiled top to bottom or side-by-
side); it can be set so that the active document is prominent. Once you click on a full screen for one document, the other one also goes to a full screen. §§	In Word, the best thing to do would be to size the windows just how you want them (all take up half of less of the screen) so that they are not on top of another document.	Now in Word, when a new document is opened, it is almost like opening a new program. They are listed separately on the Windows' toolbar. It was very cumbersome to work with and view more than one document at a time.	Several different options for viewing two documents was offered. Once you returned to full size with one, then the other was also returned to full size. §§	This had all the options (cascade, tile sideways on one above the other), but each document hard to be individually returned to a normal view. §
Web Capabilities
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Converting a document to an HTML	One can either approach this from the file menu and choose the appropriate option under Internet Publishing or go to the save as and choose HTML document (you must add the extension *.HTM as well). Graphics, special characters and hidden advance codes are all lost.	WP did not seem to improve here; however, Word improved a great deal, putting it at a par with WP when it comes to HTML documents.	This can be done from the menu (Save as a web page) or from the save as box.	This could be done from the Internet selection on the menu or from the save as dialogue box. The menu selection could make you think that you saved the document as a web doc when, in fact, you did not.
Converting a document to a *.pdf file.	Under file, you can choose to publish to PDF. Graphics, advances, and special characters are all retained in tact. §§	Can't be done without purchasing a 3rd party program.	Can't be done.
Environment for editing HTML documents	WordPerfect's menu changes and a toolbar designed for working with web documents pops up.	One can choose to have only the HTML toolbar, but its functions are unbelievably limited.
Modifying an HTML document	Reveal codes works with HTML documents.	There is no reveal codes,	There is no reveal codes.
Reading an HTML document	WordPerfect will open an HTML and it will appear just as it would through a browser. It would not open a Word Pro document for the web and many portions of a Word document were lost upon opening. Surprisingly enough, WP 8 opened the Word Pro-produced web document without a hitch.	None of these programs were as good as they could have been when it came to opening web documents they produced or web documents that another program produced. What you saw was rarely what you got.	Word 2000 (unlike Word '97) now opens web documents and they look almost as they should. The hyperlinks did not always work correctly. When Word opened up a document formatted in Word and then saved as a web document, what you saw was not what you got.	Word Pro 9 opens up HTML documents made in WP, but the hyperlinks don't always work. It made a total mess of a MS produced HTML document.
Round-tripping HTML documents	Several formatting changes were lost when changed to a web document (fonts, full justification, etc.). When round tripped back to WP, it retained all of its web formatting and did not recover any of the old features.	Word and Word Pro were dishonest in this regard. For instance, text that was full justified in Word, remained that way as a Word-web document (it would not show up that way on the web). A newly opened web document in WP would look exactly like that on the web.	Word round-tripped a document without any loss of features.	This took a table and a graphic produced in Word Pro and round tripped all but an image (it did warn that some formatting could be lost).
Comments	Word improved a great deal since Word '97. It is now almost at a par with WordPerfect 8. The only negative with Word is a document produced in Word and saved as a web document when opened in Word would look like the original Word document and not how it would on the web. However, I did not see any improvements or changes in WP with regards to HTML documents. In fact, as mentioned, WP 8 could open a Word Pro-produced document that WP 9 could not. Corel's primary improvement to WP in the realm of the Internet is being able to save a document to a PDF format.
Additional comment	I would like to include here the comment which I made over a year ago when comparing Word '97 to WordPerfect 8: "Although Microsoft touts itself as being progressive, and that one of the top ten most important improvements in Office 2000 is web publishing; in fact, this was mentioned as one of the big improvements in a Time Magazine article in the April 19, 1999 issue. However, these features have been available to WordPerfect users since WP 7, which came out in 1996 and these web features were further refined and improved by WP 8. What Word will eventually have, WP has had for almost 4 years (which is a long time in the computer world)." For the benefit of those using MS Word, it's nice to see that they are trying to catch up.
Miscellaneous
WordPerfect 9	comments	Word 2000	Word Pro 9	Star Writer 5.1
Operating system	The same WP document can be opened in DOS, all versions of Windows and Linux. §	A Word document can be opened in windows '95 and above (I don't know if Word '95 will open a Word 2000 document).	I don't know how far back a Word Pro document will go.	I am guessing that a Star Writer document can be opened in Win '95 on up and in Linux. §
Speed	The first time that I run a macro in WP 9, it seems to go slowly (2–4 seconds). After that, they run at a normal speed (less than a second).	I don't run into this problem with WP 7 or with 8.	I haven't used macros enough here to make a comment.	I haven't used macros enough here to make a comment.	I haven't used macros here enough to make a comment.
Speed	I typically work with 20–50 page documents; there is no appreciable difference between a two page and a 50 page document insofar as speed is concerned. It takes about a second to save this document on my hard drive (500 MHz, 64 Mb).	I have no basis for comparison here.	I have no basis for comparison here.	I have no basis for comparison here.
Speed	Recently, I have been working with a 250+ page, highly-
formatted document and the speed of editing has not changed, with the exception of the first time I do something with a table (there are hundreds of tables in this document). It takes me about 2.5 seconds to save this document on my hard drive.	I have no basis for comparison here.	I have no basis for comparison here.	I have no basis for comparison here.
Stability	I use WP the most often, so I will notice the instability in WP more than I would in any other program. On my computer at home, occasionally, when I tug on the slider to navigate my document, then WP 9 has been known to crash (as I type this, I can't get it to crash, however). Since I imported my menu's and toolbars from previous versions of WP, it will occasionally crash when I do that. At work, where the computers are networked, I have to shut down and restart WP on a regular basis.	There are others who strongly disagree with me as to the stability of WP 9, claiming that it was an extremely stable program. See the web address: http://wpwin.com/ubb
forum/Forum11/HTM
L/000049.html	I only have Word open while I make these comparisons. It has not crashed during that time period. §	I only have Word Pro open while I make these comparisons. It has not crashed during that time period. §

Star Writer was the least stable programs of the bunch. I only used this at home, and, when all four office suites were open, this application would crash, and often not restart until I either reinstalled it or re-booted.
Cool, Unique and/or Exclusive Features
(I have only awarded §'s if this feature was not covered before)
Corel WordPerfect 9
Auto-scroll	I only discovered this because someone wrote me and asked me about it. There is a button on the WP 9 toolbar (which, of course, can be added to any tool bar or property bar), than, when clicked, will allow you to scroll through your document at any speed without having to keep your hand on the mouse or on the keyboard. You use the mouse to adjust the speed (it is a quick and immediate adjustment), and then sit back, hands free, to proof your document.
Character sets	WP ships with approximately 1500 characters. If you need a character for anything, whether it be mathematics, Greek, Arabic, or various dingbats, it is probably to be found in the relatively well-organized character sets of WP (use Ctrl+W to insert a character). These characters are available to MS Word users if WP is installed. A WP document opened in MS will retain the characters if the character sets have been installed as fonts (I would assume that they would be retained if one used embedded fonts as well). I have not attempted to open a WP doc in a computer devoid of the WP fonts (I recall doing so, and all of the special characters in the document were in tact, even without the embedded font; however, this was a long time ago and WP may have been on this person's computer at one time).
Columns	Four kinds of columns are available in WP.
Compatibility	WP is compatible with more formats than any other word processing program. No matter where the document was created, WP can probably open, edit it, and save it in the same format (or convert it to another format).
Interactive status bar	Along the bottom of WP is a status bar which allows you to access things such as your keyboard, the date, the printer, the time, and other open documents.
Keyboards	WordPerfect ships with several keyboards. On the negative side, it does not ship with the old DOS keyboard, which is a favorite of many old time WP users. However, this keyboard may be gotten from WP 7 (or lower) by copying the default template from WP 7 (WP7US.wpt, which is found under Corel\Office 7\template) into the template folder for WP 9 (WordPerfect Office 2000\Template\Custom WP Templates). Then go to tools -> settings -> customize -> keyboards -> copy and then copy the WP DOS 6.1 keyboard into your default template, which is WP9US.wpt. You may have as many as 99 different keyboards on your computer. Unlike MS Word's normal.dot, adding a keyboard, menu or toolbar does not overwrite the template; it simply adds to it (if there are two keyboards with the same name, then you will have to rename the one you are copying into WP 9's template).
Macros	I know, I know...all of these programs have macros. All of these programs allow you to write macros. However, can you go to the web and find 100 or 200 web sites with several handfuls of MS Word macros? No. WP macros are legendary and many WP sites have a dozen to several dozen various macros which can be easily copied and used. The macro help menu is extensive and equivalent to the complete help menu of most programs. And, what makes it nice, is that anyone who can type can, in a couple seconds, learn how to record a macro. It takes very little training to learn how to write and edit a macro (I have had no training and I write and edit my macros all of the time). Furthermore, it does not require a genius to use macros. I use several hundred macros, and, to be quite frank with you, when I read a question about a WP macro feature, I often do not understand the question or the answer. In other words, I barely scratch the surface of all that can be done with a WP macro. Almost any user of WP uses a few macros here and there. On the other hand, I know many exceptionally intelligent users of MS Word who have never used its macro capabilities. The key difference is between a feature which is easy to understand and macros which are easy to modify, as versus features which are not as easy to understand and macros which are confusing when it comes to modifying them.
Make-it-fit	This is an excellent feature in WP not found in the other suites (no, MS's shrink document does not even come close). You can make a pre-existing document fit into any number of pages, and you can choose the items which may be modified (font size, line width, or margins). If WP says it will make the document two pages, for instance, it will be almost exactly two pages (it might be one or two lines less). MS Word, when in Print Preview, will shrink a document, but there is no adjustment on what features are changed, and, shrinking to say two pages might result in a page and a half. WP also will expand a document and it will take a blocked portion of a document and fit that portion of your document into a specific number of pages.
Multiple platform compatibility	A WordPerfect document written in any version of 3–9 can be opened and edited by various versions of WordPerfect 6–9 in DOS, Windows 3x, Windows 9x, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Linux.
Perfect Expert	In any of the Corel applications, one can click on Help and then Perfect Expert and get a side panel of options For instance, since I am in a table, the following options appear: Change the Look; Sort; Size Column to Fit; Space Columns Evenly; Add Column/Row, Calculate, Make Chart from Date; and delete Table. Some of these are menus. The idea is they bring to the front certain features and options which might be otherwise buried in the menus. When I first began using Presentations, I used this feature. Once I became more adept at the use of this application, I closed Perfect Expert in order to reclaim some important real estate. For those just beginning to learn how to use any of the programs in the Corel Office Suite, this might be an important feature. MS liked this feature well enough to copy it in their MS Office 10 version, due to come out in mid to late 2001. §
Property bars	One of the biggest pains is to need a feature and have to search through menus and submenus to find it. One alternative is to fill up your toolbar with way too many buttons. However, in WP, various environments will bring out different toolbars. You do not need all of your table tools unless you are in a table. WP is designed so that a particular toolbar will appear according to nearly 40 different environments that you might be in. This way, you can have access to pretty much every single feature that you need without have half of your screen lost to toolbars. I have found it most profitable to keep my standard toolbar in a two-column format along one side of my document, which has on it most of the features that I use, and the property bar on the top of the screen for the specialized buttons that I need in whatever environment.
QuickMark	One of the handiest little things that WP has. It is a temporary bookmark and your document can be set to place a QuickMark wherever you exit and save a document. It is extremely helpful in macros.
Real-time preview	When you change fonts, font sizes, font color, color patterns, justification and columns using certain buttons on your toolbar (chiefly drop down option buttons), these changes can be observed in your document immediately without having to apply them first. Have you ever tried to make a headline look just right, streaming across the entire top, and you changed the font size, then checked it out, changed the font size again, and then checked it out. With WP, you get it right the first time.
Repeat	I found out about WordPerfect's repeat function through a MS Word fan. He wrote me and said, "Well, what about repeat? Word does a better job with that than WordPerfect, doesn't it?" So I tried them out. In Word, I could never figure out what clicking repeat would do. It seemed erratic and interesting, but inscrutable in many ways (like several women I have known). In WP, you click repeat, specify the number of times you want something repeated, and the next keystroke will be repeated that many times. Certainly, you can do something mundane like automatically type the letter k 700 times; however, you may want to run a macro 50 times; click repeat, specify 50, and then run the macro.
Reveal Codes	If you don't have this, you don't know what you are missing. This is one of the handiest features of WordPerfect going back to the dark ages. The formatting of your document is screwed up and you don't know why and can't fix it; turn on reveal codes—you can usually find the answer there. In most cases, you can grab and drag the errant codes out of there or you can double-click the codes themselves to adjust them. For those who think MS Word has reveal codes, you just don't have a clue, do you?
Shrinking and expanding a document	I know that those who use MS Word think that MS has a similar shrink document feature. It is similar if you think a lime green Pinto with a rusted brown door is similar to a new Mercedes Benz. It is similar if you think Phillis Diller is similar to Jennifer Lopez.
Special characters	WP ships with 1500 characters, which are generally well-organized, easy to find and easy to insert.
Table features	If you know how to use a spreadsheet, then you can use WordPerfect's tables just like you would a spreadsheet. I personally learned how to use a spreadsheet by using WP's table features, which are legendary. After spending a great deal of time in WP tables, I was able to teach many of Excel's features to my students, although I had only used Excel for a couple of hours more than they had.
Title Bar	Not only does WP have the complete set of submenus for any document on your title bar, but you are also informed as to whether or not it has been modified. I could use this feature on a dozen different programs. So far, I have only seen it in Corel products. §§
Voice Recognition Software	Ever since WP 8, which came out in mid-1998, WordPerfect (and the other suite applications) came bundled with voice recognition software. I am a fairly fast typist, so I must admit that I have never used this or even tried it. However, for non-typists, I would think that this would be essential. Lotus also had similar software at about the same time. Microsoft, ever the mother of innovation, is due to add this to their office suite in the year 2001. §§
Lotus Word Pro 9
Special characters	When inserting a special character in Lotus Word Pro, you have access to about 150 of them in most of your various fonts. In other words, the fraction ½ looks different in Allegro font than it does in Technical font.
Voice Recognition Software	Lotus Office Suite has come with voice recognition software since around 1998 (as did Corel). I have never tried it out and I don't even know if the version which I own even has it. Microsoft, even the mother of innovation, will release its Office Suite 10 with similar software. §§
Microsoft Word 2000
Expanded clipboard feature	You can copy and cut up to twelve different items onto a clipboard and then choose which of these items you will paste here or there. This was once a freebie add-on that you could find on the web. There have been some times while using WP that I could have used this feature.
Second document	A second document opens up what appears to be another concurrent version of Word on your computer. Toolbars can be changed with one document without affecting the other document.
Customized menus	Your menus can be set up to only show those options which you have used recently. If you hover your mouse over the menu, the unused options will appear.
MS Front Page	If I am going to work on a web document, even one created in WordPerfect, I prefer using MS Front Page. One big advantage of MS Front Page over Trelix is that Front Page allows you to see the HTML codes (this is very much like one advantage that WP has over Word, inasmuch as you can see the formatting codes). §§
Star Writer 5.1
Interface	When Star Writer is opened, it essentially takes over the entire interface. I wasn't enamored of this feature.
Price	Star Writer is free off the Internet.

Final Scorecard:

I had to do things differently in this comparison, as I did not compare simply Word to WordPerfect, but I compared several of the leading products which are out there. Therefore, what I did was award a $ or two to whatever program or programs had the clear advantage in the particular area examined. I might award two or three $'s if this was an important advantage. However, when one program was superior to another, which was still superior to a third, then I would have to use multiple symbols to indicate that as well.

advantage	major advantage	extremely important advantage
Corel WordPerfect 9	97	52	6
Microsoft Word 2000	51	7
Lotus Word Pro 9	36	6	1
Star Writer 5.1	21	5

Return to topics

Additional Comments:

The download for Star Office took a long time; several hours (I am guessing maybe six or so?). Plan to download this overnight and make certain that you change your computer settings so that your computer doesn't shut off part way through. You can download this in seven parts as well. If you are not confined to a telephone hookup, you can probably download this in under an hour. Once it was on my hard drive, Star Office was easy and quick to load (I did have to unzip the install file first), it shut down on at least three occasions and would not reopen without being uninstalled and installed again. I wanted to like Star Office so that I could recommend it. However, when it shut down thrice on me, I was ready to throw in the towel. I compared the downloaded version and not the one that you pay for. My thinking was that, for many people, free might be the way to go. Unfortunately, Star office quit a third time and it would not reinstall from what I had on my hard drive. Therefore, a portion of this comparison was done without Star Office.

Word 2000 came on the computer and did an almost automatic install. When features were missing, it requested the disk and installed what was missing on the fly. That went very smoothly and I thought, this is way slick. However, as it continued to request the disk, I got tired of that feature and attempted to install everything. Even after that, Word still requires the disk for additional features. This was the disk which came with the computer. When I got Microsoft Office 2000, I installed everything to do with Word and it no longer requests the disk.

QuattroPro 9 was very unstable on my desktop at school, which is linked to the school district in general. I eventually began saving all files as QP 7/8 so that I could use QuattroPro 8 if necessary. Installation of GroupWise required me to reinstall Corel Office 2000 on one campus but not on another. Installation of another program on my computer which accessed the phone lines, also required me to re-install WP (these program apparently over-wrote a dll file with an older version). Although WP9 was not nearly as unstable, there were times when it did require a reboot. Quite frankly, I wanted to strongly recommend Corel Office 2000, but I am less than thrilled with its initial stability. On my home computer, which is not linked to any other computer, WordPerfect 9 has been very stable, as long as I do not add keyboards, toolbars and menus from previous versions of WP into my default template for WP 9. I have recently (as of October 2000) installed WP Office 2000 SP 4 on my computers. I have noticed some improvements concerning stability on all computers and am much happier with QuattroPro 9 now. WP 9 SP 4 is available as a CD only and not as a download (it costs $9.95 total; available only to WP 9 licensed owners—you don't have to be registered to order it but you do have to call to order it).

Although I was not overly thrilled with the way that Word Pro 9 did things, it was generally very stable on my computer.

Return to topics

What I did below was put together a very short and easy macro, one which is a person need for me. I tend to type quickly and, when typing the word the, insert the space for my next word between the h and the e. I usually notice this several sentences down. I set up a macro in WP, and made that my Ctrl+T key, so that I only need hit that key, and, a second later, I can resume typing, and the problem is fixed. I recorded the same macro in the other suites. Notice the difference in length of these macros and read through them to see which appears to be the easiest to understand.

Suite	Macro: Fix th e
WordPerfect 9	QuickmarkSet ()

SearchString (StrgToLookFor: " th e")

SearchFindWholeWordsOnly (State: No!)

SearchPrevious (SearchMode: Extended!)

ReplaceString (RplcStrg: " the ")

ReplaceCurrent ()

MatchSelection ()

QuickmarkFind ()
Word 2000	Sub fix_a_th_e()

'

' fix_a_th_e Macro

' Macro recorded 5/26/00 by gary kukis

'

With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks

.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Name:="q"

.DefaultSorting = wdSortByName

.ShowHidden = True

End With

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

With Selection.Find

.Text = " th e"

.Replacement.Text = " the "

.Forward = False

.Wrap = wdFindAsk

.Format = False

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False
Word Pro 9	Sub Main

TEMP__ = .Text.GetCurrentMarkerName($LwpMarkerTypeClickhere)

TEMP1__ = .Text.GetCurrentMarkerName($LwpMarkerTypeClickhere)

.ActiveDocument.Divisions(" 000131a4c659 004431a4c659").BookmarkManager.BookmarksByMarkerNa
me(" 000131a4c659 004431a4c659 0024392f2351").IsExportedToNotesFX = False

TEMP2__ = .Mark($LwpMarkerTypeBookmark)

.Division.BookmarkManager.AddBookmark "q", TEMP2__

.Application.FindAndReplace.FindString = " th e"

.Application.FindAndReplace.ReplaceString = " the "

.Application.FindAndReplace.FindForwardDirection = False

.Application.FindAndReplace.MatchType = $LwpFindMatchWithinAWord

.InitFindAndReplace True

.Find

.ReplaceCmd

.Find

.InitFindAndReplace True

TEMP3__ = .Text.GetCurrentMarkerName($LwpMarkerTypeClickhere)

TEMP4__ = .Text.GetCurrentMarkerName($LwpMarkerTypeClickhere)

.ActiveDocument.Divisions(" 000131a4c659 004431a4c659").BookmarkManager.BookmarksByMarkerNa
me(TEMP2__).IsExportedToNotesFX = False

.GoToBookmark "q"

.Division.BookmarkManager.BookmarksByMarkerName(TEMP2__).IsExportedToNotesFX = False

TEMP5__ = .Text.GetCurrentMarkerName($LwpMarkerTypeClickhere)

TEMP6__ = .Text.GetCurrentMarkerName($LwpMarkerTypeClickhere)

.ActiveDocument.Divisions(" 000131a4c659 004431a4c659").Foundry.Markers(TEMP2__).DeleteMarker

End Sub
Star Writer 5.1	Sub Main

End Sub

Sub fix_a_th_e

'Recorded macro: Friday, May 26, 2000, 8:54 PM

Selection.InsertBookmark( "q" )

Application.SearchDialog = TRUE

Application.SearchDialog = TRUE

Selection.GoToStartOfDoc( FALSE )

End Sub
Comment:	Notice that WP's and Star Writer's macro language appears to be the simplest. The more simple it is, the more likely that you will use the tool. The script language of Word Pro is outright scary!

Return to topics

Help

Reduce the size of a

document

The larger your document, the more disk space it takes up and the more time it takes Word to process certain tasks, such as saving, repaginating, and updating the table of contents. The procedures in the following choices may help you reduce the file size of large documents.

What do you want to do?

Turn off fast saves

Embed only the TrueType font styles used in your document

Delete one or more versions of a document

Convert embedded objects into graphics

Reduce the size of a document by linking instead of inserting graphics

?

One comparison between these programs which I have never seen involves the use of the help menu. Now, certainly some reviewers have made general references to help, but there has never been, to the best of my knowledge, a careful comparison of how helpful the help feature actually is in either program. Now, I did not explore this feature completely. There were some things that I needed to know how to do in Word that I used Word's help feature to locate. Ditto, there were features in WP which I generally did not use and I needed to see how to access them. Whenever I used help in either program, I checked the help feature in the other program and compared them. Most of those comparisons are found below. Originally, I had very little to say about this, as I have rarely used help in WordPerfect. However, as time progressed, I found myself using it more and more and being shocked at how poorly MS Word's help is worded.

One of the things which is made to sound great in MS Word is the easy way that one can pose a question to whatever gremlin happens to be occupying your screen. I knew how to shrink a document (this is the verbiage of Word), so, in the box, I typed shrink document; the response which I got was:

You will note that shrinking of the document was not to be found in the choices offered. Although the ones offered are things that I could have meant, the one I wanted was not there.

Return to topics

There is more to come. I have only begun the comparison.

Comparison between WordPerfect 8 and Word '97	Compare WordPerfect versions 7, 8 and 9
Email me at:

scutfargus@juno.com