Corel's WordPerfect Suite 7
This amazing program offers a treasure trove of features

Call me fickle, but I've changed my Word Processor about six times during the past ten years. I started out with a program called Electric Desk by Alpha Software. Electric Desk was a very primitive word processor that came bundled with my Forty Pound (portable) Corona State of the Art Computer.

It was in fact the reason I purchased the computer in the first place. The manual resembled the instruction book for a 747 Jumbo Jet. I managed to learn how to prepare a document, but believe me it was a struggle.

My next foray into the Wonderful World of Word Processing was a program called PFS First Choice. This program was a giant. step ahead of Electric Desk. It, like electric desk,, was an integrated program. The spreadsheet and data base Electric Desk was beyond my comprehension. Word Processing was the feature I really needed and First Choice had a terrific word processor module.

As a step up from First Choice, I next went with PFS Professional Write. Professional Write was a great program. I used it for about a year and then I finally migrated over to WordPerfect 4.0. By that time I was enthralled with the power and majesty of this, the penultimate word processor. By this time I had started writing software reviews, and WordPerfect was among the first review I did of a stand alone product.

A writer friend of mine mentioned that he was using Microsoft Word. I tried it for a time but soon switched back to WordPerfect.

By now, I was also using Ashton Tate dBase III as a database, and a purloined copy of Lotus 123 as a spreadsheet.

In the mid eighties Windows made it's appearance, and with it came a brief fling with a Word Processor called Ami. Yes, I dropped WordPerfect for a short time and played with Ami. Microsoft offered Word for Windows and again I switched. Sometime later, WordPerfect for Windows was launched at a COMDEX I attended. I was swept away with the features and ease of use. By this time I had discovered Borland's Paradox Database and Quattro Pro made an appearance. Both Quattro and Paradox could interchange information. Now if only Borland offered a Word Processor. They did but it died a quick death and back to WordPerfect I went.

Borland sent me a copy of its initial suite offering for review. WordPerfect for Windows was included along with Paradox and Quattro Pro. However it was not integrated into a suite which related in all the modules.

When Microsoft Office appeared, I received a review copy and here at last was a totally integrated suite. Spreadsheet, Database, Word Processor and Presentation package which had much better integration than the Borland Suite.
I continued to review WordPerfect while using Microsoft office as my suite of choice. When Novell announced it was purchasing WordPerfect and coming out with it's own suite I was interested in seeing what they offered. By this time Lotus had composed a suite and I was unimpressed with its offering save for Approach which is a powerful and easy to use database.

I have always been a fan of Corel Draw. So when Corel announced it had purchased WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Paradox from Novell/Borland, I was interested in seeing the new package.

My son bought the Academic Version at college for about $50.00. I didn't want to wait for an evaluation copy, so I borrowed his to put the package through it's paces.

Corel has a real winner in the WordPerfect Suite 7 integrated program. The upgrade & competitive version is selling for about $80.00, a terrific value!

Aside from WordPerfect 7, Quattro Pro 7, Corel Presentations 7, you get a host of other terrific products such as Sidekick 95 my favorite personal information manager, Netscape Navigator 2.01, Dashboard 95, a program that allows you to run Windows 95 the natural way you work, the Envoy 7 Viewer for Internet document preparation, 150 fonts and 10,000 Clipart Images.

The standard product without upgrade is about $237.00, which is a fair price. The seamless integration and sheer flexibility of the program is unbelievable.
The program offers a module called Internet Publisher. This web page was produced on it. Without the manual I was able to build the web page in less than an hour. Why spend $149.00 for a Web Publishing Program when Internet Publisher will do the job and it's practically free.

Corel and Microsoft offer the best Suites in the computing world. Lotus has been a tail dragger and except for Approach, the other modules leave a lot to be desired. Corel's integration of modules is excellent. WordPerfect Suite 7 is a terrific package. The pricing is outstanding. WordPerfect Suite 7 is available for around $89.00. The aggressive pricing and outstanding design should make this package an attractive purchase for many personal as well as business users. I am happy to see that Corel is improving WordPerfect and will insure it's existence.

Visit the Corel Web Site at.....
www.corel.com

Date Page Last Updated 04/25/07