By Don Patzsch, Tampa PC Users Group
WordPerfect Office 2000 Pro includes
The word processor known as WordPerfect has been my favorite program for many years. The current version is 9. When I bring up this program it has all the items I want already on the toolbars. I don’t have to set anything up. When you wish to write a letter, all the possible things you might want to include are here. Fonts, tables, create columns, save in many different forms such as Word, text, and others are right on the toolbar. Another thing, WordPerfect allows you to view the Reveal Codes, which are embedded codes in your letter that show you how your document is formatted or how fonts are changed within the document. This allows for great formatting.
You may set the default as Microsoft Word, and you can write and read MS Word files. Adobe Acrobat Version 4.0 is included, allowing you to exchange documents with Mac and Unix computers. You can save WordPerfect and Corel Presentations in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format. WordPerfect allows you to put a watermark in your letter, and also it is easy to import graphics into your letter. I know of no word processor feature that is not included in WordPerfect. More than 1000 typefaces are included. AutoScroll will advance the text automatically so you can read it over without using the mouse. Speedlink will allow you to create a hyperlink that takes you to that location on the WWW. I could go on, but I hope I have made this point clear: The reason I like WordPerfect is that it is user friendly, and then some.
WordPerfect has the Real-Time Preview feature allowing you to see how any formatting change will look in your document before making those changes. Plenty of clipart and bitmap images are included with the program and a booklet included allows you to view these, so you can easily find what you want.
Dragon Naturally Speaking, Version 3 and a microphone headset is included. I have not really become interested in using this voice dictation, and so I have not worked with this system much. It is my opinion that IBM’s Executive Via Voice is much better.
Netperfect is a server-side application that allows you to publish WWW documents through a central server.
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications is included in the WordPerfect Office 2000 package.
Trellix 2. Trellix lets you create, convert, maintain, and update content without specialized knowledge of HTML or graphic design. I have not used this feature much because I do not do much publishing on the web. You may publish files in Extensible Markup Language (XML), Adobe’s PDF, or Trellix format hyperlinked files.
One of the more interesting changes in this version of WordPerfect Office is in the CorelCentral PIM. It is a calendar, memo writer, card file, task list and an address book. It is one of the better personal information managers due to the fact that it is coordinated with all the other parts of Office 2000. You may use your Windows address book, and it will use your default email program to send messages on the Internet.
Paradox 9. This relational database has been around for many years and is one of the top programs of its type. This program came from Borland originally. A visual database designer allows you a graphic layout of the relationship between the various tables in your database. A new Find Duplicate Expert allows a query that finds and eliminates duplicate field values within the records of a table. Spell checking is now included. PerfectExperts provide you with the ability to create, in a step by step manner, tables, reports, labels and forms.
Paradox can communicate with most databases via the .dbf format. It is hard to know where to stop listing the features, but be advised there are many more.
Quattro Pro. I have been using Quattro Pro since Borland gave me a copy of Version 1 at a seminar in Tampa years ago. I like the way that you can "fit to the page" and print out the spreadsheets. I have put all my financial information into this program and have used it for years. You can produce a spreadsheet of a million rows and 18,000 columns. I’ve used Excel, and I like Quattro Pro’s user friendliness much better for my needs. You can exchange data with databases using OLAP (online analytical processing) as long as the programs are OLAP compliant.
Corel Presentations is another program I have used for a long time. It is easy to bring in slides from PowerPoint or other programs, and this is a great program to produce slide shows for the WWW.
Corel Print Office produces desktop publishing, business cards, and brochures. A most useful addition to the Office Suite.
When I started to write this review, I hoped that it would be easy to do. I find that it is very easy to use the programs, but very difficult to tell you what I would like to about them. If you buy this program, I believe you will agree with me that it is the very best. The suites that I know of are: WordPerfect Office 2000, Lotus Smartsuite, Microsoft Office 2000, Star Office ( a program from Germany), Ability Office, and 602pro Suite.
WordPerfect has decided to port at least the word processor to Linux, and they offer it FREE. u