Others say...

"Works with many file types"
Wordperfect Office x4 works with over 5 dozen file types, which is nice and is useful for working with PDF documents. The functionality can be a bit confusing, especially if you are well used to other systems such as MS Office, but most functions shouldn't take too much getting used to once you work with them.
While you may be able to pick up other shareware programs that will do some of what you get here, anyone working with a lot of word processing, spreadsheets and presentations might this a nice all-in-one set-up.

"Back to Word"
This is a great product for law applications. For personal use, however, it is rather problematic. Often, what I send to work (having used Wordperfect) cannot be read. When I receive something from someone with Word, Wordperfect will convert but when I send FROM Wordperfect things can't be converted. Things I saved to my flash drive cannot be opened unless the other computer has Wordperfect installed. Frankly, most computers do NOT have Wordperfect so there is a compatibility issue. I am going to remove this program and go back to Word. Word is more user-friendly.

"Wonderful, wonderful word processor with lots of extra features."
A lot of the extra features I don't really take advantage of, so can't speak to them here.

But as a word processor, I'm coming to enjoy and, perhaps, even love Wordperfect, a program that I long detested, especially in the DOS days.

But, this is the processor my secretary uses, so I ended up having to use it, starting about 4 years ago. It's still not as intuitive as Word (but then, I used Word for a decade, so knew it well), but it's a powerful processor and there are definitely some things that Wordperfect does way, way better, and far, far easier than Word.

One thing I love about this new version of Wordperfect is the built-in pdf writer. That's been extremely handy.

The learning curve on this thing is definitely a lot steeper than Word; but, as I found out the hard way, once one slogs one's way up the curve and lands near the top, one realizes that the trip was worth it.

"The Better Wordprocessor"
It is hard to believe it is two years since Corel released X3. When I found out that the new X4 version had been released, I downloaded the one month demo from Corel. Based on the $150 difference in price between this version and the student/home version, I would seriously consider the student version. It is my understanding that it is very similar, if not the same. The Student/Home version apparently lacks the PDF capabilities of the Standard and Pro versions, so if you need those capabilities, buy this version. (I would check with with Corel to be certain if all the features are present.)

I don't have much use for anything in the suite except WordPerfect. I've been using WordPerfect since before Windows, when it had a blue screen, displayed ASCII characters in Courier font (there were no fonts except Courier), and laser printers cost a small fortune. I work for a number of attorneys -- WordPerfect is the software of choice for word processing in most offices I've worked in because, in my opinion, it is the better product for the job. It may also be because WordPerfect has been around for so long that everyone just migrated without changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Universal File Support

WordPerfect has very good compatibility with other file formats making it nearly universal. It includes PDF file support which Corel continues to improve in this version. It saves directly to PDF format Corel has now added optical character recognition so you can import PDF files directly into a text document. Although it is not perfect, it converts to and from numerous Word formats including RTF, and all versions through 7. It also supports other formats including WordStar, AMI, OfficeWriter, Lotus, Multimate and numerous others.

Skins

Corel also added two themes so that the skin looks more like XP/Vista, and for those who need it, the Word Count feature is on the application bar at the bottom of the WordPerfect window. This new version appears to be very stable.

Exceptional Word Processing Capabilities

When WordPerfect came out, it took over the market. (It was far superior to the software then available, and remains one of the best.) When MicroSoft came out with Word, I had the feeling they did everything they could to make it different from WordPerfect just to use their power in the industry to take over the word processing market, just like MicroSoft did with every other good software idea to come along. (e.g., Mozilla/Netscape, Norton Utilities.)

I have three versions of Word (2000, 2003 and 2007) and WordPerfect 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, X3 and now X4. I use the MicroSoft product only when absolutely necessary -- usually because someone else sends me a document in that format. The new version of Word is unfamiliar - the traditional pull down menus have been placed sideways on toolbars and rearranged so it is uncomfortable to use. If possible, I will use WordPerfect and save it as a Word document using the "SAVE AS" feature on the "file" pull down menu.

The reason I like WordPerfect so much is that it types more like a typewriter. You can set up and use styles if you want, but you can also just hit the tab button to indent the first line of a paragraph. If you want to change the margins for the entire document, you simply change the margins. The rest of the document follows the change. You don't have to change each paragraph.

In addition, you can get to the formatting codes. Hit Alt-F3 and the screen splits in half and displays all of the format codes -- bold, underline, tabs, indent codes, line spacing, column on and off, etc. Then you know exactly what you have done and fix and format it easily. This ability has proven useful on several occasions when clients, who insist on using Word for legal documents, cannot cajole Word to put their unruly documents into the format they want. (This is particularly true when using OCR with scanned or faxed documents.) By opening the Word document in WordPerfect, I have been able to use "Alt-F3" to identify the errant codes and quickly repair them. WordPerfect can then save the document in Word/RTF format with the problems fixed. This is particularly useful when combined with the global search and replace. For example, you can search and replace all [paragraph style] and end up with a manageable document.

Working with columns is also easier. You turn on columns and tell it how many colums you want, set the width of each, and the space between them, and away you go. You have four types of columns to work with -- newspaper, balanced newspaper, parallel and parallel with block protect. I've tried the other software, and if you change text or printers, you can never get the columns to line up the way you want it. With Word, each column change or page change seems to introduce a whole new set of control codes, and a complete set of formatting, and you can never get it back the way you want it. I once tried to scan in a list of names and addresses which were in two or three columns into Word. Each name and address was placed in its own text box. I could never work with it.

Another very important feature is the ability to view a document from the "open document" screen without having to actually open up the document. This way, if you are searching for a specific document or a document containing certain specific information or "language" you need, you don't have to serially open a document, close it, open another document, and so on until you find the one you want. This is particularly powerful when combined with the "find document" feature on the "open document" screen. Using the find button opens a screen which is similar to the windows "search" screen. You can type in a series of words, and WordPerfect will search all files on the hard drive or in the folder/subfolders in which you are working for all documents containing your target search terms. You can then scroll through and look at each document to quickly determine their contents. From the "find" screen, you can access the "quickfinder" program which pre-scans folders on the computer so that searching for documents is nearly instantaneous. Just tonight I needed to find a "Declaration re Ex Parte Notice" to use as a template from among thousands of documents. The entire search took perhaps half a minute.

The most prominent change between WP 10 and 12/X3/X4 is the workspace manager which allows you to switch between legal mode, original (classic) WordPerfect 5.1 mode (with the blue screen), legal mode, standard WordPerfect for Windows mode and Word mode. They have also included and upgraded the ability to publish to Adobe PDF, HTML, and RTF/Word formats.

This is full featured software, and does everything I need. It handles tables, tables of content, tables of authorities, column sorts -- everything I need in a law office. Graphics can be dropped in with a click of the mouse. I'm considered to be almost an expert, and there is a lot I don't know!
One of the great advantages of WordPerfect is that the files are much smaller than Word documents. This means you can transport them on floppy drives.
As a final thought, Word is very powerful and works very well for short documents such as business letters. If you do anything over several pages, you are much better off with WordPerfect.

Take time to get to know the software and you'll be glad you purchased it.

Other Programs:

The Corel Office package includes replacement programs for most of the stuff in Microsoft Office. The suite includes a Microsoft Outlook replacement (Mail), a PowerPoint replacement (Presentation), an exceptional spreadsheet program (Quattro) and Lightning. I haven't yet figured out what Lightning does except act as a notebook of some sort.



"Pleasantly Surprised"

I found lots to like about Corel's WordPerfect Office X4. And, speaking as an unhappy employee forced to use WordPerfect back in the Dark Ages, I can attest to the improvements that Corel has made in this suite of Office applications. Here are a few of the pros and cons of this program as I've experienced them:

PROS:

WordPerfect X4 is easy to use, and it is easier to manage my blog with text from WordPerfect than with text written in Word 2007.

Same with Quattro X4 - easy to use, fast-running. No complaints here.

WordPerfect Office X4 comes with a tutorial video that shows you how to do all manner of interesting things with your office suite. I've only completed half of it, and I've already learned some new time-saving tricks.

I've used the PDF maker to great advantage, and I'm very pleased with the results. I also appreciate not having to buy Adobe Acrobat yet again.

CONS:

WordPerfect is designed to work with documents from every conceivable word processor. Ahem - isn't that a bit of overkill, or could it perhaps be managed during program installation so that my computer doesn't have to host such a big program?

WordPerfect Lightning was a big problem for me. It did not work and play well with the rest of the programs on my computer. I finally uninstalled it because it popped up unexpectedly and interfered with my ongoing work.

I have yet to try the month's free trial of Corel's Visual Intelligence, but I can report that it is a subscription-based service. Every year you get to pay again, and, somehow, that rubs me the wrong way. I'll buy a program (I know, I know, I'm only leasing it), but I don't want to buy the same program over and over every year. So I consider this feature, which may in fact be very good, to be a pain.

Overall, I find more pros than cons with WordPerfect Office X4. It's not perfect, but, as a regular user for two months, I've found that it meets my needs most of the time. I won't be going back to Microsoft Office.

Three and ½ stars!