WordPerfect 9

WordPerfect is one of the pillars of modern computing. In its MS-DOS guise it ruled the word processing market, but as Windows took over it was overtaken by Microsoft's upstart, Word. Although it still has its fans, many of whom have followed it through from its DOS incarnations, in some ways it just hasn't kept up.

Wysiwyg came early to WordPerfect, and its mode of operation is very visual. It's taken Word until its 2000 incarnation to match WordPerfect's facility whereby you can type at any point on a page that you click your cursor. This facility, called Shadow Cursor, appears to have been revised from the Suite 8 version. It no longer has a greyed-out cursor flicking in text to show where clicking will call up the insertion bar as you move the mouse over text. It only works in free space.

WordPerfect remains a pleasure to use as a layout tool, with many formatting options having live previews available. Operations such as setting up drop caps, text wraps and columns are performed simply - the menu structures are logical enough. And if you prefer the Microsoft way of working, you can now customise the workspace to the structure of Word 97.

There are always a number of ways of summoning the appropriate editing tools. For example, to alter a text wrap, you may select the appropriate menu item from the menu bar, right-click the graphic for a menu including a Wrap option, use the Property Bar icon for Wrap or, if the PerfectExpert panel is open, select the option Change Text Wrap. Even if it seems chaotic, users tend to slip in between the various ways of doing things seamlessly.

The property bars replace the old QuickSpots system from version 8. When you click on an object on the page, the Formatting toolbar is replaced by a context-sensitive toolbar relevant to the object selected. So, if a graphic object is selected, the Graphic toolbar pops up complete with Text Wrap icon.

Help facilities are equally well considered. The PerfectExpert bar, which can be left permanently open, is excellent - it's a context-sensitive mixture of buttons that call up handy tips or trigger editing tools. As a learning aid, it's good for new users and for my money much better than those irritating Microsoft Office Assistants.

WordPerfect 9 stacks up relatively well in the usability stakes. However, in certain areas such as power features, it lags behind. Take a look through the White Paper that reveals how Office 97 documents are translated into WordPerfect format, and you'll spot many simplifications occurring in the process. Although WordPerfect is easier to use as a layout tool, it's not as powerful - word spacing control doesn't use the standard point-measurement system, kerning isn't supported, borders aren't as rich and bulleting is less configurable. Its handling of HTML has improved greatly, but it can't open documents directly on either an intranet or the Internet. As an XML editor, it's powerful but somewhat bewildering. From a user's perspective, both the Lotus and Microsoft word processors seem to work more transparently in terms of creating and editing Web documents.

However, there are a few notable improvements that help WordPerfect catch up with the competition - for example, the ability to embed fonts in documents (Adobe Type 1 as well as TrueType). The charting module is far better, though not on a par with Word 2000. The Make It Fit function, which previously could only be applied to whole documents, now operates on blocks of text. Browser-style forward and back buttons on the main toolbar allow you to jump between the last and current insertion point, and an odd Autoscroll tool, once activated, allows you to scroll through a document by moving the mouse rather than using the scroll bars.