Corel WordPerfect 2002

But the latest version of the WordPerfect suite ably combines this backward compatibility with forward-looking thinking.

For instance, the new Variable feature in WordPerfect lets you insert a code that represents a product or a client name in a document, then change that name throughout the document simply by editing an item in the Variable menu. Corel Quattro Pro 10 opens ancient Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets and modern Excel files, but it also offers dazzling 3D charting, complete with adjustable lighting and panning. Corel Presentations 10 can save slide shows in Macromedia Flash format for use in Web pages. The new CorelCentral mail and calendar program creates a digital signature for each user.

WordPerfect 2002 won't make Word loyalists switch, but it should please long-term users of WordPerfect itself, while Quattro Pro and Presentations 10 are good enough to keep Corel loyalists from switching to Office XP. WordPerfect can't match Word's automatic reformatting of plain-text documents, but Word can't match WordPerfect's smooth handling of multichapter documents, complete with the ability to edit separate chapters in their own files or in a "master" document that acts as a container for the chapters. Elaborate page- and paragraph-numbering options make it possible to keep the most complex document organized, and WordPerfect's venerable Reveal Codes feature permits precise control over typography and formatting.

For desktop publishing, WordPerfect lets you rotate inserted images (Word doesn't), automatically align and distribute graphic elements, and use the advanced image-enhancement tools that the program shares with Presentations 10. When you publish a heavily formatted document to HTML for use on the Web, WordPerfect automatically creates a linked CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) stylesheet for the most efficient Web display.

Look and feel remain basically the same as earlier versions, with slightly cleaned-up menus and unobtrusively added new features, such as a miniature Web browser accessible from the toolbar or top-line menu and the Oxford Pocket Dictionary accessible throughout the suite whenever you want to look up a word. Taking a cue from Office XP, the WordPerfect Suite now includes a Recovery Manager that restores files after a program crash. We weren't able to test this, however, because WordPerfect 10 is so much stabler than the crash-prone previous version that we couldn't persuade it to fail.

Like Excel, Quattro Pro 10 lets you build queries that download stock prices from the Internet; unlike Excel, Quattro makes you build the query by hand rather than by dragging and dropping. But only Quattro makes you look like a professional artist, thanks to its new rendering effects and color schemes derived from CorelDraw. Be careful with these new graphics features: The ultracool deep-blue color scheme makes captions unreadable until you change the font color. Histogram, Gantt, Pie Of A Pie, and other esoteric chart types add to the time you'll waste admiring your data in graphic form.

No one buys a suite for its presentation software, but Presentations 10 gets the job done, complete with speaker's notes and branching presentations, plus animations, transitions, and other standard visual distractions. Trouble-dodging features include font embedding using Bitstream's compact TrueDoc format and the Flash-export feature that displays all the effects of your presentation in almost any browser, without limiting support for some effects to Internet Explorer, as PowerPoint does.

After eliminating the mail program from the previous version, Corel now supplies a brand-new e-mail client, CorelCentral Mail, which you can think of as the anti-Outlook. Its minimalistic look and high-security features make it the opposite of Outlook's visual clutter and widely reported security holes. In fact, when you first install CorelCentral, it prompts you to let it create an encrypted digital ID that you can use for secure mail without obtaining a digital signature from third-party sources. CorelCentral also includes a minimalist calendar and address book but without the tight integration and automated features found in Outlook.

Corel's suite distinguishes itself from Microsoft's by including the impressively easy-to-use PerfectScript macro programming language, a refreshing contrast to the daunting Visual Basic programming language in Microsoft Office (and which is also available as an optional installation in WordPerfect Office). PerfectScript makes Corel's suite easy to customize and lets you record macros that work across the suite's applications--although CorelCentral Mail unfortunately still doesn't support it.


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