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  • Corel Word Perfect VS. MS Office: Let the Battle Begin
Technology Articles > Software > Business > Corel Word Perfect VS. MS Office: Let the Battle Begin

Competition is fierce within the software development world. The spotlight can be snagged from one developer by a newer developer within moments. This is what happened in the case of Corel’s Word Perfect. Word Perfect was, for a very long time, the gold standard in word processing software for business purposes. Then, along came Microsoft Office.

Today, the vast majority of businesses use Microsoft Office, but Word Perfect hasn’t been completely phased out. Word Perfect still has a lot to offer those who remember its glory days. If you’re looking for a word processing program, don’t disregard all that Word Perfect can bring to the table.

Word Perfect Pros

Corel’s Word Perfect includes a PDF editor; presentation, spreadsheet, and word processing software; file conversion ease; and address book. Corel knows that its main word processing competitor is MS Office. As such, Corel has made every effort to ensure that Word Perfect is compatible with MS Office documents.

Word Perfect can open any kind of Microsoft file including Excel and PowerPoint files. In addition, this program can save any file, so that it can be later opened by MS Office. This compatibility makes it effortless to use Word Perfect and share documents with MS Office users. Word Perfect also comes with a clean interface that’s easy to adapt to, and various customer service contacts that are entirely accessible.

MS Office Needs No Introduction

Chances are that you’ve been using MS Office for some time now. Since Microsoft first began dominating the word processing world, the developer has made many changes to various MS Office versions. The latest version (2010 at the time of this writing) includes a couple of upgrades, though some of these additions may not be an improvement.

The first thing that users will notice when looking at the newest version of MS Office is its interface. Unlike previous versions of Office, the latest version tends to look muddled. Thus, it will take some users a few months to figure out how to work with this interface. As a result, many people have gone back to older Office versions. Negative upgrades put MS Office a step behind the latest Corel Word Perfect program.

Choosing One Over the Other

Both programs deliver quality word processing without much of a fuss. As mentioned, the latest version of MS Office is somewhat complex. Program features and interfaces aside, Word Perfect is a lot less expensive than MS Office. As the years pass, MS Office versions keep getting more expensive. This is bad news to anyone who wants a decent word processing program.

Presently, the latest MS Office program will cost you around $400. Corel Word Perfect, on the other hand, can be found for around $250. This huge price gap is not necessarily justified, since Word Perfect does everything that MS Office can do – some say that Corel even does it better. In an ideal world, testing out each program side-by-side would help you decide on the right word processor.

Unfortunately, this would cost well over $600. Thus, if you’re looking to save a few dollars and not jump on the Microsoft Office bandwagon, Corel’s Word Perfect will surprise and delight. If nothing but Microsoft Office will do, my advice is to look for an older version that doesn’t come with so many kinks.