| WordPerfect Office X4 Home & Student | 
 enlarge | From: Corel
Category: Software
List Price: $119.99
Buy New: $44.99
You Save: $75.00 (63%)
New (56) Used (4) from $44.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 235
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Home & Student
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 8 x 2.2
MPN: WPX4ENPCHS
Model: WPX4ENPCHS
UPC: 735163119534
EAN: 0735163119534
ASIN: B0017I3DOY
Release Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not perfect, but close September 24, 2008
I have used WordPerfect in all its permutations since it came on 5 1/4" disks and had a blank blue screen. The lastest version continues the ease of use and power that I expect. The parts that are missing from the "professional" version are not really important for my needs and the price more than makes up for it.
Because I have to match with other people, I also use Word 2007, but WordPerfect continues to be the better product. Whenever I can, I use it instead of Word.
 Version is not the one described on this product page - why? September 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree with the other reviewer who said this is not as advertised. I talked my husband into letting me spend the money based in large part on the fact that this product can open and create PDF files, as clearly stated in the product description.
Why have that text on the page for this product if it only applies to a completely different (and more expensive) version?
I am now stuck with a product that will not do what I thought it would when I made my buying decision.
I disappointed with Corel in particular, and even with Amazon a little. Open Office is free and supports Microsoft Office, Corel Wordperfect, AND PDF files. I guess I will just learn to use it.
Corel Product - Word Perfect Home & Student September 23, 2008
I'm very pleased with this software. I like Word Perfect much better than Word because it is more versatile.
I highly recommend it.
The better WordProcessor for long documents. September 4, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
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. The more expensive version of WordPerfect handles PDF files and will import text and graphic based PDF files and will perform optical character recognition on the PDF file. As the comment below shows, Corel indicates this version does not open PDF files, although it will publish to PDF. Please see http://www.corel.com/content/pdf/wpx4/edition-comparison-chart.pdf for a comparison of the different versions.
Although it is not perfect, WordPerfect 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. If you want to change one paragraph, you can do it with a single keystroke (the WordPerfect 6 keystrokes are F4 for left indent or Shift-F4 for double indent).
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] codes 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. For example, once 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.
 Long time Wordperfect user, but there is a bug... August 31, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I recently purchased Wordperfect X4, hoping they had resolved a program bug I experienced with X3, but there is still a problem: when cutting and pasting a block of text from one wordperfect file to another (I am working on a book) if I don't immediately save the file the text will often simply disappear if I move the cursor to another position for further editing. Sometimes I can get it back by clicking on the "forward" arrow, but other times it is simply gone... I also tried going back to Wordperfect 12, but it does the same thing. I have no idea why, and I also have no idea how much text I have lost over the years; I have been using Wordperfect since before version 5. The worst thing may be that Corel won't even accept an email from me regarding the issue, because apparently buying the Home and student edition (I am a teacher) disqualifies me from accessing their resources to any extent whatsoever, including contacting them about a legitimate problem. I suppose this is their payback for allowing me to save a little on the purchase price.
I have used Wordperfect over these many years because I find it much easier to format than MS Word, and much easier to fix formatting problems thanks to their "Reveal Codes" feature.
The bottom line? I wish there was one. I wish there was a third-party replacement for wordperfect... one that works without bugs, or at least from a more responsive/engaging company.
All of the other alternative word processing programs out there emulate MS Word, as far as I know, which I don't find very user-friendly, as compared to Wordperfect. But the above-mentioned problems are real and cause me a great deal of concern.
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