bit-tech Shopping: Corel WordPerfect Office X3 Standard Edition

• E-mail/Contact Manager
• Presentation
• Spreadsheet
• Word Processor

• Microsoft Windows 2000
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 98 SE
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Rating: 4

Time with product: 5

Strengths: Works like previous versions

Weaknesses: Installing with Vista

Summary: The huge problem is getting it to work with Vista! The reason I bought it to begin with is that my older version of WP will not work with Vista. Corel is not offering any help on those--they just say "buy the new X3 version". The new X3 version that I bought would not work with Vista but there is a Corel on-line upgrade. Even with the upgrade, it was a mess. I feel I am pretty good with a PC and it took a few days, several installs and reinstalls, before it would work with my Vista machine. In between, all sorts of half installs that would almost take over the computer before I finally got the final patch from a phone conversation (long distance--not an 800 number!). Not pleasant!In addition, after I finally found a number to call (it is pretty hidden on their site) and got somebody to tell me what changes I had to make to get it to work, they tried to charge me $25 for getting information on correcting their mistake! I refused to pay.After finally getting it installed, it seems relatively stable and has the familiar WP look.Corel's on-line "help" is practically useless. Confusing and their search functions do not help much.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Weeks

Strengths: It's Wordperfect - what could be better? - I use the 'reveal codes' constantly

Weaknesses:

Summary: The package was as described. It installed perfectly and registered easily. I'd recommend the seller based on this one purchase.Haven't explored all the new features - just moved right over to X3 from Vsn 12 and have had no problems.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 30 Days

Strengths: Ease of use and cost. Retains the best of Word Perfect and adds many new features. Much better than MS Word.

Weaknesses: None I've found

Summary: It really comes down to "are you a Word Perfect user"? If you have used any of the Windows versions of WP then you'll like this one. I had used WP8 for may years and switched because of issues with it in Win XP. I have a number of clients who have been using WP since the DOS days and they were not interested in using MS Word even though they have it on their PC's. X3 has been a good solution. For many years WP has kept the basic functions the same so adjusting to X3 was quite easy. They've added to many new features to list here, but what they've added has been well thought out.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Weeks

Strengths: PDF converter, opens all Word formats

Weaknesses: Cannot load and print EPS graphics

Summary: I have been a die-hard Word Perfect user. I just upgraded from WP verion 8.0 because I could not open word file and had problems saving files in word format for others to open. This product has all the latest file formats to open and close. It even creates pdfs. My complaint is that at work I can no longer import my EPS graphics for use. I had to convert all of them to another format, like WMF, to be able to use them.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Weeks

Strengths: Imports .pdf files, cleans metadata form documents, improved Microsoft Office compatibility. WordPerfect does not spontaneously reformat documents like Word does.

Weaknesses: Microsoft Office compatibility is not perfect.

Summary: If absolute compatibility with Microsoft Office is essential, WordWorfpect Office is not for you. If productivity, flexibility, and ease-of-use are more important, then this is an excellent suite. WordPerfect mail is not susceptible to viruses programmed to attach Outlook's vulnerability, but you cannot synchronize your PDA with WordPerfect, either. (If synchronization were possible, I would give it a 5-star rating.)