Office Wars
Which is better - Microsoft or Corel?
If you're running a business or home office, there are two programs you'll certainly need - a word processor and a spreadsheet. Often the most cost effective way to do this is to buy an office suite. These suites usually contain a word processor and spreadsheet, and usually a personal information manager and multimedia presentation program. These suites have become the blockbusters of the business software world. Microsoft has about 90% of this market - the main competitor is Corel. Recently, both Microsoft and Corel launched new office suites. So which Office offers you the best solution?
The Comparison
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Microsoft Office 2000
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WordPerfect Office 2000
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Brief Information
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Microsoft
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Corel
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Regular Retail Price
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$839 ($450 upgrade from Office 97)
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$580 ($249 upgrade from a wide range of programs)
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Requirements
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75 MHz Pentium-Class CPU
16 MB RAM
252 MB Hard Disk
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66 MHz 486 CPU
16 MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended)
280 MB Hard Disk
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Includes
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Word (word processor)
Excel (spreadsheet)
Outlook (email and information)
PowerPoint (presentation)
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WordPerfect 9 (word processor)
Quattro Pro 9 (spreadsheet)
Presentations 9 (presentation)
Central 9 (personal information manager)
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Brief Information
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In operation, Word and Excel are much like the previous versions - a existing user won't have to relearn the programs. However, the programs certainly seem more polished. For example, there's a single tool bar across the top of the page. Icons off the page can be accessed by clicking on double arrows on the right. When you use an off-screen icon it will become included with the icons you can see all the time.
Other features include a self-repair function, which will correct corrupted or accidentally deleted program files. You can send email directly from the applications, and you can save Word documents as Web pages, as well as load in existing pages. This works much better than with the previous version.
A feature you'll notice soon after you install the program is the Registration Wizard. Office 2000 shuts down if you don't register it within 50 times of starting any of its applications. You don't have to reveal personal information and you can register by email, on the Web, phone, fax or mail. We tried the Web-based registration, and our software was automatically unlocked.
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Using WordPerfect and Quattro Pro is so much like using the Microsoft versions, it'll take an existing user just a few moments to adjust. The icons and menus are a little different, but you don't need to be a genius to work out the differences.
Like Microsoft Office 2000, the applications are tightly integrated, and it's easy to exchange information between them. WordPerfect Office supports Web publishing in two ways - directly using an Internet Publisher function from WordPerfect, or using Trellix 2 for more control over Web features. However, we ony had limited success loading existing Web pages into WordPerfect.
You can load and save files in Microsoft's formats (Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Presentations). This function worked well in our Word/WordPerfect tests for basic documents - though a picture dropped out of a more complex one. A trial version of Print Office is also included.
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The Bottom Line
With Microsoft entrenched in the office software market, is WordPerfect Office 2000 even worth considering? Based on our testing, we have no hesitation in recommending WordPerfect 2000 for certain types of users:
- If you're looking for value, go for WordPerfect 2000. It's cheaper than Microsoft's product, and the programs do the job they're designed to do.
- If you're just going to be doing basic tasks, go for WordPerfect. Though WordPerfect is capable of much more than "basic tasks" - it does offer better value than Microsoft Office.
- If you don't need faultless access to Word files - or only occasionally need it - the WordPerfect Office programs are more than competent.
On the other hand, Microsoft Office 2000 is a better choice if you want:
- Faultless access to Microsoft-format files on a regular basis.
- To use it for Internet work, because Microsoft Office has better Web support.
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