Alamo PC Organization: HOME > PC Alamode Magazine > Product Reviews

cat

Corel WordPerfect Suite 7 
by Timothy K. Hoke

Corel Wp Suite 7 Box Attention WordPerfect users! Your wordprocessor of choice is alive an doing well. I remember back in the mid-80's when the only real wordprocessor seemed to be WordPerfect. But by the early nineties, their refusal to do Windows lost the folks at Orem some sizable market share. They rebounded with a pretty poor excuse for a Windows wordprocessor. But their next attempt was much better. I reviewed it way back when and was impressed. Still am! But WordPerfect sold out to Novell, bringing a twinge of concern in many a gut. "What will Novell do with the greatest wordprocessor to date?" we wondered. Unfortunately they didn't do much.

 Then at last year's COMDEX we found out that Corel Corporation had bought WordPerfect for a song. I wondered why Corel needed a wordprocessor and feared they would let it die a slow death. Well, my fears were unfounded. Corel WordPerfect Suite 7 is a major contender and rather than bite the dust any time soon, it will be kicking dust in the face of competition. Below I will briefly mention some of the features that will keep old time WordPerfect users loyal while winning new enthusiasts.

 I should mention first that the CD-ROM version (you do have a new 10-speed don't you?) installs like a dream on Windows 95. For about a $90 competitive upgrade price you get WordPerfect 7, Quattro Pro 7 and Presentations 7. But that's not all. They also throw in CorelFLOW for high-impact business graphics, 150 excellent fonts, 10,000 clipart images with a book included (and they're good ones!) and Sidekick 95 and Dashboard 95 to help you organize and produce more. Oh, and let's not forget the Internet. Included in WordPerfect Suite 7 is the AT&T WorldNet Service with Netscape Navigator 2.01 and Envoy 7 to help you publish stuff on the Internet. Sound too good to be true? Well, maybe so, but sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
 
 

Corel WordPerfect 7

What about the word processing aspect of Suite 7? Those of you who've used previous versions of WordPerfect know it is versatile and easy to use. You can pretty much customize it to look and function the way you want. One very nice feature is the ability to correct spelling on-the-fly. You can even set the spell checker to red-line all misspelled words as you type. Those of us who have short attention spans will particularly like fixing our mistakes as we go. But if you don't like that feature, turn it off. Also included is QuickCorrect which automatically fixes mistakes you tell it to. For example, I often type "hte" rather than "the". Not a problem. QuickCorrect will catch mistakes like that as you type. You'll never even know you blew it. Nor, I might add, will anyone else.

 The folks at Corel have also added guidelines to show you where things go in margins, tables, columns and headers/footers. Suppose you are typing along and want to change the margin for the paragraph. Just go to the margin arrow and drag it where you want it. Selected text will comply to your wish. So will future paragraphs.

You will also like the new QuickSpots. This is one cool feature. When you move the mouse pointer a small square appears. When I first saw it I wondered if WordPerfect had some sort of bug. Well, if it does, this ain't it! Click on the little square and get a palette of tool options for a graphic, paragraph, or table. For example, beside a paragraph will be a little box. Click on it and get these options: indent, justification, border, fill, bullets, fonts, and styles.

Included also is QuickFonts which reminds you of the last twenty fonts you've used in a document. I think you'll also like shadow cursor, a light grey cursor that travels with your mouse to show you exactly where it the cursor will be when you click your left mouse button. The last new feature I will mention is Internet connectivity which enables you to link any text directly to an Internet file or bookmark. It also lets you convert Web files directly to Corel WordPerfect format.

Other mentionable features that have become oldie goldies are: Grammatik (grammar checker), QuickFormat (to fomat your document), QuickFinder (to find files and retrieve quickly), and Make it Fit (shrinks or expands your document to fit the allotted space). I particularly like this last feature and some of my documents slightly go to an additional page and I can now easily shrink them down to the number of pages I wanted.

Corel Quattro Pro 7

What's new in Quattro Pro? Several additions add to the usability of this already outstanding spreadsheet. For one thing, it features new file formats. Quattro Pro can now translate files created by Quattro Pro version 5.5 for DOS, 1-2-3 releases 4 and 5, Excel versions 5 and 7, and HTML version 3. It also has a new look making it easier to use, since some of the menus are simplified and commands are regrouped. As well, you can now create geographical maps of regions (the world, countries, or states) that relate directly to your spreadsheet data. For example, you can create a map that shows sales data by country.

There is also a new Map Expert. A new Toolbar Designer lets you edit Toolbars on the screen. You can drag buttons between Toolbars and drag Toolbars to other positions in the Quattro Pro window. Again, we should not forget the Internet. Now under Quattro Pro you can open files on the Internet and link to Internet files in formulas. You can also open and save HTML version 3 documents and use your Internet browser to view documents on the World Wide Web. Quattro Pro 7 has over 100 new @functions, including @TOTAL and @SUBTOTAL.
 
 

Corel Presentations 7

If you have a hankering to create drawings, charts, and slide shows, Presentations 7 will let you do so with no muss or fuss. Version 7 has added object and bullet animation to jazz up your presentations. This is a really cool feature as it let you make a bullet chart so that each bullet slides in from the left side of the screen. You can also add object animation to clipart! Also if you want to make a bar chart interesting, Presentations 7 features a textured fill which is more graphical than a mere pattern. Also, not to miss any Internet opportunities, Presentations 7 enables you to move from a slide to an Internet site with a single click.

 If you have anything less that a 486/25 processor this product will not wok well. You also need at least a double speed CD-ROM and 8 MB RAM (18 recommended). You may install it with as little as 32 MB or as much as 220 MB depending on your configuration I tested it on a 486/120 with 32 MB RAM, a four speed CD-ROM and a large hard drive. I have no complaints as to its snappy performance.

 Without reservation I recommend Corel WordPerfect Suite 7. At a much higher price it would be a deal. At less than $90 for a competitive upgrade it is a steal.