Review by brainout

This review is of WordPerfect Office Standard X5 – a suite of integrated products – but the same comments apply to X4. This review focuses on how WordPerfect’s vaunted ability to convert other program files, is hot air. Other reviewers have covered the pro’s (and there are many) and cons (and there are many) of creating documents IN WordPerfect. If you don’t have much need for converting pdfs or other files into WordPerfect, then please skip my review. If you seek a word processing program for complex documents you will create in that processor, then pick WordPerfect. Simpler word processing needs are better served by Word. So now, onto the hot air of WordPerfect’s vaunted ability to convert pdf and other files (which is my main need for updated versions of the program).

Sidebar: I just bought X5 and will return it (more on that story at the end of this review). I own X4. This review is long, but it offers alternatives to the dysfunctionality in WP, since like many others I’m stuck with it. Hope the ideas prove helpful. Yell at me if they don’t.

‘Starting with the non-WordPerfect components: forget Quattro Pro. It can’t retrieve wk1 files in either X5 or X4. X5 doesn’t even have that as an option, though X4 does, and when you try to retrieve ANY wk1 file in X4 or X5, you get an error message that there are invalid characters in the file name.. and then the program crashes. My XP Pro (SP3+) altogether freezes for some minutes, despite 1GB RAM, Pent4 and 3.4GHz. BUT if I first retrieve the wk1 in Excel 2002 and prior, no problem except to change the font from their stupid Courier default to Franklin Gothic Medium (etc), and save as xls. Only THEN can X4 or X5 of QP, read the file. So much for vaunted conversion back-capability.

Dysfunction City. At least pre-2007 Excel can read wk1 files, which for millions of us are still the workhorses in our day. My whole business is built around them for the last 30 years; I designed the templates myself. Run in a DOS window, old Lotus 1-2-3 2.x is fast and sterling, full audit trail especially with Funk Software’s Worksheet Utilities. Wish IBM, who owns the rights to both programs, would resurrect them. Fat chance.

So QP better not quit its day job. Forget the other things in the WP suite, they don’t work either. Lightning sends XP Pro into a hang, can’t read anything I tried to use it to read, and Mozilla is not compatible with it, so your browser crashes when trying to use it. Forget Presentations, totally unintuitive and how do you get to the next page? Forget Thunderbird, it won’t store your passwords in a logical place, so what’s the point of it being able to ask for email? You have to BE THERE each time to type in the password, SINCE THERE IS NO PLACE WITHIN THUNDERBIRD TO STORE PASSWORDS. Instead, it stores passwords in an insane ‘profile’ which has a name no one can remember. Or, you have to sync to the internet, store that vital information in the cloud, where someone can hack. Not to mention, its huge screen real estate taken up with a blank border in Preview, and other unintuitive idiosyncracies which prove Outlook Express shouldn’t be allowed to die. Use full Outlook, if you’re on Windows 7.

Software interfaces need to make sense right out of the box. Forget the rest of the WP suite, then. So now let’s talk about WordPerfect X5’s dysfunctionality.

I gave WP X5 two stars for only one reason: one star for the fact you really can CREATE good documents in it; second star is for its backwards-compatibility with old WP docs back to version 6 (and if you have 6, you can convert pre-6 to 6). But with other old word processing software? Well, not quite as advertised, because, just as is true for X4,nn* I couldn’t get it to work on Multimate Advantage docs, though it recognizes THE FIRST HALF of the fields (doesn’t recognize the close of the field). Older WP versions recognize the whole thing correctly, from versions 6 through 12.n* Same, for X5’s inability to convert Word docs (more on that follows below); or,n* any of the other older word processors I’ve used over the decades.nCan’t read .tif. That’s an MS standard, Tagged Image Format, native to every Windows computer, scanner reader. But to WP, it’s not a ‘valid format’. I thought WP prided itself on integration with MS and especially, for scanning, in its hoopla praising X5? Guess again.n Like X4, X5 Can’t read csv files. Everyone else can. So if you download your address book from Yahoo Mail to go into WP’s address book, well – it can’t parse it, even though you set up the delimiter specs aptly.

* X4 and X5 can’t properly convert a Word 97-2003 ONE PAGE document; formatting squishes when Word spacing isn’t single line (i.e., if you specified 1.5 line spacing or a large font). This is very important, as many legal documents are created in Word, especially by the big law firms who do pension prototypes (like Relius, McKay-Hochman, Wolters-Kluwer). Big market. Don’t use WordPerfect if you do this kind of thing. Keep to Word, or you’ll have mush for your client.

* Can’t convert a three-page RTF created by a major national law firm which makes pension plan prototypes in RTF, either. All squished, font comes in as Arial though it was made in a different font, all the formatting is wrong.

* Can’t read mht file, nor html, though I pulled the html from online, and easily edited it in Word. LOL, WPX5 just crashed as I was typing this review, trying to convert a second html file.

* It also crashes when trying to search your hard drive, UNLESS all the files in a folder are WP-originated files or pdfs. X5 doesn’t crash with a greater mixture of file types, but it does crash if the folders are large. X4 crashes nearly every time.n* WPX5, like X4, seamlessly converts older versions of Word Perfect (version 12 and prior, I have them all) – but sucessfully converted no other format I tried in X4 or here in X5, except a blank page with only a faked letterhead.

* X5/4 are lousy with pdf file imports. X5 is only marginally better. With it, I tried converting Google-doc pdfs, no luck. Messed up no matter what open/convert/import pdf option I picked (recognize, partly recognize, don’t recognize text). Same, for any of the pdfs you want to name from JStor or ccel.org. When I tried to bring in the SCANNED Complete Works of Shakespeare (19th century book Google SCANNED in, freely downloadable from Google Books) – WP claimed the file was encrypted or corrupted. Funny, other pdf readers can read it just fine.

* This matters if your job depends on pdf manipulation. I do a lot of tax filing work, so use a lot of Government pdfs (instructions, Government forms, etc). WPX5 can’t convert any of them, claims they are encrypted or corrupt – yeah, right, the Instructions for your 1040 in pdf are corrupt or encrypted? – or only converts if you choose DO NOT RECOGNIZE TEXT option. For example, if you import the Downton Abbey schedule from PBS, what comes into WordPerfect is a complete blank, no matter what import/convert options you select. A short Government form with DO NOT RECOGNIZE converts as readable, but is way off, so you may as well have imported it in Word.

* When I tried to bring in a large pdf I created WITH Word, WPX5 completely mangled the text no matter what choices I made for importing, and it couldn’t read the links. Complete disaster.

* Oh, and it crashes when you bring in government pdf files longer than two pages. If only two pages, your scroll bars disappear until you go back to Settings and tell it to ‘browse by’ (how unintuitive) Top and Bottom or Top or Bottom. Then suddenly the scroll bars appear.

* By contrast, I have no trouble at all converting from or to pdf files into/out from Word with Smart PDF Creator Pro, a $70 program I often use to convert pdfs to Word and back for the Department of Labor’s EFAST2 program (filing pension plan information returns). So if you want to convert a variety of docs or jpg, tif, spreadsheets to pdf, get that instead of WPX5. Great for converting stuff to pdf for email attachments, too. The advantage of converting government pdfs is that you can then edit each line item with short instructions to remind you what goes on the line, instead of keeping the ponderous instruction manuals on your desktop. So think of the uses for other pdfs – same idea. True editing of a pdf, without spending lots of money for Adobe Acrobat (which is a pain to use, anyway.)nnAs for how WPX5 handles Word document conversion, the other thing X5 crows about in its ads, well – it turned my 152-page Word document to mush.n* It did read many (not all) of the bookmark links intra-document,n* but it changed the faded highlights to bright colors,n* squished most of the headers,n* didn’t align the borders properly, so that the text and lines were askew;n* couldn’t read the koine Greek text though I have the koine Greek fonts installed,n* lost all the cell background colors in the many tables,n* can’t display half of the page in landscape mode native to the Word doc,n* and of course repaginated the document, though in Settings I told it NEVER to repaginate or change the formatting of the opened document.

In short, the only non-WordPerfect (i.e., Word doc) conversion that WPX5 did properly in this testing of X5, was a simple mock Word.doc stationery page (no text, just the letterhead which is not in the header section). All else I’ve tried, it mangled, or crashed trying. Worthless.

WordPerfect’s time-honored annoyances were preserved in X5; like the factnn* you can’t disable hyphenation across the board, but only per document;n* it forces repagination for your printer despite Convert settings which says DO NOT FORMAT.n* Then there’s the perennial annoying WHITE SPACE of all those margins, wasting your desktop view, along with a bizillion buttons taking up three or four rows at the top (or sidebar) of the window. You can turn off the buttons, but then it’s harder to edit.n* You can’t turn off the dang margin whitespace, even in Draft Mode.n* And Reveal Codes? FORGET IT. MS Word is bad because you can’t see where formatting begins and ends, and Styles you pick are dysfunctional. A mistype or change in style suddenly resets the format in ways you didn’t select, i.e., if you select a style with a font it changes the font size to something not in that style or in the former style. WordPerfect’s Reveal Codes would be an improvement over that, but the lower Reveal Codes’ window has always been unnavigable. You scroll forever. So why don’t they create object markers, instead? You know, like Comment triangles in Excel – in the WYSIWYG window you can toggle on and off, or see the codes when you hover? Alas, smart design is not part of Word Perfect’s philosophy. Instead, jargon and help chm’s which only tell you what you already know, abound. Typical of all word processors of Windows vintage.

* At least MS Word can do a merge, however stupid its system: it requires a special external spreadsheet with ONLY the merge data in it. Carefully specify the field names to match the worksheet column names, no spaces, not too long, either. And here’s the trick: the spreadsheet you create, is a shell. Its cells ADDRESS a spreadsheet UNDERNEATH the shell; so that lower spreadsheet (say, your customer list or participant data), you can combine (copy into the lower worksheet) at will. So you need never type data twice. WordPerfect claims it can do the same thing, but that’s not really true. I’ve been trying since 1985 to get it to work.

Prior versions of WP have these problems too; I’ve always hated working with WP for that reason. Have kept it only because I have thousands of documents in prior versions of WP that I need to read on this computer. Old WordPerfect (version 12 and prior) works far better.

UPSHOT: if like me you have tons of important old Word Perfect files you must access in Windows 7 or XP, maybe get X5 – but don’t expect it to perform as promised on pdfs and pre-Word 2007 docs, mht, html, etc.

Whoever creates a truly intuitive word processor that can merge without a bizillion steps, will become rich overnight. Multimate was the last good one (but doesn’t have WYSIWYG); I still use it to generate my merge reports, as nothing better has come along.

PS: I didn’t buy this X5 from Amazon, but from Corel, because Corel badmouthed Amazon, blaming my X4’s bugginess because I bought it at Amazon. But the X4 disk SAYS OEM right on it, and is original, not a copy. So now Corel can’t blame Amazon, since this X5 review is of a onsite COREL-purchased copy. Which, I will return in 24 hours. PPS: it’s now 12 hours later, and they have to issue me an RMA hopefully sometime tomorrow, before I can get refunded on a product I’ve not yet received. The product will arive in snail mail in a week, which I will return unopened. So it will take a month or two before I get the refund.

BUYER BEWARE: do do do buy at Amazon. They mean it when they say no hassle refunds; I’ve never seen such a dedicated bunch of employees in my life. Each one I’ve encountered in my many (too many) calls to them, takes the problem to heart. As if an owner of the company. So I aim to shop here first, for everything I need; only if I can’t find it here, will I shop anywhere else!