Menu Item

WP

Word

Comments

WP: Draft
Word: Normal View

1

1

No change since version 9 in either program. If you haven't read the previous comparison, then I'll repeat what I said there:

Personally, I rarely use Draft/Normal view, so I can't really say which is better. I like being able to see a true representation of my document. As stated in my Version 9 Preamble, when I started using WP, I loved the fact that I didn't have to hit Print Preview before every, single document I printed. Nevertheless, I was tempted to let Word win this because you can always see your text, regardless of your magnification. In WP, if you zoom beyond 100% magnification, some text goes beyond the visible screen area, requiring you to use your Horizontal Scroll Bar. However, Word will hide graphics if you switch to Normal View, whereas WP still shows them. Obviously, each has an advantage the other doesn't, so I think it's up to people who use this View to decide which is better.

WP: Page
Word: Print Layout

5

WP wins this one because you still need to use Word 's Print Preview feature for every, single document you create—or risk wasting paper (as Word 's Print Layout is NOT a true WYSIWYG environment).

Word: Web Layout
WP: Preview in Browser

1

5

This was MS Office 2000's big new feature. It is outstanding, allowing you to create and edit Intranet pages as seamlessly as you would a normal document.  WP's Web Page feature is good, and it has been vastly improved in the 2002 addition, in order to use the power of CSSs (Cascading Style Sheets).

WP: Two Pages
Word: Print Preview

1

WP allows you to see 2 pages at once. For Word , refer to Print Preview under the FILE Menu comparison.

Word: Outline View

1

Additional Menu Item in Word. When you create an Outline in WP, your Property Bar updates with the necessary features for Outlining. This allows the same functionality as Word's Outline View, i.e., drag-and-drop Headings, Text, or both at the same time. The additional Menu Item in Word is good because it automatically assigns all Headings and Text an Outline Level, e.g, Headings automatically become Main Levels, etc.

Word & WordPerfect: Toolbars

WordPerfect only: Property Bars

10

This is one area where there isn't even a competition. Corel realized that you don't need all your tools all the time, so it came up with the Property Bar.

The Property Bar sits directly below your Toolbar and updates with all the tools you need for the task you're working on. E.g., Working on a graphic, the Property Bar updates with all the tools you need for working with a graphic.

Working on a table, your Property Bar updates for that task; this applies to everything: Watermarks, Images, Selected Text, Footnotes/Endnotes, etc. You rarely have to turn your Toolbars on & off when you need to work on a Task, as you do in Word.

This is one area where MS could really improve. I think MS Office's Toolbars are ugly and annoying. By the time you have your Drawing Toolbar, your Frames Toolbar (if you're working on your Intranet), your Tables Toolbar, your Formatting Toolbar, your Standard Toolbar, and your Clipboard Toolbar on the screen, there's hardly any room to see your document!
Click HERE to see what I mean. You can shove them all together, but then you don't see all your Icons <sigh>. As an IT Consultant and Developer, I have been to a LOT of Offices, and I can say that the average user (which is the majority) doesn't bother or know how to customize his or her Toolbars, so they end up wasting time scrolling up and down a very narrow screen.
WordPerfect's Property Bar is yet another productivity feature that makes wordprocessing with WP a joy.

WP: Application Bar

5

At the same time that Corel introduced the Property Bar (WordPerfect 8), Corel also added the Application Bar. It's slightly thinner than your Task Bar (sitting directly above it), and it servers 4 purposes:

• It shows all your open documents
• It allows you to drag and drop text between documents
• It allows you to switch easily between documents
• It stops you forgetting that you already have a document open

Word2000 subsequently 'borrowed' the idea. Every open Office document had a separate icon on your Task Bar. However, this was almost a disadvantage, as your Task Bar got really cluttered (you then can't see what each document is without hovering).  MS realized its mistake, and you now have the option of using this facility in MSOXP.  Windows XP tiles your documents anyway, so MS's implementation of this is now redundant.  Corel's Application Bar still allows the aforementioned features.

WP & Word: Ruler Bar

5

I personally hate the Ruler Bar ( Word turned me off it forever). Having to adjust tabs and indents using the Ruler Bar is onerously time-consuming, awkward, and fiddly—especially for a power-user. Perhaps a little-known fact is that it takes literally TEN TIMES LONGER to use a mouse instead of a keystroke, e.g., setting an Indent using your Ruler instead of hitting F7 (in WP) (refer Format Menu). Only someone who has used WordPerfect would appreciate this. In Word, you can use keystroke combinations, such as Ctrl+M or Ctrl+T, but if you want to move your Tab Stop back, you either have to change your Ruler, Edit in the Paragraph dialog Box, or use complex keystroke combinations, e.g., Shift+Ctrl+T to move an Indent back! Compare these to using F7 or Backspace in WP.

Nevertheless, if you do like to use your Ruler Bar, WordPerfect allows you to Right-click to open the following dialog boxes: Tab Set, Paragraph Format, Margins, Columns, & Settings. Double-clicking on your Ruler in Word will open your Page Setup or Tabs dialog Boxes only. Overall, if you wanted to work with your Ruler Bar, it is MUCH easier in WP.

Additionally and most importantly, because WP flows, if you change a Tab stop for one item, each following item changes to the new Tab stop automatically(providing uniformity to your document). In Word, you need to highlight all the text to which you want to adjust Tab Stop positions—yet another one of Word's time-wasters. Seriously, if productivity means anything to your organization, you will see a significant drop if you switch to Word, as your Users will take much longer to accomplish the same task in Word that they did in WP.

WP: Hide Bars
Word: Full Screen

1

1

Word XP has addressed a previous flaw—if you chose Full Screen in previous versions, some of your Toolbars could still be floating on your screen; this no longer happens in XP, so both programs now score equal points.

WP: Guidelines

Word: Tools -> Option ->
Text Boundaries

5

1

WP shows you all your margins, column widths, table guidelines, etc, directly on your page. This allows you to adjust them there & then—and see the changes instantly (i.e., in Real Time!). This is a really big time saver, even for something as simple as adjusting a paragraph's left & right margins.

Word can show you boundaries, but you can't manipulate them directly, nor do you see the changes occur until you've finished. You really would not believe how fantastic the RealTime Preview feature is. When you use Word or an older version of WordPerfect, you immediately notice how annoying it is having to guess everything.

Additionally, to turn Boundaries on in Word, you have to go to Tools/Options/View, then check the Text Boundaries box to display them—in WP, they're there by default.

WP: Shadow Cursor
Word: Point & Click

1

This was introduced in WordPerfect 8; Word2000 (again) "borrowed" the idea. This allows you to point to any part of a document and start typing.
In WP, it also shows you (exactly) where your cursor will go when you click.

WP: Graphics
Word: Picture Placeholders

1

To speed up viewing/scrolling through a document, (and to take the strain off your Graphics card—if it doesn't have many MBs of Memory), WP allows you to turn off displaying graphics.

This can be done in Word, but as usual with Word, it's more convoluted (you have to go to Tools/Options and put a check in Picture Placeholders.  To see your graphics again, you have to go back and uncheck the box).

Word & WP: Table Gridlines

1

1

No difference

Word & WP: Hidden Text

1

Word only allows you to see hidden text if you use your Show/Hide option.  WP allows you to use the Show/Hide option & still not see Hidden Text (some people like to work with Show/Hide on all the time—especially in Word, where you can accidentally delete a Paragraph Mark).

Word & WP: Symbols

1

WP has more options for what to display.

WP:Reveal Codes

10

As discussed in the Preamble, this is the greatest aspect of WordPerfect; It is indispensable for finding problems in your document—so much so, in fact, that it would be reason enough to choose WP over Word!

Word: Task Pane

New feature in Word; watch as MS slowly introduces another WP feature; this is basically the PerfectExpert (HELP Menu), about which Microsoft made fun when WP8 was released.  Now, apparently, MS thinks that putting common tasks at users' fingertips is a good idea.  I wonder if MS will apologize to Corel for slating a feature it subsequently 'borrowed' 4 years later??? Yet ANOTHER example of WordPerfect leading and Word following (after many years of WP users being more productive).

Word& WP: Zoom

5

1

WP has Margin Width.  Word allows you to see any number of pages.  A new feature in WP2002 is the Magnifying Glass, which lets you Zoom in on a certain section of a document.

Word: Comments

1

1

Available in Word to open Comments. In WP, this is achieved by clicking an icon outside the margin (next to the comment). There really isn't that much difference, but if I had to say which is better, Word would win. However, it's not an advantage, it's just a preference.

Word: Markup

10

Awesome feature in Word that allows you to view all markup changes in your document (or you can limit the kind of change that's displayed. For example, you can use the Show menu to hide formatting changes and comments so that you can concentrate on insertions and deletions. Or, you can display comments and changes for a specific reviewer).

You can also change how Word displays markup by clicking one of the 'Display for Review' settings on the Reviewing toolbar. By changing this setting, you can preview a document with changes before you actually accept or reject those changes.

Word: Footnotes

Believe it or not, this isn't a 'View/Hide Footnotes' function, it's a Create or 'Go To' function???

Word: Headers & Footers
WP: Refer INSERT Menu

1

To achieve "Page 1 of 1" in a Word Footer, you need to know that you have to use AutoText, and you have to figure out formatting options. Note: This is also a well-known (seemingly permanently) broken feature in Word.

To create a simple Footer "Page 1 of 5" in WordPerfect, you simply selectPage Number  from the Property Bar, type "1", then select Total Pages from the Property Bar. WordPerfect also allows two Headers and two Footers. Word has a convoluted way of doing such.

VIEW MENU POINTS

WP: 55

Word: 23