This is a preview of the personal edition. As we covered its installation in our last issue (page 177), off we go straight to its features and working.

Unlike its Windows sibling and other word processors, WordPerfect for Linux always keeps a main window, separate from the document window open. This window has the WordPerfect 8 logo displayed, and also gives access to file manager, printer controls, and preferences. You open new files from the file manager or from the program window of the main window.

The document window has a no-frills interface and follows the by now standard file, edit, help layout of menu items. As expected, it’s a full-blown word processor that stands up with the best in the market in terms of its features. It supports a large number of file formats ranging from Amipro 2.0 through Word to PostScript. Remote open and save options in the file menu let you open and save files on remote hosts. You also have an Internet publishing option that lets you publish documents. Right clicking a misspelt word shows you the options to choose from.

You also have a range of toolbars to choose from, including specialized ones like resume, legal, and shipping. The find and replace function goes a bit further than what’s available with other word processors. When you open the find/replace window, any text in the clipboard is automatically placed in Find. The nice part is that if you’ve large blocks of text in the clipboard, then that’s not placed.

Another unique feature is the envelope and label options you’ve in the format menu. You can visually create envelopes and mailing labels using these. The toolbars are editable. Just right click a visible toolbar and select edit or settings from the context menu. A comprehensive thesaurus is also available.

In short, Wordperfect 8 for Linux behaves just like any other GUI-based processor.

But there are a few cribs that I have with the product. To begin with, every time one tries to save a file, which is not in the native WordPerfect format, it prompts you on the format to use. Not too bad, but an irritant still. One significant problem though was that the cursor used to appear in the middle or at the end of the character next to the one where it was actually meant to be. This created quite a confusion in the beginning and has taken some getting used to. And finally, it was not able to open all RTF files properly. I have not been able to trace out the reason for the problem. But the same files opened properly in StarOffice and MS Office without problems.

Sure the package needs further working on. But as a first attempt at porting to Linux, WordPerfect more than passes the muster. In fact, I have been using it, along with StarOffice, quite successfully for the past month or so as part of the PCQ Linux initiative 1999.