I know our very own Doug Loudenback is a big Word Perfect fan. If you didn't realize that, check out his masterpiece at www.dougloudenback.com. So, I wanted to start a thread to discuss the positives and negatives of Word Perfect and MS Word. Also, I'd like to hear your opinions on which program is better and why.

Nice, but this discussion of RTF editors should include www.openoffice.org

MS Word all the way baby! Microsoft! Microsoft! Microsoft!

I know our very own Doug Loudenback is a big Word Perfect fan. If you didn't realize that, check out his masterpiece at www.dougloudenback.com (http://www.dougloudenback.com/). So, I wanted to start a thread to discuss the positives and negatives of Word Perfect and MS Word. Also, I'd like to hear your opinions on which program is better and why.
Microsoft Word for me. Here is an example.....I am the editor of a newsletter that is distributed to all the fire stations in OKC, as well as the fire chief, the PIO officer, and all of the employees at fire administration. This newsletter goes out each month, and it is up to me to obtain articles through e-mail, and to put the newsletter together.

Although I have Microsoft Word and Wordperfect on my home computer, the previous newsletter editor put the newsletter together using Wordperfect. So, I started out using Wordperfect, and it seemed to work ok for awhile, however, it got to the point that my copying and pasting was not working properly, and several things kept getting deleted.

So, I saved what I had on a disc and decided to try to work on the newsletter at work, where all I have is Microsoft Word. To start out with, my computer at work would not even open Wordperfect, so I was out of luck. I started all over, using Microsoft Word, and didn't have any problems. To me, Wordperfect is outdated. From now on, all I am going to use is Mocrosoft Word.

I've been busy with other things or I'd have responded here more quickly.

I figure the best way to deal with the issues is to schedule (in some way) a faceoff ... I can do this better than you type of thing. I throw my humble WordPerfect hat into the ring against all you nere-do-well-Word comers. Unless you just want to talk and don't want to "do". I can handle verbage well enough, also, but that's as not a goot a test as is head-on competition, is it? Open Office users should also be free to pariticipte, but they'll need to be able to do sophistated tables and macros to survive the not-just-only-a-typewriter challenges vis a vis tables and macros.

I'll do either - words or action. Who's up to my action challenge? I warn you, it will not be a simulated typewriter kind of thing ... I'll be challenging you on that, but, as well, I'll be challenging you on Word v WordPefect Table and Macro capabilities, if you really want to put your money where your mouth is. As well, I'll be accepting he challenges you put to me. Is that fair?

Maybe an OkcTalk word processor software weekend competition/cookoff would be in order? I'm willing to participate. Who else is willing?

Doug

I've been busy with other things or I'd have responded here more quickly.

I figure the best way to deal with the issues is to schedule (in some way) a faceoff ... I can do this better than you type of thing. I throw my humble WordPerfect hat into the ring against all you nere-do-well-Word comers. Unless you just want to talk and don't want to "do". I can handle verbage well enough, also, but that's as not a goot a test as is head-on competition, is it? Open Office users should also be free to pariticipte, but they'll need to be able to do sophistated tables and macros to survive the not-just-only-a-typewriter challenges vis a vis tables and macros.

I'll do either - words or action. Who's up to my action challenge? I warn you, it will not be a simulated typewriter kind of thing ... I'll be challenging you on that, but, as well, I'll be challenging you on Word v WordPefect Table and Macro capabilities, if you really want to put your money where your mouth is. As well, I'll be accepting he challenges you put to me. Is that fair?

Maybe an OkcTalk word processor software weekend competition/cookoff would be in order? I'm willing to participate. Who else is willing?

Doug

Sounds interesting. You come up with the tasks, and our Word users can try to match them.

By the way, I have no comment on this, as I've never used Word Perfect. Boy, you can tell I'm a young pup! :)

I use both Open Office and Microsoft Word. To me, the issue isn't which works better. The real issue is cost. If Open Office, which is an office suite free to anyone who wishes to download the software (the developers rely on donations, and are part of the open source community, mostly Linux developers).

Microsoft Office, on the other hand, is exuberantly priced. You can get the Student-Teacher edition for $149, but you must provide proof of being a student. Aside from that discount, MS Office is a whopping $399, priced out of the range of the average home user, who is stuck using the useless generic Microsoft Works Word Processor.

Corel Word Perfect, along with other Corel office software, is much less expensive than its Microsoft counterpart. And, its features, UI and document flexibility are just as useful and innovative as MS Office. But Open Office 2 has just been released, and that may give both Corel and Microsoft a run for their money.

Well, I don't really know how to start ... and, frankly, I don't know how many people care about this sort of thing since they are likely happy with what they have, but here's a 1st stab ...

Aside from "regular" word processing issues, one element which sets the better word processors apart from the "typewriter" kind is the ability to compose very very powerful macros. Another such element is the ability to create tables which basically emulate what a spreasheet program can do, and I mean that quite seriously.

Today, I'll start with macros. A good bit of the information at this part of my website, http://www.dougloudenback.com/wp.htm, is devoted to macros. There, you can read on-line or download my "Common Person's WordPerfect Macro Manual", wherein I attempt to pass on some of what I've learned about such things. Several macros are available there for free download.

Macros aren't just used for automating document assembly, or speeding-up functions you do very often, whether the functions be a particular kind of formatting, or whatever. In such senses, macros are pretty much like player pianos.

But, a robust macro program goes well beyond being a player piano. One such example, available for free download, is Math.wcm, a math and date calculator which works within WordPerfect. Here is a gif animation as to what it does:
http://www.dougloudenback.com/wp/math.gif

Now, I'll leave it to the MS Word people to say whether such a thing is doable in Word ... I'd suppose that it would be, but I don't know, nor do I known if anyone knows how. I'd really be amazed, however, if such things were possible in the open office products. But, I'll wait to be enlightened, if I'm mistaken. I'll add that, unlike MS Word macros, WordPerfect macros are not vulnerable to virus's ... or, at least, I'm not aware of a single reported instance of the same.

Anyone?