Word Perfect (and other retro things)

I love, love, love WordPerfect. I have a more recent version, although the 5 series was probably the pinnacle of the software, a good balance between usability and features.

As long as Word fails to include a true "reveal codes" (you can get some, but not all, codes revealed), I will be a loyal WordPerfect user.

JD

WordPerfect has no viruses

Aahh, the blue screen of WordPerfect 5.

That's been a while.

I don't ever expect to see it again, but I know I have a dodgy floppy with WordPerfect 4 somewhere under my old bed in my old room at my mum's house.

Black screeen, that one.

Now I'm getting all nostalgic.

Word ate my novel.
I'm still breaking out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.

I will wear lycra running shorts and give up chocolate before I'll use it again. And trust when I say you so don't want to see that.

I've been using Word Perfect for about twenty years, or at least, it seems like that. I have the current version, but only under duress. In fact, I liked the versions that ran with Windows 3.1 the best, because there was a search feature that for years you couldn't duplicate with any other software. Now you can, but it costs several hundred dollars, and Word Perfect had it for free. You could search any string through an entire index of files, and it would not only find the filename(s) for you of every file in which the word appeared in the text; it would also allow you to view these files, without having to open them, at the precise point where the word occurred, and in every subsequent reference. You could also open it, if you wanted.

I wrote two nonfiction books using this neat little routine, indexing eight hundred files or more with it. But the subsequent versions of Windows wouldn't let it work properly.

I don't have an old version of wordperfect, but I do run the new one in 5.1 mode. I love it.

I'm on my second version of WP (12) and have no intention of ever changing to another program.

DOS WordPerfect 5.1 ruled! One of the first PC word processors I really liked. I don't have it anymore...

I really wish I could find a word processor like WP5.1 that would have full support for Unicode and OpenDocument and its styles, so that I could get something done and still process the text further with the usual tools. I mean, WP5.1 was a relic from the days when people used word processors for absolutely outlandish things like typing text. The current WYSIWYG word processors just make you worry all the time about what the text looks like.

I know I held out for a long time, persisting all through college with my WordPerfect loyalty.

But converting my files every time I went to use the printers at the campus computer labs got REALLY old, and I caved.

**Looking back at lovely WordPerfect from the bleak landscape of MSWord-ville**

Bought Word Perfect X3 through the college a month a go.

I *have* to use Word at work and hate every second of it, especially when it decides how the page should be formatted instead of what I've spent two hours setting up.

Besides, when I have to send stuff to people who only use Word, I either just convert to a .rtf file or if worse comes to worst, WP X3 lets me save it as a Word Document.

Ha! Someone recently told me I was the only person on earth still using WP. I'm glad I'm not. I love it.

I never owned WP 5.1 for DOS. It was incredibly expensive. But I've got a (free) copy of every version of WP for Windows up through version 12. Unfortunately, I've had to use MS Word for every job I've had, so it never made much sense to learn two word processors.

I'm presently on WP10, but have 12 in the wings waiting until I have sufficient time to load it ("loading," to me, entails customizing my toolbar and redoing all my macros, which takes awhile. ) I know how to use Word, but I HATE it. I do everything in WP--including downloading our editor's Track Changes Word files into WP to make corrections.

Yep, I go all the way back to WP for DOS 4.2, if you can believe it! 5.1 was the best program ever, though, and I still have it running on an old 486 computer in the corner of my office.

I said goodbye to Word years ago. OpenOffice all the way. And I just, finally, installed Ubuntu Linux on my desktop computer at home, so there ain't a single piece of Microsoft software anywhere near that machine. w00t!

heyjude said:

Ha! Someone recently told me I was the only person on earth still using WP. I'm glad I'm not. I love it.

Click to expand...

I betcha there are a lot of people in law offices around the world still using WP5.1 for DOS. I know of some in my area. Sure, they have new computers with new word processors, but many of them grew up on good ol' WP on DOS which ran like lightning on a 386 and still does everything they need it to do.

I actually just discovered the Word Perfect CD that came with my Dell -- I'm fairly sure it's a newer version, but I remember 5. I wrote many elementary school papers on it.

I don't mind Word, but WP was always very good to me.

WP

I have WordPerfect and love it. But no retro. I keep up with WP versions, and I have WP X3. I'm now doing almost all my writing on it for a couple of reasons, one of which is that I can easily add a toolbar with links to every other program I use, and with the free WordPerfect Lightning installed, I also have a handy note system to use along with the word processor itself. http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1171405162003

And when I'm just typing away, I put WP into 5.1 mode and use the blue screen.

But I'm a word processor junkie. I also have Word, OpenOffice, Atlantis, AbiWord, and half a dozen other word processors on my computer.

But I do believe the two best word processors even built were WordStar, and Word 5.1.

I'm glad to find I'm not the only one holding on to WordPefect like grim death. I don't hate Word, but I don't much care for it, either.

Looooove WP! Oh how I hate Word. I have all three, though. WP 12, Word, and Open Office, which is nifty, too.

WordPerfect X3 for me, although I've also got older versions (7, 9, and 12) hanging around on disks. I absolutely hate Word and use it only at work, where I have no choice. I will never give up my WordPerfect.

I used WordPerfect 7 on this really old, clunky computer that I used to have before I bought my first notebook. In fact, the original draft of my first novel was a WordPerfect document, and I had password-protected it. Unfortunately, I forgot my password! It took me ages to remember it and get to my precious novel.

When I got my notebook, I made the horrible mistake of purchasing MS Office 2003 to go with it. It was the student edition, so slightly cheaper, but at the time I wasn't aware of such boons as OpenOffice.org, which I discovered about a year and a half after getting that notebook.

When I ordered my shiny new Dell last month, I didn't bother getting any word processing software. I just downloaded OpenOffice.org and was ready to go.

I have found memories of WP 7. It was better than Word 2003, for sure (no annoying "office assistant") and a perfectly good word processor. My friend still uses WP (I can't recall the version). It's interesting how Corel is still "out there", somewhere, but I don't see it as often as I do Microsoft (probably because MS likes to bundle software like there's no tomorrow).

WP 12 came bundled with the Lenovo laptop I just purchased. It is, indeed, a hoot to set it to WP 5.1 mode -- the first thing I did was turn on Reveal Codes. (I lived in Reveal Codes when I was doing fanzine layout in WP 5.1. *mmm* happy memories...)

I've never worked with Word Perfect; I'd used MS Word from from 2.0 onwards. Before that: typewriters. But I know quite a few people who use WP, to the extent that I switched to Open Office, just so that I could read their files (Word is really bad at reading WP-files!).