MS Word or WordPerfect?

[Pegasus]

I grew up with WordPerfect, but I used Word more in college and now I'm used to it. Apparently some people have strong feelings about the two, because my dad just went through the process of switching things from one to the other because a new supervisor is completely pro-Word and anti-WordPerfect.
Is there a substantial difference? Any recommendation to less-knowledgeable computer users? (Somehow I ended up having neither on this computer and I'm starting classes in January...I've got to get one or the other on here.)

[rich_505]

I've never actually heard of WordPerfect, sorry. I have however used and heard of Microsoft Word & OpenOffice.org, both of which are very good indeed. I currently use Office 2007, mainly for Outlook more than anything else but I do use Word quite often too. I do much prefer Word to any other alternatives that I've used in the past.

[YellowPoofBall]

Originally Posted by Pegasus

I grew up with WordPerfect, but I used Word more in college and now I'm used to it. Apparently some people have strong feelings about the two, because my dad just went through the process of switching things from one to the other because a new supervisor is completely pro-Word and anti-WordPerfect.
Is there a substantial difference? Any recommendation to less-knowledgeable computer users? (Somehow I ended up having neither on this computer and I'm starting classes in January...I've got to get one or the other on here.)

I went through the same thing a few years ago! My boss was a complete Corel junkie and made me convert all of our Word form documents to WordPerfect.

The only differences I noticed were keyboard shortcuts (which I use a lot) and the normal disadvantages of having a noncompatible and less popular format. (Edit: I forgot to add, I'm also not particularly fond of cursoring in WordPerfect. If you click somewhere in the middle of the document, the cursor goes to the exact spot you clicked, even if it's a blank, unused space in the middle of the document.) I'm used to Word as well, but Word for Vista looks like a whole new ballgame. The layout is slightly more complex and some of my favorite shortcuts have been changed. For student use, I'd choose Word over WP, just because if you need to email a document, it's more likely that you'd need to email it in .doc format.

[Fawkesfan1]

I've never used Wordperfect myself, but I've used Word for quite some time. What I can say about Word is this, there are times when it can be a pain . It can sometimes not want to close -- but for the most part, it's a decent enough program to use.

But one of the best things for anyone to do when using Word, is to make sure to save whatever you're doing via password, if possible, since hackers do their best to try and hack into Word.

For the most part, I tend to use Wordpad and Notepad most of the time, but every so often I use Word.

Hopefully someone can tell you the difference between the two products. Good luck .

[LilyDreamsOn]

I used to use Wordperfect, but now I can't get used to it after using Word so often. Between the two, I honestly do prefer Word over Wordperfect. To be honest, though, I still love Open Office the best. It has the same feel as Word, but it opens everything (well, everything I've ever had to open).

[Tiberius]

I've never used Word Perfect, but I have yused Word a lot and I've found it to be a very powerful program. It's easy to pick up the basics, but there are a whole lot of more co,mplex things as well, such as creating indexes and contents automatically.

[Mundungus Fletc]

Originally Posted by LilyDreamsOn

To be honest, though, I still love Open Office the best. It has the same feel as Word, but it opens everything (well, everything I've ever had to open).

I agree - it also has the additional advantage of being free.

[AchelRay]

Urgh... My computer just crashed and I lost ally my WP stuff and now I can't find the installation CD. I installed Word a couple weeks ago and let me tell you, after using WP at home for so long (my dad's, boss's brother or something was one of the founding 3 or something like that... anyway...) and only using Word at school switching over to Word for good is hard. Why aren't 1" margins standard? Especially when you have teachers that measure your margins and everything else for MLA format...

[WitchHunter]

It depends which MS Word you're thinking of. If you plan on getting 2003 or earlier than I don't think there's too much of a difference, but Word 2007 has been completely redesigned. The toolbars have been replaced with "ribbons" that make everything much easier to find, and it has a "live preview" feature that lets you see what a change will look like before you select it (such as font styles and sizes). The only problem you might have is that Word 2007 saves files as .docx by default instead of the original .doc, but if you use the Save As option you can still save as a .doc. You can get Word 2007 from Microsoft's website as a part of Office 2007, the cheapest being the Student version for about $150, or if you have a .edu email adress you can get Office 2007 Ultimate at http://www.theultimatesteal.com/home.asp for about $60. Ultimate has more programs, and usually costs over $500.

[LoveWeasleys]

MS Word all the way. We had WordPerfect in high school and I never liked it. I like the layout of MS Word and I am so used to where everything is now, to have to relearn would be aweful. I have Windows XP so it is not the Vista version of MS Word and from what I have read about Vista I will probably never find out what the new verson of MS Word looks like .

[Bob_Malefoy]

FOr me its Open Office

[HBPhysteria]

Definitely get MS Word. Not because of one being better than the other, but because Word is standardized far beyond WordPerfect. Specially in college. Most of the websites my college uses for students to submit work online requires that you use MS Word. Also, OpenOffice is tempting, but I used it on my old computer and it changes the formatting of your work when you try to convert it into MS Word Format. Save yourself the trouble and just get MS Word.

[Hysteria]

Neither. I use Adobe InDesign. Looks 100% more professional.

[gipro2003]

I definitely prefer MS Word. I really like the 2007 version, I think some very nice changes were made to it, even though it took some getting used to in the beginning after having used the 2003 version for so long.

[MC2456]

MS rocks! I like writing on it, especially when I do stuff like NaNo and fanfictions.

[Wab]

I'm comfortable with both as I've used each in different circumstances.

However due to the bloat that is part of Word (does anyone really need 300 drop-down options?) means that I use either OpenOffice or the stripped down WP in Works.

OO by preference but it's spellcheck isn't working at the moment for some reason.

[Clockworthy]

I have both on my personal computer, but I grew up using MS Word. I like that one better, there's so much you can do.

[Wab]

Originally Posted by HBPhysteria

Definitely get MS Word. Not because of one being better than the other, but because Word is standardized far beyond WordPerfect. Specially in college. Most of the websites my college uses for students to submit work online requires that you use MS Word. Also, OpenOffice is tempting, but I used it on my old computer and it changes the formatting of your work when you try to convert it into MS Word Format. Save yourself the trouble and just get MS Word.

I've never had that problem. Anyway, practically every word processing software available allows you to save files as .doc and .docx.

As an aside my university requires most essays to be posted as .pdf which OpenOffice can do with the click of a button whereas Word requires SmartPDF or the like.