WordPerfect vs Word- Too Bad There's No WP for Mac

Having used both WordPerfect and Word for personal and professional uses, WordPerfect is the better word processor and desktop publisher of the two, despite Word’s dominance in the market place. I switched over to Word and Office mainly because of compatibility, i.e., WordPerfect’s inability to convert complex Office documents correctly, a weakness it still suffers from. That’s too bad because it’s another case of the best product not being the market leader; and it’s not how competition is supposed to work. But the reality is that since Microsoft Office is so prevalent, if one wants to compete with it, one has to build software that can convert Office documents without a hitch. Without that ability, one might as well not even show up at the ballpark.

That said, it’s also too bad Corel dropped support for the Mac. It stopped making WordPerfect for the Mac long ago and finally dropped Corel Draw support a few years back. It would be interesting if Corel would bring back Mac support for its products. The resurgence of the Mac on the Intel CPU might open an otherwise closed opportunity for Corel to grab market share, at least in the word processor market. I can’t comment about Quattro Pro or Paradox and their abilities to substitute for Excel and Access; it’s been too long since I used either of them.

I do have a copy of WordPerfect 9 on my Windows PC. I’d probably use it to write with, but I don’t use the PC for writing at all. Ergonomics on my Macs are so much better I always use them, and I’ve tried all kinds of screen and keyboard setups on the PC. Of course, now that I’m on the Mac platform, WordPerfect is not an option because it's not available.

Corel might want to think about changing that.