Before Windows hit personal computers, Corel WordPerfect was the most popular word processor around. Despite the advances of Microsoft Office it's still going strong and this latest version offers plenty of very attractive features.

WordPerfect Office 12 comes with the WordPerfect word processor and Quattro Pro for spreadsheets and Presentations, which is similar to PowerPoint. The observant will immediately notice the omission of an equivalent for Outlook or Lotus Organizer. This is disappointing as Outlook isn't just contained in the Office package for email, it can be extremely useful for self organisation too.

On first appearances there is little to distinguish WordPerfect from other word processors. Digging a little deeper, though, reveals some interesting and useful extras such as the Reveal Codes option. This shows all the formatting that has been applied to a body of text and is useful to determine why a document is not looking as it should. You can also check spelling and grammar as you type, but not at the same time. Quattro Pro is more like Lotus 123 than Microsoft Excel: worksheet tabs can be in colour to make them more recognisable.

A new feature in the suite is the Workspace manager, which allows you to customise how you want your applications to look and operate. For example, you can start WordPerfect in the most recent WordPerfect 12 mode, or have it appear in the guise of Microsoft Word or the retro WordPerfect 5.1. Similarly, Quattro Pro can appear like Lotus 123 or Quattro Pro 7. Each mode is adjustable,so you can easily find a method of working that suits you best.

On the right-hand-side of the screen is the PerfectExpert, equivalent to the Windows TaskPane. This includes common word-processing tasks. Wizards drive them all, but an Office-style research option isn't available, so it's not useful for homework.

All programs in the suite can export documents directly to the PDF format. The PDF format is very common on the internet and its main advantage is that your document will always appear just as you designed it.

This is a very good office suite with plenty of original features. Even though it's around £100 cheaper than the equivalent version of Microsoft Office, it is still very expensive compared to budget contender Ability Office. If you want a large collection of clip art and fonts though, the price is justified.

Contact: Corel 01628 589 800
www.corel.co.uk