WordPerfect

WordPerfect is a word processing application owned by Corel with a long history on multiple personal computer platforms.

The program was originally developed under contract at Brigham Young University for use on a Data General minicomputer in 1979. The authors retained the rights to the program, forming Satellite Systems International (SSI) to sell it under the name WordPerfect in 1980. A port to DOS followed in 1982 and several greatly updated versions quickly followed. The application's feature list was considerably more advanced than contemporary DOS applications like WordStar, and it rapidly displaced most other systems, especially after the 4.2 release in 1986. By release 5.1 in 1989, WordPerfect had become a standard in the DOS market.

At the height of its popularity in the 1980s it was a dominant player in the word processor market, but has long since been eclipsed in number of users by Microsoft Word. While best known in its DOS and Microsoft Windows versions, its early popularity was based partly on its availability for a wide variety of computers and operating systems, including Mac OS, Linux, the Apple IIe, a separate version for the Apple IIgs, most popular versions of Unix, VMS, Data General, System/370, AmigaOS, Atari ST, OS/2, OS/400, and NeXTSTEP.

The common file name extension of WordPerfect document files is. Older versions of WordPerfect also used file extensions  and originally no extension at all.

History
Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University (BYU) graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General minicomputer system in 1979. Bastian and Ashton kept the rights to the WordPerfect software they produced. The two founded Satellite Systems International, Inc. of Orem, Utah to market the program to other Data General users. WordPerfect 1.0 represented a significant departure from the previous Wang standard for word processing.

In 1982 the developers ported the program to the IBM PC as WordPerfect 2.20, continuing the version numbering of the Data General series.

The program's popularity took off with the introduction of WordPerfect 4.2 in 1986, with automatic paragraph numbering (important to law offices), and automatic numbering and placement of footnotes (important to law offices and academics). WordPerfect 4.2 became the first program to overtake the original market leader (WordStar, the leading word processing program) in a major application category on the DOS platform.

On 6 November 1989, WordPerfect Corporation released the program's most successful version ever, WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, which was the first version to include (text based) Macintosh-style, CUA-style, pull-down menus to supplement the traditional function key combinations, as well as support for tables, a spreadsheet-like feature. The data format used by WordPerfect 5.1 was, for years, the most common word processing file format in the world. All word processors could read (and convert) that format, and many conferences and magazines insisted that people ship their documents in 5.1 format.

Unlike previous DOS versions, WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS could switch between its traditional text-based editing mode and a graphical editing mode that showed the document as it would print out known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), including fonts and text effects like bold, underline, and italics. The previous text-based versions used different colors or text color inversions to indicate various markups, and (starting with version 5.0) used a graphic mode only for an uneditable print preview that used generic fonts rather than the actual fonts that appeared on the printed page.

Key characteristics
To this day, WordPerfect's three major characteristics that have differentiated it from other market-leading word processors are its streaming code architecture, its Reveal Codes feature, and its unusually user-friendly macro/scripting language, PerfectScript.

The ease of use of tools like 'Merge' (combine form documents with data from any data source), 'Print as booklet' and tables (with spreadsheet capabilities and possibility to generate graphs) are also notable.

The concept of the WordPerfect document format allows continuous extending of functionality without jeopardizing backward and forward compatibility. Despite the fact that the newer version is extremely rich in functionality, WordPerfect X5 documents are fully compatible with WordPerfect 6.0a documents in both directions. The older program simply ignores the 'unknown' property while rendering the known elements of the document. WordPerfect users were never forced to upgrade for compatibility reasons for more than two decades.

Streaming code architecture
A key to WordPerfect's design is its streaming code architecture that parallels the formatting features of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets. Documents are created much the same way that raw HTML pages are written, with text interspersed by tags (called "codes") that trigger treatment of data until a corresponding closing tag is encountered, at which point the settings active to the point of the opening tag resume control. As with HTML, tags can be nested. Some data structures are treated as objects within the stream as with HTML's treatment of graphic images, e.g., footnotes and styles, but the bulk of a WordPerfect document's data and formatting codes appear as a single continuous stream. A difference between HTML tags and WordPerfect codes is that HTML codes can all be expressed as a string of plain text characters delimited by greater-than and less-than characters, e.g. &lt;strong&gt;text&lt;/strong&gt; whereas WordPerfect formatting codes consist of hexadecimal values.

Styles and style libraries
The addition of styles and style libraries in WP 5.0 provided greatly increased power and flexibility in formatting documents, while maintaining the streaming-code architecture of earlier versions. Prior to that, WordPerfect's only use of styles (a particular type of programming object) was the Opening Style, which contained the default settings for a document.

After the purchase of the desktop publishing program Ventura, Corel enhanced the WordPerfect styles editor and styles behavior with the majority of Ventura's capabilities. This improved the usability and performance of graphic elements like text boxes, document styles, footer and header styles.

Since WordPerfect has been enriched with properties from CorelDraw Graphics suite, graphic styles are editable. The Graphics Styles editor enables customizing the appearance of boxes, borders, lines and fills and store the customized design for reuse. The possibilities include patterns and color gradients for fills; corner, endpoint, pen-type and thickness for lines. Box styles can be used as container style, including a border, lines, fill, text and caption; each with its separate style. A text box style shows that WordPerfect cascades its styles.

Around the same time Corel included WordPerfect, with its full functionality, in CorelDraw Graphics Suite as the text editor.

Reveal codes
The Reveal Codes feature is a second editing screen that can be toggled open and closed at the bottom of the main editing screen. Text is displayed in Reveal Codes interspersed with tags and the occasional objects, with the tags and objects represented by named tokens. The scheme makes it far easier to untangle coding messes than with styles-based word processors, and object tokens can be clicked with a pointing device to directly open the configuration editor for the particular object type, e.g. clicking on a style token brings up the style editor with the particular style type displayed. Because of their style dependencies, efforts to create the equivalent of Reveal Codes in other word processors have produced dissimilar results. Note that WordPerfect had this feature already in its DOS incarnations: it could be brought forward by pressing the keys Alt and F3 together.

Macro languages
WordPerfect for DOS was notable for its Alt-keystroke macro facility, which was expanded with the addition of macro libraries in WP 5.0 that also allowed for Ctrl-keystroke macros, and remapping of any key as a macro. This enabled any sequence of keystrokes to be recorded, saved, edited, and recalled. Macros could examine system data, make decisions, be chained together, and operate recursively until a defined 'stop' condition was met. This capability provided an amazingly powerful way to rearrange data and formatting codes within a document, where the same sequence of actions needed to be performed repetitively, e.g., for tabular data. Macros can also be edited using WordPerfect Program Editor. This facility, however, could not be ported easily to the subsequent Windows versions.

A new and even more powerful interpreted token-based macro recording and scripting language was introduced for both DOS and Windows 6.0 versions, and that became the basis of the language named PerfectScript in later versions. PerfectScript has remained the mainstay scripting language for WordPerfect users ever since. PerfectScript was designed specifically to be user-friendly, thus avoiding far less user-friendly methods of scripting languages implemented on other word processing programs that require education in advanced programming concepts such as Object Oriented Programming in order to produce useful yet sophisticated and powerful macros.

An important property of WordPerfect macros is that they are not embedded in a document. As a result, WordPerfect is not prone to macro viruses or malware, unlike MS Word. Despite the term "macro", the language has hundreds of commands and functions and in fact creates full-fledged programs resident on and executed on the user's computer. In WPDOS 6 the source code is generated using the same interface used to edit documents. A WordPerfect macro can create or modify a document or perform tasks such as displaying results of a calculation such as taking a date input, adding a specific number of days and displaying the new date in a dialog box. Documents created or edited by a WordPerfect macro are no different from those produced by manual input; the macros simply improve efficiency or automate repetitive tasks and also enabled creating content-rich document types which would hardly be feasible manually.

What makes the PerfectScript macro language especially versatile is its ability to deploy every function that exists in the entire office suite; no matter if that function was designed for WordPerfect, Quattro Pro or Presentations. The macro development wizard presents and explains all of these functions. The number of functions available through PerfectScript is unparalleled in the office market.

On top of the functions available in the main components of the office suite, PerfectScript also provides the user with tools to build dialogs and forms. Widgets like buttons, input fields, drop-down lists and labels are easily combined to build user friendly interfaces to custom office applications. An example: a Dutch housing company (VZOS, Den Haag, several thousands of apartments) had its mutation administration build with WordPerfect.

Beginning with WordPerfect Office 10, the suite also included the Microsoft Office Visual Basic macro language as an alternative, meant to improve compatibility of the suite with Microsoft Office documents.

Function keys
Like its mid-1980s competitor, MultiMate, WordPerfect used almost every possible combination of function keys with Ctrl, Alt, and Shift modifiers. This was in contrast to early versions of WordStar, which used only Ctrl, in conjunction with traditional typing keys. Many people still know and use the function key combinations from the DOS version, which were originally designed for Data General Dasher VDUs that supported two groups of five plain, shift, control, and control shift function keys. This was translated to the layout of the 1981 IBM PC keyboard, with two columns of function keys at the left end of the keyboard, but worked even better with the 1984 PC AT keyboard with three groups of four function keys across the top of the keyboard. With the 1981 PC keyboard, the Tab key and the related F4 (Indent) functions were adjacent. This plethora of keystroke possibilities, combined with the developers' wish to keep the user interface free of "clutter" such as on-screen menus, made it necessary for most users to use a keyboard template showing each function. WordPerfect used F3 instead of F1 for Help, F1 instead of Esc for Cancel, and Esc for Repeat (though a configuration option in later versions allowed these functions to be rotated to locations that later became more standard).

Printer drivers
WordPerfect for DOS shipped with an impressive array of printer drivers—a feature that played an important role in its adoption—and also shipped with a printer driver editor called PTR, which features a flexible macro language and allows technically inclined users to customize and create printer drivers.

Internally, WordPerfect used an extensive WordPerfect character set as its internal code. The precise meaning of the characters, although clearly defined and documented, can be overridden in its customizable printer drivers with PTR.

The relationship between different type faces and styles, and between them and the various sections in the WordPerfect character set, were also described in the printer drivers and can be customized through PTR.

An interesting feature of the DOS 5.0 version was its Type-Through feature. It allowed a user with certain compatible printers to use Word Perfect as a conventional typewriter. This functionality was removed in the DOS 5.1 version. (Word Perfect Made Easy, Mincberg, 1990, p485)

WordPerfect Library/Office utilities
WordPerfect Corporation produced a variety of ancillary and spin-off products. WordPerfect Library, introduced in 1986 and later renamed WordPerfect Office (not to be confused with Corel's Windows office suite of the same name), was a package of DOS network and stand-alone utility software for use with WordPerfect, primarily developed for offices running Novell NetWare. The package included a DOS menu shell and file manager, programmable macros, a source code and hex editor, calendar, and a general purpose flat file database program that could be used as the data file for a merge in WordPerfect and as a contact manager.

After Novell acquired WordPerfect Corporation, it incorporated many of these utilities into Novell GroupWise.

LetterPerfect
In 1990 WordPerfect Corporation also offered LetterPerfect, which was a reduced-functionality version of WP-DOS 5.1 intended for use on less-capable hardware such as the laptops of the day, and as an entry-level product for students and home users; the name (but not the code) was purchased from a small Missouri company that had produced a basic word processor for early Atari computers. LP did not support macros, tables, labels, sorting, equation editing or styles. It sold for about US$100 but did not catch on and was soon discontinued.

History
WordPerfect was late in coming to market with a Windows version. The first mature version, WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows, was released in November 1992. Prior to that, there was a WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows, introduced a year earlier. That version had to be installed from DOS and was largely unpopular due to serious stability issues. By the time WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows was introduced, Microsoft Word for Windows version 2 had been on the market for over a year and had received its third interim release, v2.0c.

WordPerfect's function-key-centered user interface did not adapt well to the new paradigm of mouse and pull-down menus, especially with many of WordPerfect's standard key combinations pre-empted by incompatible keyboard shortcuts that Windows itself used; for example, Alt-F4 became Exit Program, as opposed to WordPerfect's Block Text. The DOS version's impressive arsenal of finely tuned printer drivers was also rendered obsolete by Windows' use of its own printer device drivers.

Internally, WordPerfect for Windows still used the WordPerfect character set. This caused WordPerfect for Windows to be unable to support some languages that were natively supported by Windows.

WordPerfect Office Suite
WordPerfect became part of an office suite when the company entered into a co-licensing agreement with Borland Software Corporation in 1993. The offerings were marketed as Borland Office, containing Windows versions of WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Borland Paradox, and a LAN-based groupware package called WordPerfect Office (not to be confused with the complete applications suite of the same name later marketed by Corel). Originally based on the WordPerfect Library for DOS, the Novell / WordPerfect Office suite was integrated by 'middleware'. The most important 'middleware'-suite, still active in current versions of WordPerfect Office, is called PerfectFit (developed by WordPerfect). The other 'middleware' (developed by Novell) was called AppWare.

Novell buys WordPerfect Company
The WordPerfect product line was sold twice, first to Novell in June 1994, who then sold it to Corel in January 1996. However, Novell kept the WordPerfect Office technology, incorporating it into its GroupWise messaging and collaboration product.

Microsoft vs Novell
Compounding WordPerfect's troubles were issues associated with the release of the first 32-bit version, WordPerfect 7, intended for use on Windows 95. In the lawsuit 'Novell v. Microsoft', Novell argued that these problems were due to anti competitive acts by Microsoft.

While WordPerfect 7 contained notable improvements over the 16-bit WordPerfect for Windows 6.1, it was released in May 1996, nine months after the introduction of Windows 95 and Microsoft Office 95 (including Word 95). The initial release suffered from notable stability problems. WordPerfect 7 also did not have a Microsoft "Designed for Windows 95" logo. This was important to Windows 95 software purchasers as Microsoft set standards for application design, behavior, and interaction with the operating system. To make matters worse, the original release of WordPerfect 7 was incompatible with Windows NT, hindering its adoption in academia. The "NT Enabled" version of WordPerfect 7, which Corel considered to be Service Pack 2, was not available until Q1-1997, over six months after the introduction of Windows NT 4.0, a year and a half after the introduction of Office 95 (which supported Windows NT out of the box), and shortly after the introduction of Office 97.

Market share
While WordPerfect dominated the DOS market, Microsoft shifted its attention toward a Windows version of Word; after Windows 3.0 was introduced, Word's market share began to grow at an extraordinary rate. A Windows version of WordPerfect was not introduced until nearly two years after Windows 3.0, and was met with poor reviews. Word also benefited from being included in an integrated office suite package much sooner than WordPerfect.

Application integration and middleware
While Microsoft offered something that looked like a fully integrated office suite in Microsoft Office, a common complaint about early Windows versions of WordPerfect Office was that it looked like a collection of separate applications from different vendors cobbled together, with inconsistent user interfaces from one application to another. In fact, enabling applications from various software developers to work together on every platform was part of the Novell strategy. Novell had acquired WordPerfect for Windows from WordPerfect Corporation, Paradox from Borland, and various peripheral utilities from other companies and had started to evangelize the Novell 'middleware' - Appware - as a means for others to run their programs on every operating system. This 'middleware' strategy would make software vendors and customers independent from operating system vendors, like Microsoft, thus posing a real threat.

Contrary to Microsoft with its MS Office however, starting with WordPerfect Office 9, Corel successfully integrated the components of WordPerfect Office almost seamlessly. PerfectScript and the middleware PerfectFit play the major role here. Elements of applications like CorelDraw and Ventura desktop publishing were also integrated and enriched the document format.

Faithful customers
Among the remaining avid users of WordPerfect are many law firms and academics, who favor WordPerfect features such as macros and reveal codes, the ability to access a large range of formatting options such as left-right block indent directly with key combinations rather than having to click through several layers of submenus as MS Word often requires, the fact that the user interface has stayed almost identical from WPWin 6 through WP X5 (2010) and that file formats have not changed, as incompatible new formats would require keeping both obsolete software versions and obsolete hardware around just to access a few old documents. Corel now caters to these markets, with, for example, a major sale to the United States Department of Justice in 2005. A related factor is that WordPerfect Corporation was particularly responsive to feature requests from the legal profession, incorporating many features particularly useful to that niche market and those features have been continued in subsequent versions usually directly accessible with key combinations.

Novell v. Microsoft Antitrust lawsuit
In November 2004, Novell filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive behavior (such as tying Word to sales of Windows) that Novell claims led to loss of WordPerfect market share. That lawsuit, after several delays, was closed  in July 2012. Novell filed an appeal against the judgment in November 2012.

The documents filed in this lawsuit display abundant information on the essence, importance, history and development of WordPerfect.

Windows shell namespaces, were, and continue to be, a big part of the case.

Corel WordPerfect
Since its acquisition by Corel, WordPerfect for Windows has officially been known as Corel WordPerfect. Unlike MS-Word, it is not available as a standalone product and is only available as part of WordPerfect Office, which includes the Quattro Pro spreadsheet and Corel Presentations programs.

Unicode and Asian language editing
WordPerfect lacks support for Unicode, which limits its usefulness in many markets outside North America and Western Europe. Despite pleas from long-time users, this feature has not yet been implemented.

For users in WordPerfect's traditional markets, the inability to deal with complex character sets, such as Asian language scripts, can cause difficulty when working on documents containing those characters. However, later versions have provided better compliance with interface conventions, file compatibility, and even Word interface emulation.

However, WordPerfect X4 was reported to be able to import IPA character set, and copy and paste works as long as the pastes into WP are done via Paste Special > Unicode command. Publishing to PDF from WordPerfect embeds the WP-phonetic font together with the Unicode-compatible font.

Alternatively, Corel Office supports Unicode.

"Classic Mode"
Corel added "Classic Mode" in WordPerfect 11. Although this displays the "classic" cyan Courier text on medium blue background, it is not a true emulation of the DOS version. For instance, WP-DOS 5.x macros literally recorded keystrokes. WP-DOS 6 and WPWin record functionality instead. As an example, a WP-DOS 5 macro could search for particular text, turn select-mode on, and then search backward or forward for other text. Everything from the turn-on location to the new location would be highlighted and could then be deleted, copied, replaced, etc. This behavior and functionality has not yet been replicated in any Windows based version of WordPerfect.

WordPerfect for Macintosh
Development of WordPerfect for Macintosh did not run parallel to versions for other operating systems, and used version numbers unconnected to contemporary releases for DOS and Windows. Version 2 was a total rewrite, adhering more closely to Apple's UI guidelines. Version 3 took this further, making extensive use of the technologies Apple introduced in Systems 7.0–7.5, while remaining fast and capable of running well on older machines. Corel released version 3.5 in 1996, followed by the improved version 3.5e (for enhanced) in 1997. It was never updated beyond that, and the product was eventually discontinued. , Corel has reiterated that the company has no plans to further develop WordPerfect for Macintosh (such as creating a native Mac OS X version).

For several years, Corel allowed Mac users to download version 3.5e from their website free of charge, and some Mac users still use this version. The download is still available at the WordPerfect Mac Yahoo! Group, along with the necessary OS 8/9/Classic Updater that slows scroll speed and restores functionality to the Style and Window menus. Like other Mac OS applications of its age, it requires the Classic environment on PowerPC Macs. While Intel Macs do not support Classic, emulators such as SheepShaver, Basilisk II and vMac allow users to run WordPerfect on any Macintosh computer. Users wishing to use a current release of WordPerfect can run the Windows version through Boot Camp or a Windows emulator, and through Darwine or CrossOver Mac with mixed results.

WordPerfect for Atari ST
Like the Macintosh version, development of WordPerfect for the Atari ST did not run parallel to the DOS versions. However the Atari ST version number aligned with contemporary DOS releases. In 1987, WordPerfect Corp. released version 4.1. This was the only Atari version ever released, but numerous patches and updates ensured that the Atari version of WordPerfect ran on all Atari ST, STe, TT, and Falcon computers.

WordPerfect ST differs from the DOS version most notably in speed and number of windows a user can open. On the Atari ST version, a user can open up to four windows (compared to DOS' two) and the application runs three to five times faster than the DOS version (depending on which update or patch is installed). This was possible because WordPerfect for the Atari ST was designed from the ground up and was optimized for the Motorola 68000 processor as well as Atari's GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) operating system.

WordPerfect for the Atari ST retailed at US$395 with a student version for US$99. The price of WordPerfect was significantly higher than most of the other Atari word processors available at the time. Atari Corporation published a version of Microsoft Write (the Atari version of Microsoft Word 1.05 for the Macintosh) for US$129.95 (almost 75% off the suggested retail price of WordPerfect), which did not help WordPerfect's campaign to establish itself as the standard word processor on the Atari platform.

In 1988 WordPerfect threatened to abandon the Atari market after copies of the word processor were found on several pirate bulletin board systems. However, support from the Atari community convinced WordPerfect to reconsider and support for the Atari ST continued, but only from a single developer to fix bugs.

A WordPerfect 5.1 version for the Atari ST was planned and in development but was later cancelled.

WordPerfect for the Amiga
In 1987 WordPerfect was ported to the Amiga 1000 and was upgraded through version 4.1 on the Amiga platform despite rumors of its discontinuation. The company's efforts were not well supported by Amiga users and it did not sell well. Though it could be started from the Workbench or CLI, WordPerfect remained a fundamentally text-oriented program and retained its DOS command structure. Satellite Software received criticism for releasing a non-graphical word processor on a graphically oriented system.

In 1989 WordPerfect Corporation stopped all Amiga development, including work on a version of PlanPerfect, stating that it had lost $800,000 on the computer and could not afford to add Amiga-specific features. After customers stated that they would be satisfied with a DOS-like word processor the company resumed development of only the Amiga version of WordPerfect, but discontinued it in 1992.

WordPerfect for Linux
In 1995, WordPerfect 6.0 was made available for Linux as part of Caldera's internet office package. In late 1997, a newer version was made available for download, but had to be purchased to be activated.

In 1998 Corel released WordPerfect 8.0 for Linux. The full version was sold as a package. A cut-down version was made available for downloading.

Hoping to establish themselves in the nascent commercial Linux market, Corel also developed their own distribution of Linux. This included WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux. Although the Linux distribution was fairly well-received, the response to WordPerfect for Linux varied. Some Linux promoters appreciated the availability of a well-known, mainstream application for the operating system.

Once OpenOffice.org appeared in 1999, there was little demand for a proprietary, closed-source project like WordPerfect. On top of this, WordPerfect 9.0, which was released as part of the WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux package, was not a native Linux application like WP 6-8, but derived from the Windows version using Corel's own version of the Wine compatibility library, and hence had performance problems.

WordPerfect failed to gain a large user base, and as part of Corel's change of strategic direction following a (non-voting) investment by Microsoft, WordPerfect for Linux was discontinued and their Linux distribution was sold to Xandros. In April 2004, Corel re-released WordPerfect 8.1 (the last Linux-native version) with some updates, as a "proof of concept" and to test the Linux market. , WordPerfect for Linux is not available for purchase.

Linux applications may use the  library to convert Word Perfect documents.

Versions
WordPerfect 9 and newer is bundled with the WordPerfect Office suite and cannot be purchased separately.

Known versions for SUN include 6.0, requiring SunOS or Solaris 2, year of release unknown.

Known versions for IBM System/370 include 4.2, released 1988.

Known versions for the DEC Rainbow 100 include version (?), released November 1983.

In addition, versions of WordPerfect have also been available for Apricot, DEC Rainbow, Tandy 2000, TI Professional, Victor 9000, and Zenith Z-100 systems, as well as around 30 flavors of Unix, including AT&T, NCR, SCO Xenix, Microport Unix, DEC Ultrix, Pyramid Tech Unix, Tru64, AIX, Motorola 8000, and HP9000, SGI IRIX and Sun-3.

Current versions
On January 17, 2006, Corel announced WordPerfect X3. Corel is an original member of the OASIS Technical Committee on the OpenDocument Format, and Paul Langille, a senior Corel developer, is one of the original four authors of the OpenDocument specification.

In January 2006, subscribers to Corel's electronic newsletter were informed that WordPerfect 13 was scheduled for release later in 2006. The subsequent release of X3 (identified as "13" internally and in registry entries) has been met with generally positive reviews, due to new features including a unique PDF import capability, metadata removal tools, integrated search and online resources and other features.

Version X3 was described by CNET in January, 2006 as a "winner", "a feature-packed productivity suite that's just as easy to use — and in many ways more innovative than — industry-goliath Microsoft Office 2003." CNET went on to describe X3 as "a solid upgrade for long-time users", but that "Die-hard Microsoft fans may want to wait to see what Redmond has up its sleeve with the radical changes expected within the upcoming Microsoft Office 12."

While the notable if incremental enhancements of WordPerfect Office X3 have been well received by reviewers, a number of online forums have voiced concern about the future direction of WordPerfect, with long-time users complaining about certain usability and functionality issues that users have been asking to have fixed for the last few release versions.

Although the released version of X3 at the time did not support the OOXML or OpenDocument formats, a beta was released that supported both.

Reports surfaced late in January 2006 that Apple's iWork had leapfrogged WordPerfect Office as the leading alternative to Microsoft Office. This claim was soon debunked after industry analyst Joe Wilcox described JupiterResearch usage surveys that showed WordPerfect as the No. 2 office suite behind Microsoft Office in the consumer, small and medium businesses, and enterprise markets with a roughly 15 percent share in each market.

In April 2008 Corel released their WordPerfect Office X4 office suite containing the new X4 version of WordPerfect which includes support for PDF editing, OpenDocument and Office Open XML. However, X4 does not include support for editing PDF's containing images in JPEG2000 format, a format used by Adobe Acrobat 9.

In March 2010 Corel released their WordPerfect Office X5 office suite, which contains the new X5 version of WordPerfect. This version includes improved support for PDF, Microsoft Office 2007, OpenDocument, and Office Open XML. The new release includes integration with Microsoft SharePoint and other web services geared towards government and business users.

In April 2012 Corel released their WordPerfect Office X6 office suite, which contains the new X6 version of WordPerfect. The new release adds multi-document/monitor support, new macros, Windows 8 preview support, and an eBook publisher.

Reception
PC Magazine stated in March 1983 that "WordPerfect is very impressive, a more than full-featured program with a few truly state-of-the-art goodies tucked into the package". It cited WordPerfect's inclusion of mail merge, footnotes, and macros—all missing from WordStar—as well as "virtually every ... feature that one ought to expect from a higher-priced program" including find-and-replace, bold and underline display, and automatic paragraph reflow. BYTE in December 1984 noted the application's built-in print buffer, ability to show bold, underline, and centered text, and extensive math capabilities. It criticized the quality of the spell checker and difficult tab settings, but concluded that "its powerful capabilities far outweigh the problems mentioned". Compute! called WordPerfect "excellent". It especially praised the clean, uncluttered screen and fast spell checker.