[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Back in 286/386 days I used to like WP 10x as much as Word.

However, WP did an upgrade (this is a lot of years ago) and I HATED the upgrade.

Over that same period, Word became much easier to use, and lots more flexible. IMO.

Can you even get WP any more...?

However....as a matter of sending docs back and forth and the interoperability with other MSFT applications....I believe if all things were equal, meaning you’d have to go buy WP at the same price you’d have to buy Word....you’d want to buy and use Word.

[samtheman]

Back in 286/386 days I used to like WP 10x as much as Word.

However, WP did an upgrade (this is a lot of years ago) and I HATED the upgrade.

Over that same period, Word became much easier to use, and lots more flexible. IMO.

---

I remember that upgrade and I remember the same experience of not liking it and switching to Word as a result.

[NYAmerican]

“Back in 286/386 days”

You think YOU are old? Well, I used to work for a Company called Wang Laboratories, generally credited for inventing Word Processing, years before the advent of the personal computer. I remember the when the 286/286 revolution spelled doom for Wang..... I’m not boasting, my arthritis flares up when I boast......

[goldbux]

You think yer old-timers!? Listen, sonny[s], I used to write code for computers with vacuum tubes in them. UNIVAC 1105 / (1964) / Basic Assembly Language (BAL) – not to be confused with BASIC that came out of Dartmouth much later.

I wrote code to analyze classified satellite data (CDC 6600) – in a building so secret it was not even listed in Lockheed's comprehensive internal phone directory – before there were any GPS sytems.

I learned LISP from the author himself, John McCarthy.

I wrote part of the operating system & many applications for the first full hospital information system – Spectra 2000 – in assembly code for a Schlumberger EMR 6135. I debugged that system for many months – correcting, inter alia, errors in the daily deceased patient list – working the graveyard shift at a hospital in an office next to the morgue.

I wrote / analyzed / debugged programs in FORTRAN / ALGOL / SAIL, & installed 16-bit Nova & Eclipse machines, which we had to boot up using fanfold paper tape.

I was the point man on the pioneer International Systems Engineering troubleshooting team that analyzed & solved multiple problems in the four-NOVA DG/DAC system controlling the flow of rail cars in the Santa Fe railyard terminus in Barstow.

I met the Peterson brothers (Salt Lake City & Sandy, Utah) who founded WordPerfect, & helped them sell their product as a third-party app on DG gear.

I liked WP as the best of all word processors right from the beginning, & agitated for it as the standard at a few companies. I finally switched to Word for compatibility with the overwhelming # of Word documents.

I became adept at MultiPlan long before it grew into Excel.

I loaned Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog) a Victor 9000 machine so he could experiment with its newfangled graphics.

I wrote LISP fragments to manipulate wireframe elements of AutoCAD drawings, using the AutoLISP interpreter.

I hired the gentleman who is now the Autodesk VP of Product, worldwide, responsible for > $2 Billion in sales.

This thread might just persuade me to experiment with WordPerfect again, out of nostalgia, & well-deserved contempt for everything MSFT.

Computers will make yer lives easier!

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

WP 5 and 7 were like heaven. Easy to use. Microsoft sucks.