PerfectOffice a Strong Contender

Dave Andrews

WordPerfect's PerfectOffice is a latecomer to the Windows applications suite market, following Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite. But an informal survey of PerfectOffice users indicates that WordPerfect (Orem, UT, (801) 225-5000), Novell's Applications Group, has a strong contender. This is especially so for users who want to integrate several applications in doing a single task.

PerfectOffice includes the WordPerfect 6.1 word processor, the Quattro Pro 6.0 spreadsheet, the Presentations 3.0 presentation-graphics program, the InfoCentral PIM (personal information manager), the Envoy portable document viewing and publishing solution, and a GroupWise client, for E-mail, calendaring, and scheduling clients. A professional version adds the Paradox windows database and AppWar e, a visual development tool. We interviewed seven PerfectOffice users to determine their favorite integration features:

PerfectScript : This task-automation language, which lets users record macro commands across applications without having to learn a programming language such as Visual Basic, was a big hit with users. PerfectOffice, which is similar in its syntax to Microsoft's Visual Basic, also lets you write macro commands from scratch. But several users, such as Bruce Norton, owner of Norton Innovation (Lititz, PA), a VAR and consultancy, said PerfectScript's strength is its record feature that lets you quickly start automating tasks across applications.

Envoy : Users were intrigued by the possibilities of Envoy. It lets you print a document to a portable file format and distribute the file to Mac or Windows PCs users so they can view and annotate the document. "I think Envoy has promise in the area of workgroup collaboration," says Paul Dalton, partner at the law firm Ja ckson & Walker, which has four offices. "With a product like Envoy, you can publish a document, and everyone reads it and can add annotations without touching the original."

DAD (Desktop Application Director) and CUI (Common User Interface) : DAD gives users quick access to PerfectOffice applications, and users said the CUI helps cut down on training.

Network integration : Users liked the integration of PerfectOffice with NetWare, saying that installation over the network was easy. The GroupWise client provides a single electronic inbox for calendar, E-mail, and schedule items for GroupWise installations.

Some users eagerly anticipate the further network integration that WordPerfect is planning for future PerfectOffice versions. These include integration of GroupWise with NetWare's Directory Services, integration of the InfoCentral calendar with that of GroupWise, and PerfectOffice Select, a CD-ROM of WordPerfect and third-party applications that is due to ship this spring and that will let users select--and pay for--only the applications they need.