Word v. WordPerfect: word-processing software on trial.Word v. WordPerfect can't be tried in a courtroom. But discovery, examination, and arguments may help lawyers reach a verdict about which word-processing software will be a winner for them. The choice between Microsoft Word A full-featured word processing program for Windows and the Macintosh from Microsoft. Included in the Microsoft application suite, it is a sophisticated program with rudimentary desktop publishing capabilities that has become the most widely used word processing application on the market. and Corel WordPerfect See WordPerfect Office and WordPerfect Corporation. was once governed by the computer platform used. Offices equipped with Macintoshes used Word, and those with PCs--at one time the majority of law offices--used WordPerfect, which became the de facto standard Hardware or software that is widely used, but not endorsed by a standards organization. Contrast with de jure standard. de facto standard - A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, of the legal profession. This is changing, though many still cling to Verb 1. cling to - hold firmly, usually with one's hands; "She clutched my arm when she got scared" hold close, hold tight, clutch hold, take hold - have or hold in one's hands or grip; "Hold this bowl for a moment, please"; "A crazy idea took hold of their original selection. Functionality, user friendliness, reliability, and speed are important to practitioners, but compatibility and support may figure in deliberations. Here are arguments on both sides. Conduct your own trial. Today, "in the plaintiff's world, many small to medium-size firms are using WordPerfect. Sole practitioners and larger firms, corporations, and defense counsel are using Word," said Ed Konieczny, an attorney in Atlanta. "The trend seems to be going to Word. Sole practitioners use it because it comes with the machine they buy." "But to tell the truth," said ATLA ATLA Association of Trial Lawyers of America ATLA American Theological Library Association ATLA American Trial Lawyers Association ATLA Air Transport Licensing Authority (Hong Kong) ATLA Avatar: The Last Airbender Associate General Counsel Jeff White Jeffrey Newman White (born February 19, 1977) is an Australian rules footballer. Making his debut in 1995 with the Fremantle Dockers, he was drafted with the number 1 pick in the 1994 AFL Draft. , "at this point, it's about six versus a half dozen. Since WordPerfect moved to Windows, just about anything you can do in one program, you can accomplish in the other, plus or minus a couple of clicks or keystrokes. When one introduces a new function, the other has been quick to duplicate it in its next version." Software reviews and other published recommendations are pretty evenly split. For example, while the TechnoLawyer Digest @ Award went to Microsoft Word in 1999, voters swung the pendulum in Corel's favor this year.(1) The Law Technology News 1999 Reader Interest Awards pointed to both WordPerfect Office A suite of office applications for Windows from Corel that includes WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Corel Presentations, Paradox and CorelCENTRAL (PIM, scheduling, etc.). It is the successor to Corel WordPerfect Suite, which was the successor to Corel Office. 2000 with WordPerfect 9 and Word Office 2000 with Word 2000. (For a comparison of the suites' features, see "The Office Suites" chart accompanying this article.) A review of WordPerfect Office 2000 stated, "The WordPerfect word processor is excellent, nearly obviating ob·vi·ate tr.v. ob·vi·at·ed, ob·vi·at·ing, ob·vi·ates To anticipate and dispose of effectively; render unnecessary. See Synonyms at prevent. the need for a separate desktop publisher."(2) Word's power for the legal market is advanced file management and text searching using templates, styles, autoformatting, and automatic paragraph numbering, noted Sheryl Kutz, a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. managing consultant.(3) Word has about 75 percent of the corporate word-processing market, but still fewer than half of lawyers use it. Because firms are moving to Windows and exchanging documents in Word, lawyers may switch rather than fight, said Kutz. Advantages of Word Word has its boosters in the legal community for the following reasons. * Support and integration "For today's law office practice, Word is the better choice.... It offers a broader and more user-friendly suite of functions, which apply to the diverse work of the law office," said Linda Miller Linda J. Miller is the Iowa State Representative from the 82nd District. She has served in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2007. Miller currently serves on several committees in the Iowa House - the Education committee; the Human Resources committee; and the State Atkinson of Channing, Michigan. She said useful functions include databases, Access for marketing and investigation, and PowerPoint for creating presentations. Word is supported by more programs and consultants, and more software packages are built around Word than around WordPerfect. "Our office has migrated from WordPerfect to Word over the last year," said Howard Richman, who practices in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . "The reason was that we felt the service and support were lacking from WordPerfect after it was purchased by Novell and then by Corel. We also liked the tight integration of Word's office productivity suite. The ability to have everything tightly integrated in one package with similar commands, icons, and so on, is what sold us on the product." * Formatting Some people prefer Word's formatting method, which relies on templates and styles and embeds format tags at the end of each paragraph instead of revealing codes to the user. "Word operates in a different way, so you don't need the reveal codes function," said Konieczny. "I find it a lot more difficult to have to look for the code in WordPerfect. It's easier to just block something and then move it. I don't need to see what's going on What's Going On is a record by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. Released on May 21, 1971 (see 1971 in music), What's Going On reflected the beginning of a new trend in soul music. underneath." Formatting irregularities may occur when converting documents from one program to another, but Word offers a solution. "Microsoft provides as freeware Software that is distributed without charge and which may be redistributed without charge by its users. However, ownership is retained by the developer who may change future releases from freeware to a paid product (feeware). See shareware, free software and public domain software. a Word viewer that can be sent along with your document so the recipient can view, copy, cut and paste To move an object from one location to another. When the operation is complete, there is nothing left in the original location. It may refer to relocating files from one folder to another or to relocating selected text or images from one document to another. , or print from it--regardless of whether the recipient has Word, WordPerfect, or neither. WordPerfect does not appear to have an equivalent," said White. * Editing Online editing Online editing is generally the final stage of video editing. When the offline edit is complete, the pictures are re-assembled at full or 'online' resolution. An edit decision list or equivalent is used to carry over the cuts and dissolves from the offline. is a step simpler with Word, which automatically shows text in strikeout mode as the user deletes characters and in redline red·line v. red·lined, red·lin·ing, red·lines v.intr. 1. To refuse home mortgages or home insurance to areas or neighborhoods deemed poor financial risks. 2. mode as new information is added. WordPerfect requires the user to "compare documents" before showing redline and strikeout formatting. And what appears is not exactly what was done. If the user changes just one word in a paragraph, the "compare" view may indicate the entire paragraph was deleted and retyped with the one word changed. Complaints about Word Attorneys' complaints about Word include the following. * Size "Word is an enormous memory hog, frequently taking up more than 20 MB of RAM, which is incredible," said Mark Choate of Juneau, Alaska “Juneau” redirects here. For other uses, see Juneau (disambiguation). The City and Borough of Juneau (pronounced [ˈdʒu. . "You really need to have at least 64 MB of RAM to use Word in a work environment." The program's size and its consequent slowness "impact multitasking multitasking Mode of computer operation in which the computer works on multiple tasks at the same time. A task is a computer program (or part of a program) that can be run as a separate entity. in a major way--far more, it seems, than WordPerfect," commented Don Slavik of Milwaukee, Wisconsin For other places with the same name, see Milwaukee (disambiguation). Milwaukee is the largest city within the state of Wisconsin and 25th largest (by population) in the United States. . * Viruses A number of attorneys have noted in list serves and bulletin boards that Word seems to be more vulnerable to viruses than WordPerfect. * Converting documents Attorneys who prefer to work in WordPerfect say they usually convert documents to earlier versions of Word before sending them as e-mail attachments. This is because many offices use older Word programs that cannot convert newer WordPerfect files. Of course, the same would be true if sending a file in Word 97 to an office that still uses WordPerfect 5.1. * Formatting Formatting in Word is not a plus for some. "Regular, day-to-day functions such as inserting headers and footers that begin on the second page, outline numbering of articles and paragraphs, and simple macros to accomplish routine formatting tasks become a real struggle in Word," said Douglas Duncan of Atlanta. Other attorneys said that they couldn't double indent To align text some number of spaces to the right of the left margin. See hanging paragraph. and justify simultaneously to indicate a quoted paragraph or block and copy autonumbered text without losing the numbers. * Converting macros Another formatting difficulty encountered in upgrading or switching to Word is converting WordPerfect macros and learning to use different templates. "Repetitive tasks that your staff has done easily with macros will certainly have to be duplicated in Word templates, which are, in my opinion, much more difficult to control," said Duncan. "For example, I routinely used a macro to create certain formatting on the first page of my wills. After creating the will with my document-assembly software and loading the assembled document into WordPerfect, I would simply run the macro to insert the formatting codes on page one of the will. That simple task has proven to be a real challenge in Word, which doesn't seem to want to let you reliably insert templates into existing documents." * Microsoft A major drawback to Word for some is its involvement with what Terry Light, an attorney in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Lewisburg is a borough in Union County, Pennsylvania, United States, 30 miles (48 km) south by east of Williamsport and 60 miles (97 km) north of Harrisburg. In the past, it was the commercial center for a fertile grain and general farming region. , called "the Microsoft hegemony." "I support the resistance that has developed in response to Microsoft's unrelenting, monolithic advance," wrote Light on his firm's Web site. "Even though one can travel on Microsoft's highway (Windows) with a fair degree of comfort, it still bothers me that I am pretty much forced by circumstances to use it for every type of computer travel I might undertake."(4) "Corel is the only competition, really, to the 800-pound gorilla that is known as Microsoft," said Paul Bernstein of Chicago. "I am aware that Microsoft is heavily installed in more law firms This list of the world's largest law firms by revenue is taken from The Lawyer and The American Lawyer and is ordered by 2006 revenue:[1]
"Corel is taking a beating from Microsoft in the market, so will it keep developing new versions of WordPerfect? On the other hand, antitrust suits may lead to the resurgence of WordPerfect, especially if Corel gets bundling deals with computer makers," predicted Thomas Workman
Thomas Workman (1844 – 1900) was an Irish entomologist and arachnologist who travelled widely collecting butterflies and studying spiders. in an essay on the TechnoLawyer list serve.(5) "As it stands," Workman wrote, "Corel clearly caters to the legal market more than Microsoft does." Advantages of WordPerfect WordPerfect does aim to serve attorneys. Corel has released a legal edition, "which is directly focused on the needs of sole practitioners and lawyers in smaller law firms," said Bernstein. "The legal edition bundles in a good version of Amicus AMICUS Automated Management Information Civil Users System Attorney case management software, Hot Docs, and other capabilities that lawyers need."(6) Additional positive points include the following. * Compatibility with Word WordPerfect interacts well with Word. Users can save documents in a number of file formats--including Word, ASCII ASCII or American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a set of codes used to represent letters, numbers, a few symbols, and control characters. Originally designed for teletype operations, it has found wide application in computers. , RTE (1) See runtime engine. (2) (Real-Time Executive) The operating system used in the HP 1000 series. See HP 1000. Excel, Quattro Pro A Windows spreadsheet from Corel that provides advanced graphics and presentation capabilities, including goal seeking, 3D graphing and the ability to create multi-layered slide shows. It is optionally keystroke compatible with Lotus 1-2-3. , and even EDGAR Edgar or Eadgar (both: ĕd`gər), 943?–975, king of the English (959–75), son of Edmund, king of Wessex. In 957 the Mercians and Northumbrians rebelled against Edgar's brother Edwy and chose Edgar as their king. . "WordPerfect seems to more easily read other file formats than Word. For the most part, Word is not able to import a WordPerfect document. WordPerfect, with some growing exceptions, will generally import a Word document and can save documents in a Word format," said Slavik. * Reveal codes "Friends don't let friends word process without reveal codes," reads the signature file that Ross Kodner, a Milwaukee attorney, uses in an ABA discussion group. "Designing a modern, Windows-based word processor without a reveal codes feature is tantamount to building a jet plane without an instrument panel in the cockpit," wrote Light. Some rely so heavily on reveal codes that they develop convoluted convoluted /con·vo·lut·ed/ (kon?vo-lldbomact´ed) rolled together or coiled. ways to access the function, such as opening Word documents in WordPerfect to locate and fix formatting problems. Drawbacks of WordPerfect WordPerfect users do report their share of problems. * "Freezing" System crashes, or freezing, seem to be more common with newer--and larger--versions of WordPerfect. "WordPerfect freezing in a Windows environment (1) (upper case "W") Refers to computers running under a Microsoft Windows operating system. (2) (lower case "w") Also called a "windowing environment," it refers to any software that provides multiple windows on screen such as Windows, Mac, Motif and X Window. is an old problem," said Daniel Mills of Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in south central Indiana. Located about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, it is the seat of Monroe County. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Bloomington had a total population of 69,291, making it the 7th largest city in Indiana. , in a discussion group. "Many have gone to Word because of the stability issue. In '95 and '96 I tried to find a solution and used to get these amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. , complex fax `solutions' from WordPerfect and Microsoft. I once had a WordPerfect tech person tell me that, in his opinion, Microsoft built code into Windows to make WordPerfect freeze. I went to Word, and I don't freeze." * Upgrading Some have encountered problems with upgrades. One attorney reported that WordPerfect 2000 did not recognize his older Version 6.0 documents but could open those saved with Version 8. * Support Attorneys don't always assume they can get support from Corel. "WordPerfect's technical support, which occupied a premier position 10 years ago, has diminished. It has changed hands two or three times, causing some concerns about its future development," commented Michigan attorney Atkinson. Negotiation and settlement Increasingly, attorneys are choosing compromise. They may use their preferred program but switch to the other when the situation calls for it. "By using the same word processor as your clients and cocounsel or even a newer version, you will eliminate most, if not all, conversion headaches," wrote Workman. "If your most important clients fall on both sides of the fence with respect to word-processing software, then consider purchasing both WordPerfect and Word." Built-in translators do a good job of creating documents in either format, but specialized formatting (like paragraph numbering) may not translate well, he noted. Sometimes the choice falls to inertia. Some attorneys use Word because their computers came with Microsoft Office Microsoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. installed. Other attorneys just stick with the word-processing package they've always had--usually those who started using WordPerfect with DOS. "We've used WordPerfect for almost 10 years in my office," said Slavik. "All of our files have been kept that way, and certainly the difficulty of changing and the training involved are impediments to going to different software." "WordPerfect has been around forever. Those of us who have been word processing word processing, use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although handwritten input (see pen-based computer) and since the 1970s were brought up on WordPerfect 3.1 for DOS. It was a great system then, and it has just improved over time. Why switch?" asked Rob Jenner of Silver Spring, Maryland Not to be confused with Silver Springs. Silver Spring is an urbanized, unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. After Baltimore and Columbia, Silver Spring is the third most populous Census Designated Place in Maryland. . In fact, some still cling to DOS and older versions of WordPerfect. "I think every lawyer, legal assistant, and secretary in our firm has his or her `stashed' copy of WordPerfect 5.1 to fall back on when the work really must get done quickly and reliably," said Atlanta attorney Duncan. Stick-to-itiveness is admired in the courtroom, but attorneys who try cases also know they have to change with the times. WordPerfect 5.1 and DOS were not designed to handle the many tasks that a law office performs today. With newer versions, attorneys can see and manipulate tables and graphics on screen, print envelopes at the touch of a button, run multiple documents without problems, coordinate programs with address book entries, and work with voice recognition programs. Manufacturers of other software sometimes struggle to integrate both Word and WordPerfect with their programs. For example, attorneys commented that the document-assembly program TrialWorks seems to work better with Word. The two programs communicate best in Visual Basic Application (VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) A subset of Visual Basic that provides a common language for customizing Microsoft applications. VBA supports COM, which allows a VBA script to invoke internal functions within Excel, Word and other COM-based programs or to make use of ), a graphical programming language and environment developed by Microsoft, which WordPerfect doesn't read. However, Corel has licensed VBA, which should make new versions of WordPerfect work as well with TrialWorks as Word does. In fact, for easier integration, the latest suites from Corel and Microsoft come bundled with proprietary software such as Hot Docs, Amicus Attorney, and the Adobe Acrobat Reader The former name of Adobe Reader. See PDF. . Because glitches come with each generation of both word-processing programs, in most instances, the company will post a "patch" on its Web site as soon as it is notified of a problem.(7) One notable snag has cropped up with regard to the word count function. Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. , an assistant attorney general in Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The 2006 population estimate of Madison was 223,389, making it the second largest city in Wisconsin, after Milwaukee, and , wrote in a letter to the National Law Journal that he tested six versions of three word processors, using the same ASCII text Alphanumeric characters that are not in any proprietary file format. See ASCII file. document, and came up with five different word counts. He noted that different versions of WordPerfect counted words differently. Appellants in DeSilva v. DeLeonardi who relied on Word to count the words in a brief--an important consideration in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , where the Federal Rules of Appeal put a 14,000-word limit on appellate briefs--got a surprise. The Seventh Circuit issued an order asking the appellants to show cause why they shouldn't be held in contempt for submitting a brief more than 1,000 words over the number allowed. The court wrote: Appellant's brief was prepared with Microsoft Word 97, and an unfortunate interaction occurred between that software and the terms of [Fed. R. App. P. 32(a)(7)(C)]. Microsoft Word does not offer a way to count words in those footnotes attached to the selected text. Current versions of Corel WordPerfect do not have this problem. WordPerfect does what lawyers may suppose that Word does (or should do); it automatically includes footnotes in its word and character counts.(8) Clearly, Word v. WordPerfect isn't an open-and-shut case. It may go to appeal.
The Office Suites
Word Office 2000
Edition Software included
(Version 2000)
Standard Word
Excel
Outlook
PowerPoint
Small business Word
Excel
Outlook
Publisher
Small Business Tools
Professional Word
Excel
Outlook
Publisher
Small Business Tools
Access
PowerPoint
Premium(*) Word
Excel
Outlook
Publisher
Small Business Tools
Access
PowerPoint
FrontPage
PhotoDraw
The Office Suites
WordPerfect Office 2000
Edition Software included
(Version 9 unless noted)
Standard WordPerfect
Quattro Pro
Corel Presentations
CorelCENTRAL
Trellix 2
Microsoft Visual Basic
for Applications
Voice-Powered WordPerfect
Quattro Pro
Corel Presentations
CorelCENTRAL
Trellix 2
Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Corel Print Office--
Special Edition
Professional WordPerfect
Quattro Pro
Corel Presentations
CorelCENTRAL
Trellix 2
Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Corel Print Office--
Special Edition
Paradox
NetPerfect
Microsoft Visual Basic
for Applications
Law Office WordPerfect
Quattro Pro
Corel Presentations
CorelCENTRAL
Trellix
Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Standard 4.0
Paradox
HotDocs 5.1
DEAL PROOF SE
WestCiteLink 2.2
Amicus Attorney IV
Organizer Edition
NexLaw
Lexicon from Black's Law
Dictionary (6th ed.)
The Pleading Expert
Notes (1.) See http://www.technolawyer.com/awards. html (visited Jan. 14, 2000). (2.) WordPerfect Office 2000, COMPUTER SHOPPER Computer Shopper could referr to the following publications:
(3.) Sheryl Kutz, A Guide for Word Converts, http://www.jamespublishing.com (visited Jan. 5, 2000). (4.) Terry W. Light, Why I Have No Intention of Leaving WPWin, http://www.brann-light.com/PubTWL/ wpwin_stay.htm (visited Jan. 14, 2000). (5.) Thomas Workman, Write of Passage: Word Processor Upgrades in Law Firms, THE TECHNO-LAWYER COMMUNITY (May 22, 1998) http://www. technolawyer.com/mp/masterpost5-22-98.html. (6.) See also Paul Bernstein, Sweeter Than Ever: WordPerfect's Law Office 2000 Suite, TRIAL, Mar. 2000, at 89; PAUL BERNSTEIN, COMPUTERS FOR LAWYERS (2d ed. 1997). (7.) Company Web site addresses are http://www. microsoft.com and http://www.corel.com. (8.) DeSilva v. DeLeonardi, 185 F.3d 815 (7th Cir. July 21, 1999). A macro to fix the word count problem in Word 97 is available at http://officeupdate. Microsoft.com/downloadDetails/swcmacro.htm. For further reading Paul Bernstein, Speaking to Your Computer, Naturally, TRIAL, Feb. 1999, at 96. Cem Kaner Cem Kaner J.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Software Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology, and the Director of Florida Tech's Center for Software Testing Education & Research (CSTER) since 2004. & David Pels, Safe Shopping for Computer Software, TRIAL, Feb. 1999, at 42. (*) A fifth edition, Developer, comes with these programs plus special tools for software developers. RELATED ARTICLE: Attorney-recommended resources Whether you're upgrading your word-processing software or switching to a new program, consider getting some professional training for employees. Multimedia training courses on CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). or video are fine, "but no book or CD-ROM can match live training--especially when it's one-on-one," according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the TechnoLawyer list serve. This forum also recommends hiring a tech consultant to assist your firm with migration from one generation or program to another. Once you've made the switch, keep books and online forums in mind for quick answers to questions. Practicing attorneys recommend consulting the following resources. Books The following books are available through Amazon.com or the American Bar Association American Bar Association (ABA), voluntary organization of lawyers admitted to the bar of any state. Founded (1878) largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Bar Association, it is devoted to improving the administration of justice, seeking uniformity of law . * Laura Acklen & Read Gilgen, Special Edition Using Corel WordPerfect 9 (1999). * David Greenwald & Alan Adler Alan Adler is an American inventor. He specializes in flying toys, such as footballs with fins and flying rings and discs, such as the Aerobie. In 2005 he invented a coffee brewing device and method called the Aeropress. External links
* David Greenwald & Guy S. Wiggins, The Lawyers Quick Guide to WordPerfect 7.0/8.0 for Windows (1998). * Stephen E. Harris & Erwin Ziileman, WordPerfect Office 2000 Bible (1999). * Alan Neibauer, WordPerfect Office 2000: The Official Guide (1999). * Joyce Neilsen, WordPerfect Office 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference (1999). * Payne Consulting Group, Microsoft Word 97 for Law Firms (1999). * Alan Simpson Alan Simpson may refer to:
* Levine Young et al., WordPerfect 9 for Windows for Dummies (1999). Discussion groups and list serves * ATLA Online at http://www.atla.org/ groups/(members only) * Net-Lawyers at http://peach.ease. lsoft.com * TechnoLawyer at http://www.techno lawyer.com * http://www.abanet.org/discussions/ home.html * http://www.egroups.corn/group/lpmcounselors * http://www.legalminds.findlaw.com --Rebecca Porter |
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