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From: zemon@fritz.UUCP (Art Zemon)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: WordPerfect vs MS-Word
Message-ID: <177@fritz.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 16-Feb-86 23:23:47 EST
Article-I.D.: fritz.177
Posted: Sun Feb 16 23:23:47 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Feb-86 07:25:48 EST
References: <506@imsvax.UUCP> <1270@osu-eddie.UUCP> <3670@utah-cs.UUCP> <129@fritz.UUCP> <3682@utah-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: zemon@fritz.UUCP (Art zemon)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA
Lines: 85

In article <3682@utah-cs.UUCP> halff@utah-cs.UUCP (Henry M. Halff) writes:
>In article <129@fritz.UUCP>, zemon@fritz.UUCP (Art Zemon) writes:
>> The real point of comparison is not what both program do but
>> what one does that the other does not.  Here is a little list to
>> start things off, things that Microsoft Word does that I don't
>> think WordPerfect does:

I've kept the entire contents of Henry's article since this is
becoming a pretty good comparison of the two word processors.

>> 
>> Word...
>>     ...works with a mouse
>WordPerfect does not support a mouse--a drawback.
>>     ...lets you split the screen into multiple windows
>Wordperfect supports 2 windows.
>>     ...lets you view different parts of the same document
>>        simultaneously in the different windows
>I don't think so (but I'm not sure).
>>     ...lets you edit different documents simultaneously in the
>>        different windows
>Yup
>>     ...automatically does footnotes (in a different window)
>Yes--footnotes are embedded in the file at the place of their 
>mention.  They're easier to edit that way.
>>     ...shows character attributes (such as italics and
>>        superscripts and underlining) on the screen
>Subscripts, superscripts, font and pitch changes are not shown,
>but underling and boldface are.
>>     ...allows a dictionary per document (handy for proper nouns
>>        which exist only in that document)
>No.
>>     ...allows a user dictionary in addition to the main
>>        dictionary (handy for the proper nouns and abbreviations
>>        used by that particular typist)
>Yes
>> 
>> Does WordPerfect do these things?
>

>Does Word:

>Have a thesaurus?
no

>Keep page boundary indicators current?
It updates them every time you print or manually repaginate.

>Handle columns? In a WYSIWYG fashion?
It does handle columns but not in a WYSIWYG fashion.  The normal
page break indicator has a number next to it when it is a column
break.  The number is the column.

>Have math capabilities?
no.  SIGH.

>Have interactive macros?
No.

>Have document conversion facilities for DCF, DIF, Wordstar?
It has an auxilliary program to handle a number of formats.
Wordstar and DIF (and SLK, of course) are supported.  I don't
recognize DCF but would have to check the book to be sure.

>Have a merge facility?
Yes.

>Have automatic table of contents & indexing facilities?
No.

>Have redline and strikeout capabilities?
Yes.

>Online reference?
The on-line help is excellent.

>Escape to DOS?
Yes.

A clarification of Word's windows.  It lets you have up to eight
windows, not just two.
-- 
	-- Art Zemon
	   FileNet Corp.
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