How Do I Love Thee- Part 3

A Paean to My Favorite Word Processing Application

By Bayle Emlein

Reason #8: Block Protect. Sure, there’s Widow/Orphan control. I find this successful about half the time–the half that doesn’t really matter of course. When I have a portion of text that absolutely, positively must stay together no matter what it does to a bottom margin, I highlight the critical lines and BlockProtect them. Two clicks. If above the text moves it away from the bottom of a page, the Block Protect becomes irrelevant. Though it does not disappear, so that it will remain congealed together in the event that future Edits put it near the end of a page.

Reason #9: Case Convert. eVER HIT THE cAPSlOCK ACCIDENTALLY or leave it on after filling in a Form? Two clicks and a choice about the desired result and the damage is undone.

Reason #10: Keyboard Commands. If you’ve never bothered to learn any of them, then yes, they are a mystery. But once known, they save time and energy. So much more efficient to keep your fingers on the keyboard. For example, I know there is an Insert Current Date somewhere in the various menus of the various versions of the comparison product. In WordPerfect, you can dive for the mouse and menus and it’s right where it’s been forever on the Insert menu. Or Control+D and be done.

Reason #10+: Keyboard Commands. For people with vision or fine motor challenges, keyboard commands are often accessible when mouse operations pose a barrier.
 
In short, WordPerfect gives me tools to control the appearance of text without having to relearn an entire application with each upgrade. I can apply these tools to other word processing applications and easily communicate with readers in their own document format. The only feature that I have found that seems to be missing from WordPerfect is the ability to see multiple Saves to the ClipBoard. I can copy and Append selections (didn't test to see how far I can go one adding; I think it's limited by my RAM) but I have to Paste the concatenation in order to see it and select the bit I want. Better than nothing, but as clunky as trying to control linespacing in Other Applications. And I find the Find and Replace operation so much friendlier in WordPerfect that it compensates for this one hiccup.

PDF support has been added in the last 20+ years. The number and kinds of sources I can use to create MergeFiles is much larger, but the process is familiar. XML, Projects, saving without Metadata, the ability to redact (black out) sensitive words in a document are all reflections of the move to Windows and the increasing online presence and security concerns.

WordPerfect X6 (Suite) $249.99
Estimated Shipping $9.00 for CD version, or download