Included Software:  

Given its more modest price point vis-à-vis Microsoft Word, we were pleased to see that WordPerfect Office X4 Professional boasts all the key program types as its competitor. WordPerfect Office X4 Professional includes:

• WordPerfect X4 word processor
• Quattro Pro X4 spreadsheet editor
• Presentations X4 slideshow and presentation utility
• Paradox database manager
• Corel Visual Intelligence visual data analysis software
• WordPerfect Lightning digital notebook and sticky note application

Our first concern with WordPerfect Office X4 Professional wasn’t with the included software—Corel provides a comprehensive set of productivity tools. Instead, we were worried about file format compatibility and hang-ups that might result when dealing with non-Corel file types. Much to our relief, Corel looks to have made compatibility a priority of their design. WordPerfect, Quattro and Presentations can all open Microsoft files. Moreover, they can save documents, spreadsheets and presentations for use with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

In addition to superb word processing and spreadsheet software, Corel WordPerfect Office X4 Professional includes Presentations X4, Corel’s slideshow presentation creator and editor. Users new to Corel should feel comfortable using Presentations X4 because it provides the option of using either its native user interface or an alternative similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. Presentations X4 beats out PowerPoint with its convenient format options—you can save projects as (pre-2007 format) PowerPoint, Presentations X4, Flash files or as HTML for immediate use online.

Corel’s database solution is designed with the small business or office in mind. Paradox doesn’t require in-depth database experience and provides a handful of options for data retrieval and storage. All tables are searchable so permanent data loss should never be a worry.