WordPerfect X4 Takes You Back, Way Back, to DOS WP5.1
April 17th, 2008 by Joanna Stern
If there was ever a good blue screen to have appeared on your system it was WordPerfect. Of course, that was the 1980s and you were running MS-DOS. But what if you could get that pleasant blue screen on your Microsoft Vista PC? (It will NOT replace the devilish Microsoft blue screen of the Windows era, but it might make you feel better.)
Yesterday Corel launched WordPerfect Office X4, its competitor to Microsoft Office 2007. Through my limited hands-on with the product it proves to be a solid alternative to Office. The interface is easy to get used to and the new Import PDF tool is seriously helpful. You can easily import an image-based PDF file, which is immediately transcribed into editable text.
But what really gets me is the “throwback” WordPerfect 5.1 mode on the new version. When I met with Corel a few months ago about the product, they claimed people missed working in the old WordPerfect interface. I, for one, do. To reminisce: When I was in 2nd grade I would come home from school, launch up WordPerfect on my father’s computer and write away in my “diary.” I recall writing something along the lines of wanting to be just like Doogie Howser.
If you’re into the nostalgia, here’s how to set it up.