.... or will WordPerfect for Windows steal the crown? (WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows, word processing software from WordPerfect Corp.) (Software Review) (Evaluation)

There are times, every other year or so, when an entire software category gets turned on its head, and the "killer app" that sat comfortably atop the industry suddenly finds itself an also-run. WordPerfect is well-aware of those discontinuities; it stormed and conquered a seemingly invulnerable WordStar to become the de facto word processing standard in the DOS world.

But then Windows came along, and WordPerfect found itself faked out. Believing the promises of IBM, WordPerfect first chased the star of OS/2 while rival Microsoft went to work on Word for Windows. By the time WordPerfect shipped its first version of WordPerfect for Windows (in version 5.1, to conform to its DOS product), Microsoft was shipping version 2.0 of Word for Windows, and unlikely challenger Lotus was in the stores with Ami Pro 2.0.

The question is: Can WordPerfect repeat its DOS success in Windows? While the answer has as much to do with aggressive marketing, sales, and distribution as it does with the product itself, there's no question that WordPerfect has given itself a wonderful product to campaign behind.

WORDS ON PAPER

The main purpose of a word processor is to get words down on paper as efficiently as possible. WordPerfect does that. The zillions of people who use WordPerfect won't find the Windows version strange, and several of the more obscure functions such as Tables and Math actually become easier.

Ironically, the Windows …