PerfectOffice 3.0 - from Novell - one of four evaluations of integrated software programs in 'Suite Success' - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, March, 1995

Avg. Street Price: $500

(WIN)

Though the name may seem a bit pre- sumptuous, PerfectOffice comes close to achieving its goal of being "the perfect place to work." It still shows some of the rough edges of its origins, however, when it was just a bundle of applications from different companies brought together in a single box. PerfectOffice started out as Borland Office, back in the days before Novell merged with WordPerfect, bought Quattro Pro outright, and made a deal to offer Paradox as part of the package.

PerfectOffice consists of WordPerfect for Windows, Quattro Pro for Windows, Presentations, the PIM InfoCentral, GroupWise (an e-mail, calendar, and scheduling tool), and Envoy (a workgroup publishing tool). The professional edition (not reviewed here) adds Paradox--a powerful database manager, but one that only database pros will find accessible. Novell also offers PerfectOffice Select, a CD-ROM from which you pick and choose the components you want.

Word processor. The latest version of WordPerfect for Windows is a top-notch program that has a good chance of unseating MS Word for the word processing crown. Version 6.1 is faster and easier to use than earlier versions and includes an abundance of new features.

WordPerfect has always been strong in word processing tools, and its spell-checker has been among the best for a long time. The speller, thesaurus, and find-and-replace systems use the new PerfectSense technology that lets you find and replace the various tenses of a word. For example, if you want to change the word speak to write throughout a document, PerfectSense will also change speaking to writing and spoke to wrote, depending on the sentence.

Like any of the current crop of word processors, automation aids abound in WordPerfect: A generous supply of templates help you create everything from business letters to fliers to folded brochures. WordPerfect also offers its own version of Wizards---called Coaches--that walk you through just about every task imaginable.

The bottom line on WordPerfect is that it's almost, well, perfect. One more interim release is all it should take to iron out any hidden bugs.

Spreadsheet. Quattro Pro, originally a Borland offering, has always been a capable spreadsheet. With version 6.0, Novell has had its chance to smooth out the program's rough edges and teach it to both act and react properly with its new cousins. The result was this year's Editors' Pick for Windows-based spreadsheet.

From the moment you load the program, you notice Novell's handiwork: The biggest visual change is the absence of the double toolbar from version 5.0--a single bar resides in its place, eliminating the icon overload of previous releases.

In addition to its new look, Quattro Pro's powerful charting and presentation graphics capabilities are unmatched. A new Presentation Advisor provides assistance with chart formatting as well as slide-show assembly. Presenters can also create master slides.

When it comes to integration, Novell has given Quattro Pro a complete makeover. At the top, a redesigned menu bar resembles what you find in WordPerfect, with the first three and last four menus being identical. And for file management, Quattro Pro uses WordPerfect's dialog boxes, allowing you to index worksheets for fast text retrieval--something no other spreadsheet we've seen currently offers.

Presentation graphics. Presentations, like its competition, focuses on the content of a presentation: It addresses not only how words and charts will look but also what the presentation should say.

The biggest improvement to the latest version of Presentations is the Show Expert, which like PowerPoint's Wizards, walks you through every step of creating a new presentation. You can tell the Show Expert, for example, that you'd like your presentation to persuade a doubting audience or that you need it to be extremely informative. The program then generates an entire presentation, suggesting the types of slides you should use and the kind of Information you should put on each. In practice, however, the Show Expert is a bit unsophisticated in that much of what it suggests is on the obvious side.

There are some nice touches to Presentations, however. You edit text and graphics directly on the slides themselves, which makes for quick updates. And if you get lost, the program can either show you how to do something or it will go ahead and do it for you. Still, Presentations lacks the style and easygoing manner of both Freelance and PowerPoint.

Information manager. InfoCentral for Windows, Novell's first entry into the PIM arena, uses an outline metaphor for tracking people, organizations, tasks, and events. At first glance, it's downright confusing. Once you get beyond the initial shock, however, lnfoCentral shows some promise. The program treats each piece of information that it is given (a name, an event, a project, and so on) as an object that can be linked to any or all of the others via drag and drop. These connections let you create and maintain complex relationships among people, organizations, tasks, and events--a boon to any size business.