Feds prefer WordPerfect

MANY US FEDERAL Government agencies use WordPerfect and they're still buying it in thousands.

Earlier this month the Department of Justice (DOJ) licensed more than 50,000 "seats" with WordPerfect Office 12 and the once-dominant word processor still has a place in many federal bureaux, despite the emergence of Microsoft's Word as the market-leading writing tool, after the pencil.

WordPerfect is "the tool of choice for the legal arena," said Mary Aileen O'Donovan, Program Manager for the Justice Management Division at the DOJ. "Corel has consistently shown that they really understand how enterprise agreements should work-we pay once and then go forth in use. Corel understands our needs and that makes our life a lot easier," she effused in a Corel press release.

Federal courts still require case documents to be filed in WordPerfect and many government agencies still favour the software.

WordPerfect was the dominant word processor for many years, especially when PCs still ran DOS. Its demise coincided with the rise of Windows and the licensing of WordPefect to Borland, which tried - and failed - to launch an office suite to rival Microsoft's Office. Corel finally picked up the pieces and has since brought WordPefect Office to version 12.

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