Approximately since my business opened over eight years ago or so, I've been helping out these wonderful customers of mine who moved to NY a few years ago. They always used and still, to this day, use the Corel WordPerfect Suite. They use it because it is easy for them to use and they don't want to change to another program, such as Office, to relearn another program if this one suites them well. I have no problem with that and I'm the same way when it comes to software of anything else for that matter.
However, here is where problems arose. The customer's hard drive on her desktop went bad so instead of getting a new hard drive, ordering the recovery media, and reinstalling Vista as well as software and updates, I said it's cheaper and more feasible to get a new desktop, considering the prices are much lower than when she purchased this desktop four or so years ago. They both agreed and I showed them the HP Slimline model Staples had for sale in the paper. It's more than enough for her needs. I told them all they need is that and I'll take care of the rest. I told them to get the Corel program again so I can install it no the new one and because the old one won't work with Windows 7 64 bit.
They got the HP Slimline and the Corel software. I took everything back to my SOHO and started working on it. I did the normal routine on the PC I always do such as, uninstalling the bloatware crap, installing all available updates, antivirus, and installing the Corel software she purchased.
After installing the Corel software and transferring the data from the old drive to the new PC, I double-clicked on a .wpd file to make sure it opened properly in this Corel Home Suite she had purchased. To my surprise, it did not. I was like, WTF?
I went online and did some research on the .wpd extension and realized it was a format for Corel WordPerfect. She had purchased the Corel Home Suite which are two different programs all together. The home suite is more of a lower-priced package for families who want to do office stuff (letters, resumes, etc) as well as spreadsheets and pictures with the "Photo Album" and "Paint it!" software. The Corel WordPerfect Office Suite has more advanced office tools such as PDF creation, working with MS Office files, and more. There is a Home and Student version for $99.99 for up to three PCs. That's $50 less than MS Office Home and Student.
So, the question is, for people who only purchased one Corel Suite in the years of using PCs, how would they know which one is the right one? People see Corel on the box and it mentions the software to write, do spreadsheets, and more, for about $70, why would they get the more expensive one with most of the features they would never use? The Corel Home Suite should honestly be able to open the .wpd files. I find it stupid and foolish on Corel's part they do not allow that. MS Office can open the files which is great. It's a good thing the newer PCs come with Office Starter to be able to open Word and other types of files. It would be foolish to have to spend more money to do that.
So, now the question is going to be, would she want to get the Corel WordPerfect Office for $99, which is about $30 more than the one she had already purchased and be able to use it on this and the husband's laptop or would she rather stick with this one? I don't use Corel for obvious reasons I'm not going to get into here but I'm sure this software suite is going to be way more different than the WordPerfect Office she is used to. Another question is... will Staples let her exchange the opened Corel software in exchange for the other one. Because it costs a bit more, they might but that always depends on how customer friendly the manager is. She can still open the files within Word and then save them as a Word file but, with so many of those files, I don't think she'll want to do that. Plus, if the Corel Home Suite isn't like the other one she is used to, why keep this one?
So, that's the conundrum this time! I'll post an update on the situation.
Another important post will be coming soon so stay tuned!
- Dragon
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