WordPerfect Office

What works

Installation of WP X3 ODF Beta succeeds (with errors on command line and an installer error about needing to configure Borland app db). WP will execute and let me create a new document and print it. Fonts rendering is a little awkward, but readable.

Installed with Winecfg in Windows XP mode. No DLL overrides. No attempt made to fix the BDE error.

What does not

WP will not let me open an existing file nor is there a Save button in the Save or Save As dialogs, so WP will not let me save my work either. Pretty much useless other than for the novelty to be able to say that it does indeed run on Linux.

Workarounds

What was not tested

Only installed WP, not the other apps in the WPO Suite.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

WordPerfect Office comes in a number of editions aimed at different market segments. A click-this-click-that HowTo would very likely be inaccurate for most users. Besides, you already know how to install WordPerfect Office under Microsoft Windows. These notes cover Wine specifics. They are based on installation from a Professional Edition CD. Except where indicated otherwise, all notes are valid for Wine 1.0.0 and later.

Installation Prerequisites

winetricks wsh56 gecko fakeie6

MFC42D.DLL (the debug version of mfc42.dll). You should find this in the system32 folder of any legitimate Microsoft Windows XP installation. Version 6.0.8168.0 should have an md5sum of c60082fb1353f0abe37a8362be4a496a.

Starting the Installer on CD

wine 'd:\Setup.exe'

Select WordPerfect Office X3 Install Now!

Missing Controls

Installation is made difficult by the failure to display a number of controls (check boxes and buttons). Clicking on a hidden control makes it visible.

To enable the Next button below the licence agreement, click just to the left of the text "I accept the terms in the license agreement".

On the screen inviting you to select which applications to install, press the Install button for a 'quick' install. The three suite applications are selected by hidden check boxes to the left of their names.

Clicking just to the left of the text "Application shortcuts to appear on desktop" will uncheck a hidden box.

The 'Advanced Options' button is hidden until you tab the cursor to it. Click this button to go for a 'custom' installation.

On the screen informing you the Install Shield Wizard is complete, clicking to the left of the text "Install .... Yahoo! Toolbar" will uncheck a hidden box.

Installation Options

The 'quick' installation will install WordPerfect/Entrust Security Integration. It is recommended you go for a 'custom' install and ensure WordPerfect/Entrust Security Integration is set to "don't install".

If you do not want the Yahoo Search tool bar in Word Perfect, choose not to install it here as it cannot be hidden in WordPerfect like all other toolbars.

All filters, including those for Microsoft Office document formats, are selected by default.

Installation End Game

The Install Shield Update Manager is not installed.

Paradox Installation

Paradox (when available for install) has a separate installer. Hover the cursor over the licence agreement to activate the I Accept button. There is no serial number to enter.

Select Paradox Install Now ! and follow the instructions on screen.

Installation of WordPerfect Office will never be 'platinum': the installer assumes the presence of additional Microsoft software, essentially Internet Explorer and all that implies.

Fortunately, the missing software can generally be installed simply and quickly using winetricks. See http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks for a description of winetricks and how to get it.

Unless stated otherwise, winetricks prerequisites used for installing WordPerfect Office do not involve overriding 'built in' Wine dlls with 'native' Windows dlls so the scope for requesting support and submitting bug reports should not be affected but always be open about any 'extras' you have installed whether that be using winetricks or not.

WordPerfect Office comes with a great many fonts from Corel but still assumes the presence of the 'core' fonts from Microsoft (Arial, Courier, Times Roman etc.) that Wine cannot provide. The core fonts may be installed using winetricks before or after installing WordPerfect Office.

If you do not install the core fonts, Wine will substitute some other font as necessary. This substitution may give unexpected and unsatisfactory results by selecting an inappropriate Corel font.

The author has seen a test report complaining that font rendering did not work properly when, most probably, a narrow font was substituted. The substitution of a non-alphabet font has also been observed.

This substitution issue may affect any application installed under the same installation of Wine, not just WordPerfect Office applications. It does affect Presentations--it affects the tabs on the right hand side and bottom of the main window.

By default, WordPerfect Office applications use (Explorer-like) 'enhanced' file dialogues. These do not work under Wine. This has led to test and bug reports complaining that it is not possible to open or save files (with inferences that that trial and beta versions have been crippled deliberately).

Fortunately this is not the case. It is generally sufficient to disable the use of enhanced dialogues so the application uses standard dialogues. See the individual application guidance notes for specific details.

Note that disabling enhanced file dialogues in WordPerfect also disables them for Presentations (and vice versa).

As a last resort, the enhanced file dialogues may be disabled using the Wine regedit tool.

When first started, Word Perfect Office applications display a splash screen. In certain circumstances (not all of which are bad news) the application may also display a message box that requires user response. This message box may be hidden behind the splash screen.

The application appears to have hung. There may or may not be a new entry on the desktop 'task bar' with a Wine icon. If there is an icon it should, but may not, show the name of the application.

If there is a task bar entry, right click on it, select 'move' and drag the message box from behind splash screen. If there is no task bar entry, maximise some other window (so the splash screen is hidden) and then minimise that window again. The message box should now be visible.

As a last resort, try starting the application again. The second copy should abort and hopefully take the splash screen with it leaving the original message box visible.

WordPerfect Office applications backup open documents at regular intervals. At best this feature will work as well under Wine as it ever did under Microsoft Windows.

When an WordPerfect Office application is started again after a crash, it may detect the presence of one or more document backups. This may give the 'apparent hang with only splash screen displayed' behaviour.

A corrupt backup may crash the application. When this occurs the backup must be deleted the hard way before the application can be used again. Under Wine, user profiles are stored under ${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/windows/profiles/${USER}. Look under Application\ Data/Corel for a Backup subfolder under a folder (or folder pair) that name(s) the application and version.

Auto backup may be disabled the same way enhanced file dialogues may be disabled.

The implementation of OLE under Wine is still a work in progress. This reduces the functionality available with WordPerfect Office applications.

Specifically, 'copy/paste special' between applications, references or links between documents, insert object (embedded or from file) functions are affected.

Proceed with extreme caution when you need any of these.

A good result is you will be told when the function is not available (by a message box suggesting the registry or installation is incomplete).

A bad result is the application crashing (leaving a backtrace when using a console).

The ugly result is X terminating both source and destination application without a backtrace (not a major bug as it does not affect other Wine and non-Wine applications).