WordPerfect Office

What works

Able to load Word Perfect from command line, using workaround.

Able to load Quattro Pro from command line and able to load small, simple spreadsheets.

What does not

Word Perfect does not load on first command line call.  A second command line call of Word Perfect (in a new terminal window) is necessary to get the program to load, in which case it will appear at the bottom of the screen, capable of being expanded.  Remarkably, the second terminal window can be closed after the second Word Perfect call.  Files can be loaded, if "enhanced file dialogs" are disabled in Tools/Settings.  This is described in older winehq database entries.  Equation editor can be invoked, but does not retain entries on new equations, and if a file is loaded with equations, the equations cannot be edited, error message displayed as follows: The OLE object could not be created.  This error is usually caused by incorrect data about the server in the Windows registration database."

Quattro Pro loads equations (objects), but does not display them, instead gives error message "Unable to create storage for OLE2 objects."  Nonetheless, somewhat remarkably, the equations can be double clicked and edited, they just don't display in the spreadsheet.  Any attempt to create an equation object crashes Quattro Pro.

I am running Ubuntu 14.04.1.  I am interested enough to save and send terminal outputs to anyone who is also interested enough to make these programs work in Wine.

Workarounds

What was not tested

Presentations.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Word Perfect 12 usable for basic document creation and editing but not for creating image objects. Quattro Pro 12 usable for basic spreadsheet functions but not for creating or displaying image objects.

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 an Standard Retail Edition CD. Except where indicated otherwise, all notes are valid for Wine 1.0.0 and later.

Installation Prerequisites

winetricks wsh56

Starting the Installer on CD

wine 'd:\intro.exe'

Select WordPerfect Office 12

Installation Options

The installer offers 'custom' and 'quick' (select applications) installations.

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."

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

All Writing Tools are installed by default. Going for a 'custom' install and setting all the ones you don't want to "don't install" may not be worth the time and effort.

Installation End Game

After leaving the installer, you may find Wine is still running. If you ran the installer from the command line you may not get the command line prompt back.

This is because Dad 12 is running. This appears as several icons in your desktop's equivalent to the Window's System Tray. One of these icons allows you to quit Dad cleanly.

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).