Monty Python fans will recall the scene in Holy Grail where the wagon trundles by collecting the bodies of people struck down by the plague. A peasant comes out carrying the body of an old man, who unexpectedly puts up his head and says, “I’m not dead!” The peasant and the body collector have an argument – the peasant doesn’t want to keep someone who will obviously die soon, but the body collector doesn’t want to take away someone who isn’t dead – while the old man gets increasingly agitated, complaining, “I’m feeling better!”
They finally bash him in the head to get him to shut up.
Corel has announced WordPerfect Office 12, available next month, which it says is WordPerfect’s return to glory. Corel says that WordPerfect Office 12 will take on Microsoft Office 2003 head to head, offering lower prices and competitive features. And the company will no longer be content with simply selling upgrades to existing customers – WordPerfect Office 12 will offer document compatibility and even application compatibility with Microsoft Word; in other words, users who make the switch can configure WordPerfect to look and work exactly like Word does.
“We’re after the consumer and small- and mid-sized business market,” Corel WordPerfect Product Manager Wendy Lowe said. “We’ve found that a lot of [people] are looking to an Office alternative and getting savvy that there are cheaper alternatives. That’s where [WordPerfect Office] 12 plays nicely; it has a set of features comparable to the standard edition of Microsoft Office, but it’s cheaper.”
I believe – but can’t confirm – that the Corel product manager also said, “It’s not dead! It’s feeling better!”
