Corel Office Refines Web Publishing

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May 19, 1999 (2:47 PM EDT)

By David Drucker,

Corel's WordPerfect Office 2000 suite, which began shipping this month, aims to make Web publishing practical for the desktop user. Its new capabilities parallel those of Microsoft's Office 2000, expected next month.

The suite's core applications -- WordPerfect word processor, Corel Presentations and Quattro Pro spreadsheet -- feature improved HTML conversion. WordPerfect and Quattro Pro can create XML documents, and WordPerfect can createSGML documents.

Trellix, the suite's Web page creation tool, is designed to let users build intranet and Web pages without any knowledge of HTML.

The Paradox database, included in the suite's Professional edition, now includes JDBC support, letting it be queried through a website. Paradox also features embedded JavaBeans for creation of Web forms and dynamic HTML capabilities for adding up-to-date data to Web pages.

Also in the Professional edition is NetPerfect, a server-side application for managing and automating the conversion and publishing of Web documents.

Recognizing that greater Web integration will likely require greater integration with other applications, Corel has included a licensed version of Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. VBA scripts can be written to link with other apps or to customize the suite's applications.

The trend toward widespread enablement of Web publishing can translate to productivity benefits throughout an organization. As the ability to place data on the Internet moves into the hands of more users, the information-sharing capabilities of the Web will be put to greater use by businesses. Moving Web publishing out of the exclusive domain of Webmasters and IT means savings in time, resources and administration.

But security concerns remain. As users at every level are empowered to publish documents to the Web, it becomes harder to control what information from an organization gets out to the world at large.

Microsoft has announced more elaborate plans for Web information-sharing for its Office 2000. But Amy Wohl, president of consultancy Wohl Associates, said that in terms of Web publishing, Microsoft and Corel are "both trying to do one similar thing -- letting you go directly from applications to HTML."

Wohl said that although Corel is attempting to move beyond its niches in small business, the legal field and government, it is too early to tell if it will succeed in penetrating larger businesses.

One factor that may help catch the interest of IT managers is Corel's plans to ship a Linux version of WordPerfect Office 2000 to be available by year's end. An earlier version of WordPerfect was already ported to Linux.

The upgrade to the Standard edition of WordPerfect Office 2000 is $99; the Professional edition upgrade is $199.