{"slug": "wordperfect", "name": "WordPerfect", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 13, "commenters": 20, "warners": 0, "score": 13.159, "rising": -3.25, "first": "2025-11-06", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "If asked, I often name WordPerfect 4.2 as the best software I ever used.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 15, "neutral": 5, "compare": 2, "warn": 0}, "spark": [3, 0, 0, 0, 3, 4, 1, 3, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "If asked, I often name WordPerfect 4.2 as the best software I ever used.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "wordperfect.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.wordperfect.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["WordPerfect"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804341088, "item_id": 50271318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271318", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-10-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Lightning-fast apps like WordPerfect, sold on their speed and their device support", "excerpt": "I think this is totally wrong, and the reason is simple: the author's age. He says that he learned to read around 1990, and just about remembers navigating computers in the mid-1990s and using them in the early noughties -- the 2000s. So, earliest OS Win95, learning to use them WinXP. That is the beginning of enshittification. Windows 3 is when the GUI came to the PC, but it's also the beginning of the era of PCs cra", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 779169168, "item_id": 48698073, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48698073", "by": "gramie", "date": "2026-06-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I learned to love WordPerfect.", "excerpt": "I learned to love WordPerfect. I still miss the ability to \"Reveal Codes\" and see exactly where it had placed the non-printing codes to turn on/off bold, italics, to change margins, etc. When MS Word screws your entire document's formatting by typing a single letter, or moves stuff around the page seemingly randomly, your only option is to undo or reload the document. You can read an insider's story of WordPerfect by", "context": "", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)"}, {"id": 775445680, "item_id": 48465355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48465355", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Yep, WP for DOS was quick.", "excerpt": "> I'd love to see that style of keyboard on new stuff. OMG yes please. :-) Yep, WP for DOS was quick. Rather clunky UI compared to MS Word for DOS, IMHO, but fast. A friend of mine used a simple method to demo its speed: on his cheap monochrome 286 home computer, he loaded the book he was working on -- one big file, a few hundred pages -- and just held down the cursor key to scroll through the whole thing. It kept th", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI"}, {"id": 775432304, "item_id": 48464519, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464519", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WordPerfect for DOS was always responsive and quick wheb I used it.", "excerpt": "That's a wonderful machine. I'd love to see that style of keyboard on new stuff. Its wild to me to think of how much old computers could do relative to new. WordPerfect for DOS was always responsive and quick wheb I used it. I've seen ms word cludge up machines that should have plenty of power to run a word processor.", "context": "", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI"}, {"id": 772096256, "item_id": 48256016, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256016", "by": "alexhans", "date": "2026-05-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I saw this post I immediately thought of WordPerfect. It had such a pleasant interface for that time.", "excerpt": "When I saw this post I immediately thought of WordPerfect. It had such a pleasant interface for that time. But yeah, one of the things made me go for vim over Emacs a long time ago was its relationship with touch typing and not leaving the home row with the vim modes. Learn Vim script the hard way [1], even if you didn't end up writing any actual vim script, was a game changer in terms of understanding the semantics.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's time to talk about my writerdeck"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "smackeyacky", "context": "sold PCs early in career", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47319859", "date": "2026-03-09"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["word processing", "editing school newspaper"], "compared": [{"slug": "microsoft-word", "name": "Microsoft Word", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "lotus-1-2-3", "name": "Lotus 1-2-3", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wordstar", "name": "WordStar", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsoft-windows", "name": "Microsoft Windows", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gnu-emacs", "name": "GNU Emacs", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47926480", "title": "L123: A Lotus 1-2-3\u2013style terminal spreadsheet with modern Excel compatibility", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47461766", "title": "What Happened to Gem?", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45858945", "title": "WriterdeckOS", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458890", "title": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45837342", "title": "ICC ditches Microsoft 365 for openDesk", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50257548", "title": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 3}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 3, "compare": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 4}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 804341088, "item_id": 50271318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271318", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-10-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Lightning-fast apps like WordPerfect, sold on their speed and their device support", "excerpt": "I think this is totally wrong, and the reason is simple: the author's age. He says that he learned to read around 1990, and just about remembers navigating computers in the mid-1990s and using them in the early noughties -- the 2000s. So, earliest OS Win95, learning to use them WinXP. That is the beginning of enshittification. Windows 3 is when the GUI came to the PC, but it's also the beginning of the era of PCs cra", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible"}, {"id": 795374704, "item_id": 49710919, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49710919", "by": "blater", "date": "2026-09-15", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "does word perfect give you anything that markdown in obsidian doesn't?", "excerpt": "In the 80's in business non-verbal communication was by physically moving printed pieces of paper from desk to desk. Producing these was noisy and laborious. Laser printers in were an absolute breakthrough technology and together with print focussed word processors optimized that paradigm to its peak. In today's world, does word perfect give you anything that markdown in obsidian doesn't? (other than weird key bindin", "context": "", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Why haven't people vibe coded popular 80s word processors as TUI apps?"}, {"id": 792610704, "item_id": 49538169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49538169", "by": "JdeBP", "date": "2026-09-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I myself am just amazed that it still exists", "excerpt": "There are several interesting things about this. 1. WordPerfect\u203d I last personally encountered WordPerfect in the early 1990s, when a marketing bod assured me that WordPerfect users never wanted to see the desktops of their graphical operating systems, so there was no reason to integrate with them. For me, it was not unexpected that I never heard of it again, except in nostalgic discussions of the 1980s. Until today.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Unplug America [Tod Maffin]"}, {"id": 787732992, "item_id": 49233312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49233312", "by": "mjg59", "date": "2026-08-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "describes getting the UNIX release of Word Perfect running on modern Linux", "excerpt": "https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/wordperfect.html describes getting the UNIX release of Word Perfect running on modern Linux. There was a SCO release of Word in 1990, so plausibly that could be fudged into a similar setup?", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, Native X64 Port"}, {"id": 779169168, "item_id": 48698073, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48698073", "by": "gramie", "date": "2026-06-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I learned to love WordPerfect.", "excerpt": "I learned to love WordPerfect. I still miss the ability to \"Reveal Codes\" and see exactly where it had placed the non-printing codes to turn on/off bold, italics, to change margins, etc. When MS Word screws your entire document's formatting by typing a single letter, or moves stuff around the page seemingly randomly, your only option is to undo or reload the document. You can read an insider's story of WordPerfect by", "context": "", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)"}, {"id": 775445680, "item_id": 48465355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48465355", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Yep, WP for DOS was quick.", "excerpt": "> I'd love to see that style of keyboard on new stuff. OMG yes please. :-) Yep, WP for DOS was quick. Rather clunky UI compared to MS Word for DOS, IMHO, but fast. A friend of mine used a simple method to demo its speed: on his cheap monochrome 286 home computer, he loaded the book he was working on -- one big file, a few hundred pages -- and just held down the cursor key to scroll through the whole thing. It kept th", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI"}, {"id": 775432304, "item_id": 48464519, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464519", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WordPerfect for DOS was always responsive and quick wheb I used it.", "excerpt": "That's a wonderful machine. I'd love to see that style of keyboard on new stuff. Its wild to me to think of how much old computers could do relative to new. WordPerfect for DOS was always responsive and quick wheb I used it. I've seen ms word cludge up machines that should have plenty of power to run a word processor.", "context": "", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI"}, {"id": 772096256, "item_id": 48256016, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256016", "by": "alexhans", "date": "2026-05-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I saw this post I immediately thought of WordPerfect. It had such a pleasant interface for that time.", "excerpt": "When I saw this post I immediately thought of WordPerfect. It had such a pleasant interface for that time. But yeah, one of the things made me go for vim over Emacs a long time ago was its relationship with touch typing and not leaving the home row with the vim modes. Learn Vim script the hard way [1], even if you didn't end up writing any actual vim script, was a game changer in terms of understanding the semantics.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's time to talk about my writerdeck"}, {"id": 767038704, "item_id": 47939919, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47939919", "by": "kcartlidge", "date": "2026-04-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If asked, I often name WordPerfect 4.2 as the best software I ever used.", "excerpt": "If asked, I often name WordPerfect 4.2 as the best software I ever used. And that it was written in assembly is incredible. The book Almost Perfect [1] details those early times at WordPerfect. Incidentally, amongst the other best software I'd be tempted by Lotus 123, DataEase 4.53, Turbo Pascal 3, and Elite (BBC). [1] http://www.wordplace.com/ap/index.shtml", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "L123: A Lotus 1-2-3\u2013style terminal spreadsheet with modern Excel compatibility"}, {"id": 766836512, "item_id": 47927282, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927282", "by": "manithree", "date": "2026-04-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As a big fan of WordPerfect on my first DOS machine", "excerpt": "As a big fan of WordPerfect on my first DOS machine (286 clone), I agree. I respect authors like GRRM for sticking with WordStar, but whenever I get nostalgic and wondering about WordPerfect in DosBox, I remember I use emacs and typst. All the good things about WordPerfect, but vastly superior.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "L123: A Lotus 1-2-3\u2013style terminal spreadsheet with modern Excel compatibility"}, {"id": 766832608, "item_id": 47927038, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927038", "by": "duane1024", "date": "2026-04-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "but I really really really loved WordPerfect", "excerpt": "I started this project because I was nostalgic for Lotus 1-2-3, but I really really really loved WordPerfect. I'm afraid of starting that project, however, as it might take over my life :) I used to use WordPerfect 5.1 on a 386 PC to edit my school newspaper with multiple columns, graphics, custom fonts, etc. No WYSIWYG, just the power of Alt+F3 (Reveal Codes)!", "context": "", "use_case": "Editing school newspaper", "switched_from": "", "story": "L123: A Lotus 1-2-3\u2013style terminal spreadsheet with modern Excel compatibility"}, {"id": 763572928, "item_id": 47723308, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47723308", "by": "fractallyte", "date": "2026-04-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is a famous \"killer\" feature from WordPerfect", "excerpt": "One feature missing from almost every mainstream word processor: REVEAL CODES! (https://kb.corel.com/en/127364) This is a famous \"killer\" feature from WordPerfect: the ability to view and edit the low-level formatting for a document. It's invaluable for fixing weird bugs. However, it works only because WP uses the \"text-stream\" paradigm, where a document comprises a linear stream of text with formatting codes (Bold, ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: A WYSIWYG word processor in Python"}, {"id": 760201232, "item_id": 47512577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47512577", "by": "zabzonk", "date": "2026-03-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WordPerfect beat them all.", "excerpt": "> WordPerfect beat them all. It was certainly popular, but I hated all the function keys (I still hate function keys) and my favourite was WordStar (not for Windows), for both word processing and as a programming editor, up until I switched to Word and Windows vi clones. I remember the CP/M version of WordStar gave you a patching tool that allowed you to insert screen and keyboard handlers in machine code, for your s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What Happened to Gem?"}, {"id": 760193344, "item_id": 47512084, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47512084", "by": "TMWNN", "date": "2026-03-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "by 1988 was in good shape", "excerpt": "Yes, the first ST version in 1987 had bugs. But WordPerfect fixed bugs for the next four years, and by 1988 was in good shape <https://www.atarimagazines.com/v7n1/wordperfectst.html> despite, as I said, the huge problem with piracy (See, for example, the author of the 1987 review you cited writing at <https://archive.org/details/ST_Log_Magazine_Issue_21/page/n83/mode/1up>. If the ST version were so useless why would ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What Happened to Gem?"}, {"id": 760191776, "item_id": 47511986, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47511986", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-03-24", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "It's not that, it's that when WP did arrive on the ST it was a zero effort bad offering, two years late. https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n6/wordperfect.php", "context": "", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "What Happened to Gem?"}, {"id": 758261184, "item_id": 47391324, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47391324", "by": "crudbug", "date": "2026-03-15", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "Some commercial alternatives to MS Office:", "excerpt": "Some commercial alternatives to MS Office: https://www.wordperfect.com/en/ https://www.softmaker.com/en/ https://www.infomaniak.com/en/ksuite https://www.group-office.com/ https://www.icewarp.com/ https://www.bitrix24.com/ https://fengoffice.com/ https://www.hancomdocs.com/en/ https://www.larksuite.com/en_sg/ https://www.polarisoffice.com/en/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Office.eu launches as Europe's sovereign office platform"}, {"id": 757117745, "item_id": 47319859, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47319859", "by": "smackeyacky", "date": "2026-03-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you were a legal secretary WordPerfect was near irreplaceable", "excerpt": "When I first started my career we were selling PCs into a market where two programs were major roadblocks to windows 3.0 upsells: Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. If you were a legal secretary WordPerfect was near irreplaceable in a market where the user had transitioned from a typewriter only 5 years ago. Non technical users who has mastered mail merge in WordPerfect would rather beat you up and leave you in the gutter ", "context": "sold PCs early in career", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS"}, {"id": 734925504, "item_id": 45932844, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45932844", "by": "lproven", "date": "2025-11-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I described how to get all 3 here", "excerpt": "There are 3 freeware versions of WordPerfect. \u2022 The final version for classic MacOS, and there's a ready-made VM to run it on a modern Mac. \u2022 The GUI version for Linux, and there's a site dedicated to helping you install it on a modern Linux. \u2022 And Tavis Ormandy found and resurrected the final ever terminal-mode text-only WordPerfect for Linux, relinking it for x86 Linux. I described how to get all 3 here: https://ww", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "WriterdeckOS"}, {"id": 733819040, "item_id": 45863690, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45863690", "by": "mkl", "date": "2025-11-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you tried... WordPerfect?", "excerpt": "> And 30+ years later I'm still waiting for a word processor with a decent Reveal Codes. Have you tried... WordPerfect? It still exists: https://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/wordperfect/ The first feature they list is Reveal Codes. Personally I like Latex as it reveals all the codes and lets you type them, change them, find-and-replace them, define new ones, etc. But then, I'm a mathematician, so it's designed for ", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "WriterdeckOS"}, {"id": 733799552, "item_id": 45862472, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45862472", "by": "re_spond", "date": "2025-11-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Would love to try if I could swap out the underlying Tilde editor with classic Wordperfect", "excerpt": "Would love to try if I could swap out the underlying Tilde editor with classic Wordperfect... seems like https://github.com/taviso/wpunix Might actually be the perfect fit for this (for me).", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "WriterdeckOS"}, {"id": 733462784, "item_id": 45841424, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45841424", "by": "p_ing", "date": "2025-11-06", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Look at those screenshots! It's still a Windows 95 look'n'feel", "excerpt": "https://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/professional-edition/ Look at those screenshots! It's still a Windows 95 look'n'feel (which some HN users might enjoy).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "ICC ditches Microsoft 365 for openDesk"}, {"id": 733443520, "item_id": 45840220, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45840220", "by": "mikestew", "date": "2025-11-06", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'd spend the $50 for home/student version just for the lulz.", "excerpt": "But how are they exporting such a modern document format? Holee crap, because it's still being sold an updated! https://www.wordperfect.com/en/ And the suite includes Quattro Pro, for those that are itchin' for that spreadsheet-flavored blast from the past. If I didn't already have the Apple suite on my Mac (which does all I need out of an office suite), I'd spend the $50 for home/student version just for the lulz.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "ICC ditches Microsoft 365 for openDesk"}]}