WordPerfect Office

WordPerfect

A document being edited in WordPerfect X3
Original author(s)	Brigham Young University Satellite Software International (SSI)
Developer(s)	Corel
Initial release	1979; 38 years ago (1979)
Stable release	X8 (April 11, 2016; 10 months ago (2016-04-11))
Operating system	Windows 7 and later
Platform	IA-32
Type	Word processor
License	Proprietary
Website	www.wordperfect.com

WordPerfect (WP) is a word processing application owned by Corel with a long history on multiple personal computer platforms.

The program was originally developed under contract at Brigham Young University for use on a Data General minicomputer in 1979. The authors retained the rights to the program, forming Satellite Software International (SSI) to sell it under the name WordPerfect in 1980. A port to DOS followed in 1982 and several greatly updated versions quickly followed. The application's feature list was considerably more advanced than its main competition, WordStar, an established program that originated on CP/M. Despite its comprehensive abilities, it still gained praise for its minimalistic "look of spareness" and clean display. WordPerfect rapidly displaced most other systems, especially after the 4.2 release in 1986. By release 5.1 in 1989, WordPerfect had become a standard in the DOS market.

At the height of its popularity, in the 1980s, it was a dominant player in the word processor market, partly because of extensive, no-cost support, with "hold jockeys" entertaining users on hold. While best known in its DOS and Microsoft Windows versions, its early popularity was based partly on its availability for a wide variety of computers and operating systems. Its dominant position ended after a flubbed release for Microsoft Windows, followed by a long delay before introducing an improved version. Microsoft Word, having been tuned for some time on the Mac, was introduced at the same time in a much superior version. Word rapidly took over the market, helped by aggressive bundling deals that ultimately produced Office, and by the mid-1990s WordPerfect was no longer the de facto standard.

The common filename extension of WordPerfect document files is .wpd. Older versions of WordPerfect also used file extensions .wp, .wp7, .wp6, .wp5, .wp4, and originally no extension at all.