Most of our clients and co-counsel use MS Word, meaning that shared editing of documents causes regular problems for WordPerfect users. In particular, redlining can be a nightmare when converting between document types. Life is easier when everyone uses the same program. It is also extremely difficult to view WP documents on other devices, such as phones or tablets, or to work on in any other context, for example, in Google Docs. Virtually all document management system either do not support WordPerfect at all, or support it in a secondary way that leaves the process with too many bugs to be useful.
By contrast, MS Office formats, including Word documents, Excel Spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations have become the standard default formats for a wide range of applications. Google Drive works well with them, as do many other third party programs beyond the Microsoft family. More important for our purposes, almost all document management systems work exclusively, or work best with MS Office. A great many email and calendaring devices are also designed around MS Outlook, which is part of MS Office.
For these reasons, and more, we have been slowly and somewhat reluctantly for many migrating to MS Office and away from WordPerfect. Acceptance has been varied. Some offices use MS Word very heavily. In some offices, a few teams have adopted it but WordPerfect remains favored by the majority. Many people have opted to have both systems installed and use one program for some purposes and the other for other purposes.
However, as we move closer to the adoption of a document management system (DMS), we are more strongly encouraging the use of Word over WordPerfect. Most DMS don't work with WordPerfect at all, or if they do, it is in a limited way that makes life more complicated for the user.
So far, the firm has not made any decision to ban the use of WordPerfect, but that day may come sooner than you think. Supporting two different systems places an extra burden on the help desk as IT is expected to have expertise in both. It also leads to complications in sharing documents and making them available in a variety of formats. However, we are now installing MS Office by default and only installing WordPerfect by request on new computers.
Office 365
At present the firm supports a range of version of MS Office from 2010 to 2016 (I think we have retired all of the older versions by now). There is not a huge difference between version 2010, 2013, and 2016. The main difference is that the later versions make more use of online features that the firm has not really used.
For the past year, the firm has been deploying Office 365 instead of static version of office. Unlike earlier version, Office 365 is a subscription service. This means that whenever a new version of MS Office is released, you can upgrade without any additional cost. Currently the latest version of Office provided by 365 is Office 2016.
Office 365 permits you to download full copies of Office on up to five computers for the same user. This means if you have a home laptop or desktop, you can download a copy of Office there. There are also limited versions of MS Office that run on your mobile Android or IOS devices. Finally, there is limited cloud version of Office that you can use if you are at a computer that does not have Office installed on it (for example a public computer at a hotel or library). Office 365 makes mobile use of Office much easier. As part of our ongoing efforts to help everyone become more familiar with MS Office, we plan to make Office 365 licenses available to all very soon.
MS Office Training
If you have been using WordPerfect for years, you may find yourself having difficulty using MS Office as a replacement. MS Word does many things differently, and getting used to the new menus will take some time and effort.
There are also some very good online training videos available on the web:
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/topics/office2016
The site provide free videos and written tutorials on a wide variety of MS Office topics. Simply select the topic you want and either watch the video or read the tutorial. These can be useful for learning at your own pace and when you have the time for them.
Change is Coming
The firm is looking into some rather dramatic moves in the way we manage documents. While these options are still under consideration, any of them will require users to work with MS Word and Excel for the documents. If you are are unfamiliar with using MS Office, now is the time to get up to speed.
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