· Outlook provides an integrated set of rich tools inside one program—e-mail, group calendering, contacts, and Journal let users powerfully manage tasks and information.

· It directly supports the POP3 and MAPI messaging APIs, letting it run against multiple e-mail servers simultaneously-- Internet and Intranet e-mail, CC:Mail, Microsoft Mail, HP Open Mail, America Online, and CompuServe.

· Outlook directly supports Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0--the only groupware server that embraces Internet standards and extends rich messaging and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes.

· Outlook includes integrated file and disk management.

· Corel Central's integration of modules does not match Outlook. Although Corel Central presents the appearance of a desktop information manager, it actually functions as a simple "container" program, similar to Office 97 Active Documents. When the user selects e-mail or calendar, for example, Corel Central runs a separate program that appears inside the Corel Central program space. This is slower than having the application modules working together in the same program, as Outlook does.

· Corel Central does not support the MAPI API. It can run against POP3 or IMAP only, and does not do so simultaneously.

· Corel Central does not support Exchange. It is designed for use with Netscape SuiteSpot, which requires customers to buy, set up, and manage up to four separate servers, some of which are not available yet.

· Corel Central lacks integrated file and disk management.

· Five out of the top ten features ranked in an IDC end-user study as the most important to end-users are available in Outlook + Exchange, and not in Corel Central + Netscape SuiteSpot.

· Office 97 offers automation features in every application. (Wizards in every application, Auto features, etc.). These leading edge features empower users—Formula AutoCorrect, Word AutoCorrect Exception, Natural Language Formulas, Spell It and Background Grammar checking in Outlook (using WordMail).

· Office 97 is the third generation of integrated Office applications.

· Over half of Microsoft Office 97 is shared code, which means that users learn one tool or procedure that’s used in all applications.

· Command Bars, similar menus, shared help (Office Assistant) and common components enhance ease of use.

· WordPerfect Suite's automation features don’t appear in every application—Paradox lacks them, as does Netscape Messenger. Corel’s automation features don’t match Office 97—for example, no exceptions list in QuickCorrect, no background spelling or Grammar Checking in Netscape Messenger.

· WordPerfect Suite is not integrated because its component applications come from different companies (Corel and Netscape). Some applications have different UIs, different toolbars, dissimilar menu systems, and non-shared components, all of which make the suite more difficult to use. (Netscape Messenger and Paradox are good examples.) Because of this, WordPerfect Suite 8 is at best a first-generation integrated suite;

· Fewer shared components than Office 97. WordPerfect Suite does not use a shared drawing component across all applications, nor does it use a single file open/file management dialog box. Corel Central uses a completely different toolbar set from the rest of the suite.

· Microsoft Answer Wizard technology integrated with the Office Assistant.

· First implementation of Answer Wizard in Office 95 resulted in 16% lower support costs to Microsoft.

· Natural Language Formulas in Microsoft Excel, AutoSummarize in Word, AutoDate in Outlook

· Office Assistant proactively provides a single, discoverable method for users to get help from Office. This help is always in the context of the user’s work.

· Easily used, suite-wide personalization features—Command Bars, AutoCorrect, AutoText, Office Assistant settings and characters.

· Office 97 learns from the user, as exemplified in AutoCorrect Exceptions list & AutoNameCheck in Outlook—the software actually becomes more tailored to users’ specific needs as they use it more.

· Corel's Perfect Expert is not integrated. It's divided into two different components--the Perfect Expert itself and the pane-based front-end to Quick Tasks. This makes it difficult to transition from the help facility to actually doing something.

· No single, discoverable method for users to get help from WordPerfect Suite 8--Corel Perfect Expert does not appear in all applications.

· No technology that proactively helps users like the Office Assistant.

· Nothing similar to Natural Language Formulas, AutoSummarize, or AutoDate.

· WordPerfect Suite NLP remains a generation behind Microsoft Office 97—no Natural Language Formulas, no AutoSummarize.

· Corel's Perfect Expert is not proactive. It does not track user actions and provide relevant help at the appropriate time, as the Office Assistant does.

· Corel's Perfect Expert is not automated--the user must know how to operate it and must operate it correctly. It is much more difficult to use than the Office Assistant in Office 97.

· Very few suite-wide personalization features—no exceptions list, no AutoCorrect Exceptions feature, no method for customizing the Perfect Expert the way users customize the Office Assistant.

· Toolbars are edited differently between applications. (Quattro and WordPerfect, for example.)

· WordPerfect Suite 8 does not learn from the user. For example, once the Office Assistant in Microsoft Office 97 proactively offers a tip to a user, that tip is not repeated unless the user resets the Assistant. WordPerfect Suite 8 doesn't even proactively offer tips.

· Hyperlink & Navigation—all Office 97 applications support insertion and navigation of hyperlinks to web and Office documents. The Web toolbar is a common UI component in every application.

· Searching—fast, complete intranet searching with Web Find Fast. Web Find Fast does full content indexing of Office and HTML files across multiple servers

· Browser support—Office 97 integrates well with standard web browsers (Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer [IE]). Office and Internet Explorer 3.0 share common toolbars, caches, favorite lists, and history.

· Office 97 saves and opens HTML files, allowing users to import or create web content. Word Portable Documents provide reliable, high-fidelity, printer-independent documents.

· Office 97 is fully integrated with web metaphor—DocObjects in browsers supplies in-place editing of HTML and Office documents. Support for browsers lets users easily navigate a hybrid document system of HTML and Office documents.

· Microsoft Excel 97 web queries allow transparent, interactive access to data on the web.

· Access features a hyperlink data type.

· All Office 97 applications support the direct insertion of hyperlinks into documents.

· Not all applications support insertion and navigation of hyperlinks. No suite-wide web UI component for navigation like the Web Command Bar in Office 97.

· No intranet search abilities like Web Find Fast.

· Browser support is minimal; no shared resources, no in-place editing. (This is true with Preview Release 3 of Communicator and with Navigator 2.0.)

· Corel’s core applications can save to HTML, but it advocates Barista as its portable document format. Barista is proprietary and unreliable. Its documents are not editable, do not maintain the fidelity of their source documents, and their performance limits usability.

· Corel is not fully integrated with the Internet web metaphor—lack of Active Document support, non-integrated applications, mean users can’t easily navigate a hybrid document system. (HTML and Corel docs.)

· Quattro Pro 8 has nothing similar to Microsoft Excel web queries

· Paradox does not have a hyperlink data type.

· WordPerfect Suite 8 has only patchwork support for hyperlinks--Quattro Pro 8 does not include them directly in documents, for example, only on user-created buttons.

· Standard e-mail w/attachments, supports MAPI, POP3.

· Support for Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus NotesFX. Support for Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus NotesFX and Outlook Forms.

· Microsoft Office 97 applications are multi-user, collaboration-enabled. Examples--Microsoft Excel Multi-user workbooks and Word Portable Documents (prints to virtual printer, preserves document fidelity on any system.)

· Microsoft Access Replication through Windows® 95 Briefcase effortlessly reconciles differing versions of databases.

· Exchange client-server replication using Outlook.

· Netscape Messenger e-mail client is POP3/LDAP only, not useful in corporations with MAPI servers such Exchange or legacy MS-Mail accounts.

· No direct support for Microsoft Exchange groupware facilities. Lotus Notes support only in WordPerfect and Quattro Pro. No groupware-based forms technology.

· Corel applications are not collaboration-enabled because the documents they produce are not multi-user, nor are they are portable. (Barista is untenable as a document format.)

· No Briefcase replication, no Exchange client-server replication.

· One language— Visual Basic for Applications —lets users utilize code and experience across the applications.

· A complete, consistently applied, object model in every application and in components as well. (Office Art, ODBC, etc.)

· Same customization and macro recording techniques throughout Office.

· Integrated Visual Basic Development Environment in every application. Office 97 offers interactive assistance, support for ActiveX™ controls, and more.

· Supports embedding of ActiveX™ controls in Office 97 documents

· Use your knowledge from Visual Basic 5.0 with the shared Visual Basic development environment in Office 97.

· Outlook 97 includes an integrated development environment for creating forms-based collaborative solutions. Outlook forms can be extended using Visual Basic Scripting Edition and ActiveX controls.

· Office 97 Developers Edition offers specialized tools to application developers. Developers get all the tools they need in one place.

· Multiple languages—PerfectScript, Quattro Pro Macros, Paradox PAL—cause users to duplicate learning.

· No object model in WordPerfect and Presentations. Inconsistent object models in Quattro and Paradox.

· Different customization and macro recording techniques in different applications

· No integrated development environment.

· No support for ActiveX controls. Limited tools hinder developers

· No similarity to Visual Basic or any other industry standard language. No support for ActiveX

· Little or no automation tools for development; no interactive assistance, no shared forms.

· No Developers Edition.

· One powerful setup and administration tool—the Office Network Installation Wizard—for placing Office on a network server and configuring user access.

· Easily supports multiple types of automatic installs (departmental, network groups, etc.)

· New file architecture upgrades future file versions from web or LAN—converters for future version of Office automatically loaded into Office 97.

· Administrators can set Office 97 to transparently save to older formats as the default.

· File viewers that support Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and the PowerPoint presentation graphics program, for systems that don’t have Office on them. (Includes older formats.)

· Networked file converters save user disk space and allow for greater IS control

· Non-automated install procedures—administrators must edit files, move them, etc.

· No automated support for multiple types of installs, as with Office 97 and Network Installation Wizard. (Corel requires hand-tooling.)

· Does not automatically install converters for future version of WordPerfect Suite.

· No transparent saving of older formats.

· No file viewers.

· Very difficult to store file converters on the server—hand tooling required.

· Network Installation Wizard (NIW) automates installs, provides exceptional flexibility. It can edit and change installs.

· Office policy templates make building policies for Office 97 easy. (‘Policies’ are Windows 95 and Windows NT® operating system-level configuration files that control what resources an application can access.)

· Microsoft Systems Management Server provides enterprise-wide automation of software deployment. Office 97 Systems Management Server support within Office 97 let’s administrators directly set Office options, change them, monitor user activity on the LAN, and more.

· Network install of limited utility—unchangeable pre-set directory structures on the server, hand tooling required. Nothing like Office 97 Network Installation Wizard exists.

· No templates for Corel policies, requiring administrators to build policies from scratch, which is a time-consuming process.

· No direct System Management Server support.

· The Natural Language Processing in the Office Assistant lets users ask questions using Standard English and get useful answers. Also, the Office Assistant will often walk them through procedures. This lets them learn the product faster and lessens support costs.

· Office 97 extensive integration saves on training costs because users who learn one application, can more easily learn all Office applications.

· Microsoft Web Site provides advanced technology—Wizard-based inference engine diagnoses problems online.

· A variety of support options make servicing users easy and less costly.

· Office Resource Kit (ORK) is complete documentation of network administration of Office.

· Microsoft provides free support via its newsgroup. (Connect time charges may apply.)

· WordPerfect Suite 8 has nothing similar to the Office Assistant; no approachable animated character--users must type questions into a dialog box.

· No components that help with support, as Office Assistant does.

· Lack of complete integration impedes training. This is especially true for database users.

· Nothing like inference engine.

· Limited support options make servicing users difficult and more costly.

· Meager public information on network installs—a 30K text and web site content—doesn’t match the Office Resource Kit.

· No newsgroup offering from Corel.