Corel's revamped office suite, due in late April, will deliver plenty of new features. But can it take market share from Microsoft's Office? Here are our first impressions.

The latest version of Corel's productivity suite, WordPerfect Office 12, includes its staple word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications -- WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Presentations, respectively -- but adds features aimed at better compatibility with competing products such as Microsoft Office. The company says the product will be available in late April 2004, with prices starting at US$299.99 (~AU$390) for the full Standard edition and US$149.99 (~AU$196) for the upgrade in the US. Specific Australian pricing was not available at the time of writing.

There's no shortage of new tools to play with in WordPerfect 12. The new Workspace Manager allows you to choose between working in legacy WordPerfect or Microsoft Office formats, and even simulates the interface and keyboard shortcuts of its Microsoft equivalent. Another addition, the Compatibility Toolbar, lets you publish to PDF, HTML, XML, Word, Excel or PowerPoint with one click. Finally, the new OfficeReady Browser gives you quick access to all WordPerfect Office templates (including more than 40 new ones), whether you need to create a company's annual report or just a garage sale sign.

As in the previous version, Corel doesn't offer its own email client, which leaves you to rely on Microsoft Outlook or other alternatives. And although much improved, importing images into Presentations still results in some lost formatting and distortion, especially with patterns and gradients. There is no Linux version of WordPerfect Office 12.

Corel WordPerfect Office 12's Workspace Manager and Compatibility Toolbar, in particular, will make it easier to work across platforms with both WordPerfect and Microsoft Office. It remains to be seen whether WordPerfect 12 has what it takes to take some of Microsoft's strong market share, but its new compatibility tools make Corel's latest suite a strong contender. Check back soon for a full review.