This is a very good, powerful and standard word processor. A free version is available for personal use. Try: http://linux.corel.com/linux8/download.htm (free registration of the program is required). The free version lacks the equation editor, built-in graphics editor, chart editor and the "art text", but it is otherwise a fully functional version of the perhaps best word processor in the world. The full version costs about $50.

The file format of the Word Perfect 8 for Linux is the same as WordPerfect 6, 7 or 8 for MS Windows. Also, the file-level compatibility with MS Word is very good--I had instances in which WP8 was actually more compatible with the different "sub-versions" of MS Word file format than MS Word itself.  More complex MS Word documents, however, tend to look ugly after translation.

On the down side, Word Perfect for Linux feels very slow with longer documents, particularly when scrolling larger documents--StarOffice beats WordPerfect easily on that (see the next section).

WP8 is normally launched through an icon or from the K-menu but you have to add this yourself after the installation. The main executable is /usr/local/wp8/wpbin/xwp, but the location may vary, depending where you installed it. Use the command

locate xwp

or

find / -name "xwp"

if you cannot find it.

To "manually" launch WP8, try in X-terminal:

/usr/local/wp8/wpbin/xwp

Corel just released (Nov. 1999) their own Linux distribution (based on Debian) , which apparently centers around their WordPerfect suite (WordPerfect word processor, Quattro Pro spreadsheet, etc.) different from their current offering on Linux in that it will be based on the GPLed "Wine" (=MS Windows-Application Programming Interface-Emulation) library.

Ted

(type Ted in an X-terminal). An excellent looking *.rtf text editor--worth watching. The version I have likes crashing a bit. Ted is not included on RH or Mandrake CDs that I know of.

lyx and latex

(Type lyx in an X-windows terminal). Both lyx is a front end (WYSIWYG, running under X-Windows) for Latex. [There is also Klyx, which is a "K-desktop" variant of Lyx.] Latex has for years been the heavy-duty document preparation and typesetting program, particularly popular in academia (good with equations, etc.).

The good news is that even if you do not know what Latex is, you may still be able to use lyx. Think of lyx as a word processor, although its philosophy is different from that of other popular word processors, and therefore it may require an adjustment of your mindset. Latex (and lyx) philosophy is to type in the text, define the "styles" and leave the formatting to the typesetting program. This means you never adjust the spacing (between words, sentences, paragraphs, chapter, etc.) manually. When done with typing of your document, you "compile" your text to create a device independent file ("*.dvi").  The *.dvi file can be viewed using a dvi viewer and printed. The quality of the output is usually outstanding, but its creation process is typically somewhat more frustrating than using a regular word processor.

The strength of Latex is the quality of the printouts, its capability to cope with long, complex documents (technical books, math, etc.), availability of all foreign characters and even rarely used symbols, its portability across many different platforms, and the popularity of the file format.

lyx is free and it is included on your Mandrake CD for you to try. As almost any piece of Linux software, you can also download it from Linuxberg: http://idirect.linuxberg.com/kdehtml/off_word.html or any other fine Linux software depository on the Internet.

If instead of easier lyx, you wanted to try straight, hard-core Latex, here is some intro to get you started:
* Use your favorite plain-text editor to create a Latex document, spell check it, etc., save the text file with the extension "*.tex". Read on to see my sample Latex document.
* Invoke Latex to "compile" the text file into a "*.dvi" ("device independent") file by typing on the command line:

latex my_latex_file.tex

* Print the "my_latex_file.dvi" file which was created by the previous command by invoking the dvi to postscript utility, that on default send the output to the lpr printer:

dvips my_file.dvi

You can also save the output to postscript file by typing:

dvips -o output_file.ps my_file.dvi

The option -o introduces the output file.

Here is my sample Latex file:

% Any line starting with "%" is a comment.
% "" (backslash) is a special Latex character which introduces a Latex
% command.

documentclass[10pt]{article}
egin{document}

% Three commands are present in every Latex document. Two of them are
% above and one at the very end of this sample document.

This is a simple document to try LaTeX. Use your favorite plain text
editor to type in your text. See how the command LaTeX produces the
LaTeX logo. Here is the end of the first paragraph.

Here starts the second paragraph (use one or more empty lines in your
input file to introduce a new paragraph).

The document class of this sample is ``article'' and it is defined at the
very beginning of the document. Other popular classes are ``report'',
``book'' and ``letter''.

Please note that the double quote is hardly ever used, utilize
two ` to begin a quote and two ' to close it. This nicely formats the
opening and closing quotes.

Here are different typefaces:
{m This is also roman typeface. It is the default typeface.}
{f This is bold typeface. }
{em This is emphasize (italic) typeface.}
{sl This is slanted typeface, which is different from the italic.}
{ t This is typewriter typeface.}
{sf This is sans serif typeface.}
{sc This is small caps style.}

You can itemize things:
egin{itemize}
item one
item two
item three
end{itemize}

You can also enumerate things:
egin{enumerate}
item one
item two
item three
end{enumerate}

Try some foreign letters and symbols:
aa AA o O l L ss ae AE oe OE pounds copyright dag ddag S
P. There are also three dashes of different length: - -- ---.

Try some accents over the letter ``a'': '{a} `{a} "{a} ^{a} ~{a}
={a} .{a} {a} c{a} d{a} H{a} {a} u{a} v{a}. Other letters can
be accented in a similar way.

The pair of ``$'' marks a math context. Many special characters are
available only in the ``math'' context. For example, try the Greek
alphabet:

Small: $ alpha eta gamma delta epsilon varepsilon zeta eta
heta vartheta iota kappa lambda mu u xi o pi varpi
ho varrho sigma varsigma au upsilon phi varphi
chi psi omega $

Capital: $ A B Gamma Delta E Z H Theta I K Lambda M Xi Pi P
Sigma T Upsilon Phi X Psi Omega $

Try some equations: $ x^{y+1} + sqrt{p imes q}=z_{try_subscripts} $

egin{center}
$ frac{x imes y}{x/2+1}=frac{1}{3} $
end{center}

LaTeX math commands are very similar to those in the old ``Word Perfect''
equation editor.

Use the verbatim mode to print the 10 special symbols which normally have
special meaning in LaTeX: verb|%${}_#&^~|. The special symbols must be
contained between any two identical characters which in the example above
is |. Most of these special symbols can also be printed by preceding the
character with a backslash: \% $ { } \_ # & ^.