Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners, Technology

The Rage-Inducing Word Versus WordPerfect Debate

Technology columnist Jeff Bennion revisits an age-old debate -- and offers tips on how to make Word work best for you.

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Every couple of months, I get a legal technology newsletter that mentions the Word vs. WordPerfect debate. It’s not so much a debate as it is a handful of lawyers arguing with everyone that WordPerfect is better than Word. I’ve had this discussion in person multiple times before as well. A few months ago, an attorney tried to convince me that WordPerfect is better because you can press ctrl+c and ctrl+v to copy and then paste text. People usually bring up that federal courts require proposed orders to be in WordPerfect format (although this is no longer true). No matter what the argument is, there is usually some name calling.

WordPerfect is like Latin. It’s dead and used only by lawyers. When I see people arguing why WordPerfect should still exist, I always picture that person as someone who still has a Gore/Lieberman bumper sticker on their car. It’s over. Decisively over. It is the betamax of word processing software. It has lost the race.

Most people have moved on from WordPerfect for the same reason that language was invented in the first place: to communicate with others. You cannot share .wpd files with people outside your office. Unless you represent Corel, your client probably has Word. Sure you can open a .wpd in Word or save a WordPerfect file as a Word document, but the formatting is so screwed up that it’s usually unusable as a pleading. And, sure you can save it as a .pdf, but then you might as well print it and scan it.

Here are the arguments that I see every time on this issue:

“It’s Easier To Use”

Saying WordPerfect is easier to use is like saying that English is the best language because it’s the language that’s easiest for me to use. When I went to a firm that used WordPerfect, I had to learn how to use WordPerfect. For me, it was (and still is) easier to format letters or pleadings in Word because that is what I am used to.

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There is nothing that you can put on a page using WordPerfect that you cannot also put on the page in the same place with Word. The length of time it takes to do it is dependent on the user. The bottom line is that no judge has ever picked up a pleading and said to himself or herself, “Wow, this pleading is beautiful. It must have been created in Word/WordPerfect.” In fact, it is almost impossible to tell what you used to create a document, but I made a chart to be helpful:

“Microsoft Word Adds Weird Formatting To My Documents”

Yeah, it does that. It assumes that the Table of Contents in my MSJ needs a blue heading and it thinks that I want to space things at 1.08 lines for some reason. That is because most people that use Word aren’t bound by the local rules or state rules of court on how to format pleadings. But, fixing this takes just a couple of minutes. Do you want your documents to default to Times New Roman and be double spaced? Make those the settings and save over your normal.dot template. That contains your default settings. If you are typing something and the formatting is all messed up, you probably have some style applied. Click “Clear All Formatting” to get rid of it.

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While you’re at it, follow Matthew Butterick’s advice to lawyers and learn how to use Styles in Word.

“This Is An Issue Worth Discussing”

No one is forcing anyone to use one type of word processor over the other. This is not Obamacare. There is no mandate over what program you have to use. I have no idea which word processing software my opposing counsel is ever using and I don’t care. Some people want to use one type of software and others want to use a different type, and that’s okay. This is not the debate over whether it is okay to breastfeed in public or whether you should tip your server or even Mac vs. PC. You never hear one lawyer say, “What? You use Time Matters instead of ProLaw? Let me tell you why you are wrong…” For some reason, though, lawyers get into a fit of rage over whether WordPerfect is better than Word.

Ed. note: This column has been brought to you by our friends at MyCase, web-based practice management software for lawyers.

Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner from San Diego. When not handling his own cases, he’s consulting lawyers on how to use technology to not be boring in trial or managing e-discovery projects in mass torts/complex litigation cases. If you want to be disappointed in a lack of posts, you can follow him on twitter or on Facebook. If you have any ideas of things you want him to cover, email Jeff at jeff@trial.technology.

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