Corel Says Managing E-mail Is All About the Search

When Corel CEO Amish Methta talked to SmallBusinessComputing.com this spring about why WordPerfect Mail was a valuable addition to WordPerfect Office 12 — Small Business Edition, he asked the rhetorical question, "Ever try to do a search in Outlook?"

Focusing on its claim to complete e-mail searches in seconds, Corel today announced that it will offer WordPerfect Mail as a standalone product. Recognizing that small businesses receive far more e-mail than they can easily manage, the search capabilities are designed to let you look for keywords in the body and subject lines. You can also fine tune your search using "any of," "all of" and other criteria. You can search the "to" and "from" fields as well as look in specific folders and within specific date ranges.

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One of the objectives of WordPerfect Mail is to make searching large in-boxes, folders, calendars, contacts and attachments comparable in speed to searching the Web using a search engine. In fact, Corel claims that a search that takes four -to-six  minutes in Outlook takes only five seconds in WordPerfect Mail.

To produce WordPerfect Mail, Corel teamed with Yahoo and the Bloomba technology it acquired from Strata Labs. Corel reports that it has licensed that technology from Yahoo and that it will be the sole distributor. Corel said using its worldwide distribution channels, WordPerfect Mail will become the most widely available alternative to Microsoft Outlook.

With the goal of taking a bite out of Outlook's user base,  WordPerfect Mail is designed to make it easy for you to import e-mails, folders and contacts from Outlook (as well as Eudora and other e-mail programs).

In addition to its claims of faster search, WordPerfect Mail features familiar-looking tools for composing, managing and viewing e-mail messages as well as multiple accounts. While its look doesn't mimic Outlook, there is a resemblance (which many people will likely find comforting). A main window lists incoming e-mail, a preview window to view e-mail contents in the lower-right corner and a list of folders in a left-hand column (see screen shot).

You can also file and share RSS information through WordPerfect Mail, use the calendar to schedule events, create, edit and manage contacts, import contacts from other e-mail programs and create distribution lists.

Any e-mail program these days has to address the issue of spam. To protect you from junk e-mail, WordPerfect Mail incorporates anti-spam software SA Proxy Pro. Corel said that SA Proxy Pro uses a five-point protection system to block spam. The software, Corel said, learns from your stored e-mail  how to scan and filter incoming e-mail to minimize the amount of spam reaching your inbox.

WordPerfect Mail costs $69 as a standalone product. However, you may be able to purchase it or for $29 in conjunction with other WordPerfect Office products, the company said.

Dan Muse is executive editor of internet.com Small Business Channel, EarthWeb's Networking & Communications Channel and ServerWatch.

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