Its dominant position ended after a failed release for Microsoft Windows due to Microsoft not initially sharing its Windows Application Programming Interface (API) specifications causing the application to be slow. Its early popularity was based partly on its availability for a wide variety of computers and operating systems, and also partly because of extensive, no-cost support, with 'hold jockeys' entertaining users while waiting on the phone.

It rapidly displaced most other systems, especially after the 4.2 release in 1986, and it became the standard in the DOS market by version 5.1 in 1989. WordPerfect gained praise for its 'look of sparseness' and clean display. Satellite Software International changed its name to WordPerfect Corporation in 1985. The application's feature list was considerably more advanced than its main competition WordStar, an established program based on the operating system CP/M that failed to transition successfully onto MS-DOS, which replaced CP/M. It then moved to the MS-DOS operating system in 1982, by which time the name WordPerfect was in use, and several greatly updated versions quickly followed. The authors retained the rights to the program, forming the Utah-based Satellite Software International ( SSI) in 1979 to sell it the program first came to market under the name SSI*WP in March 1980.

It was originally developed under contract at Brigham Young University for use on a Data General minicomputer in the late 1970s. At the height of its popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the dominant player in the word processor market, displacing the prior market leader WordStar. WordPerfect ( WP) is a word processing application, now owned by Corel, with a long history on multiple personal computer platforms. Sold to Novell most assets in turn sold to Corel in 1996

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