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One of WordPerfect Office X3's key selling points, since its introduction last January, has been that it can be adapted for use in multiple modes. It has a "standard" mode of operation, a "classic" mode (with the white-on-blue text that was the hallmark of WordPerfect during the 1980s), a "legal" mode for the product's many loyal law office clients, and a mode that essentially mimics Microsoft Word 2003.

As Corel's Richard Carriere said then, this was done in order to give Corel a way to introduce its product into enterprises where users are already trained on Word 2003, without having to retrain them or change their way of work.

It could very well be the feature that keeps WordPerfect hanging on. Though still considered a distant second in the market - many services long ago stopped measuring the relative state of word processors - WordPerfect fights for every user it can get, and doesn't mind bending over backwards to do so. It's no longer the standard bearer, Carriere freely admitted then, so it cannot afford to alienate its user by offering risky alternatives that could, at best, be supported by a measurable minority of the IT workforce.

But with Microsoft having overhauled its usage model entirely for Office 2007, WordPerfect faces a kind of crossroads: Conceivably, if it were to continue to offer an Office 2003 mode, it could address disaffected Microsoft customers who aren't willing to undergo extensive retraining. On the other hand, if businesses are sold on the "ribbon" and other new functionality enhancements, WordPerfect might not be able to afford looking like the "old school" alternative.

"I think it's a little too early to say whether or not we want to embrace a look and feel that's close to the ribbon that Microsoft is about to introduce," Carriere told BetaNews on Friday. "The user reaction will dictate, pretty much, what we want to do. But one thing is sure: When we are adopting new changes to the look and feel of our application, we want to give users the choice."

In the same way that users can choose one of four modes of work, he said, Corel would prefer to retain the option of adding a fifth mode, if possible, rather than force a new modus operandi upon its customers - and, in so doing, jeopardize its entire value proposition. "We will look at the reactions of users and the interests in this way to work," he said, "and if and when it becomes relevant, [that's] when we will make a decision around adding or not a new way to work."

Microsoft could make that decision even more complicated. Though it has announced its willingness to license its look and feel to other vendors for free, the guidelines which those licensees must follow may be extremely strict, probably not allowing them to utilize a ribbon-like look and feel as an alternative usage mode. But whether Microsoft even has the right to dictate terms on those levels, may be a subject of very substantive debate in the near future. For now, Corel is declining to take sides on that debate, pending a thorough review of the circumstances.

If Microsoft attempts to hold a tight rein over how its look and feel is used by others (the way Apple tried to do two decades earlier), the result could be that more users will be prompted to defect from the Microsoft camp, supporting the strongest alternative they can find. Could this be WordPerfect's opportunity to become the champion of the oppressed?

As the very pragmatic, always diplomatic, though never ambiguous Richard Carriere put it...no. "If some organization wants to make a political statement, we're probably not the right partner to do that," he told BetaNews, "because we've made the conscious decision to help organizations not go in one direction from which they might not easily pull themselves out. So in that sense, I'm totally comfortable. However, [if you're] an organization...that wants to push an agenda, let's say, with ODF...in plain language, by going with a solution like ours, you're still covering your rear end, because if things don't go the way you expect, then you always have an exit option that you might not have otherwise."

So WordPerfect goes forth - cautiously, judiciously, without even a hint of belligerence, carefully collecting every conceivable alternative to Microsoft Word it can find, including a work-alike mode, and combining them all into a comprehensive, pragmatic, though cohesive concept. Corel didn't embrace ODF this week to strike a chord of dissent. All it wants is harmony, and to secure its place as one of its components.