WordPerfect 5.1 horrible? Your experience was vastly different from mine.

When I was converted from Wordstar 3.3 to WordPerfect 5.1, I sounded just like your post: no visible menu, cheat sheet, typing mode, the whole nine yards. I was told it didn't matter, that's what we were now using, here's your command template, put it down over your function keys and get to work.

Within a month, you couldn't have forced me back to Wordstar at gunpoint. IMO, WordPerfect 5.1 was the Gold Standard of word processors and I've measured everything since against it.