Category: WordPerfect

Converting Between WordPerfect and Word.

Want to edit a Word document using WordPerfect?
If you have the latest version of WordPerfect, just open the Word document and WordPerfect will convert it automatically, no matter what version of MS Word was used to save it.

Don’t have the latest version of WordPerfect (WP13 aka WPx3)? Then you need “The Know How.” Keep reading (or scroll down to skip the explanation and get right to it.)

Want to edit a WordPerfect document using MS Word?
Just open the WordPerfect document in any version of MS Word. Since WordPerfect’s document format has remained the same from version 6 through 13, this method should always work when opening any WordPerfect file in any version of MS Word.

Why can’t any version of WordPerfect open any Word file?
Nearly every version of MS Word produces a unique document format, so attempting to open a Word document in a previously released version of WordPerfect produces the message “Unknown File Format.”

(That’s okay, some previously released versions of MS Word had/have trouble opening newly released MS Word file formats – without a patch.)

Each version of WordPerfect produces the same document format – so MS Word has been able to read it since Word 6.0. Did WordPerfect just get it right the first time? Novell and Corel think so. Continue reading “Converting Between WordPerfect and Word.”

Should your firm switch from WordPerfect to Word?

Be warned, if you want a yes or no answer, you won’t find any bobble heads here. Rather than say “Yes! Switch!” and ride the gravy train through your conversion, I’m going to suggest you take a step back and objectively think this through with me.

Let’s start with your goals. What are you trying to accomplish by converting to MS Word? What do you want/need to do that you can’t do now? Why can’t you do it? Are you having trouble with document formatting? Is it that you just don’t know how to successfully convert your documents from Word to WordPerfect and back? When is the last time you had computer training? What version of WordPerfect are you currently using? Do you need to upgrade your software to WP13?

(If you switched to MS Word, it wouldn’t be to Word 97, Word XP or Word 2002, so why expect an outdated version of WordPerfect to work “perfectly” with the newer versions of MS Word your clients may be using?)

Why does any “WordPerfect Firm” consider switching to Word? Time and time again, the reason has been the same: To allow clients to revise their documents and . . . “everybody uses Word.” If that’s your answer, I have two responses:

1. If you regularly update your software, you have always had the ability to successfully convert documents from Word to WordPerfect and back.

Even if you have an outdated version of WordPerfect, there is a “trick” you can employ. For more information, see my post entitled “Converting Between WordPerfect and Word”

2. If you currently grant your clients the right to edit their own legal documents, consider a change in methodology to eliminate the risks associated with doing so, while eliminating extra work at the same time.

What do I mean by “a change in methodology?” Collaborate on document content instead of sharing editing rights. When I say that out loud, I’m often asked to explain the difference, so let me say it another way: Just because you collaborate on document content, doesn’t mean the document must be edited by all the collaborators. Doing so exposes you to risk.

(Risks? What risks? Sharing document revision with clients and outside attorneys puts law firms at risk. To better understand the risks, read my posts entitled, “Metadata, Shmetadata. It won’t happen to me.” and “Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.”)

The following alternative should be considered: Continue reading “Should your firm switch from WordPerfect to Word?”

Hey WordPerfect! Where is "Advanced Find" in the Open Menu?

The Short Answer: You probably have a version of WordPerfect which doesn’t include the QuickFinder. Those versions are: OEM, Home, Family Pack, Productivity Pack or any WordPerfect product that came free with your computer.

Work Arounds:
1. Use the “Search” feature in Microsoft Windows Explorer. It is not nearly as robust as the QuickFinder, but it’s a fairly good second choice.
2. Purchase or download free search software. Check out some cnet reviews:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3684_7-5536376-1.html

Note: these are desktop search programs and may not work to search for files on a network.

Details, Details, Details: If your Open dialog box doesn’t display a “Find Now” or “Advanced Find” command button, the QuickFinder search utilitity either isn’t installed or turned on. Because the default setting for QuickFinder is “On” it probably isn’t installed.

On the slight chance the feature is turned off, you can enable QuickFinder by following these steps:

1. Launch WordPerfect
2. Click Tools, Settings, File
3. On the Document Tab, enable the option: “Use enhanced file dialogs”
4. Click OK
5. Click Close Now when you go to File, Open you should see: Find Now, Advanced, New Search.
If you still don’t see these command buttons, the QuickFinder is not installed. At this point, there are two possibilities:

1. You own a version of WordPerfect which comes with the QuickFinder search utility and can install it. Again, because the default settings for installation include the QuickFinder installation, this is probably not the case. However, if you own the Standard, Professional or Small Business version, you can install the QuickFinder and can find the direction for each release of WordPerfect in the knowledgebase on http://www.corel.com. The links sometimes change, so I hesitate to provide it here. Go to http://www.corel.com and click “Support” from the navigation bar along the top. Select the option to search the knowledgebase. Under “Products and Services” select “WordPerfect Office” and then, in the submenu, select your release of WordPerfect. I selected “WordPerfect X3” to get the latest information. In the “Search Text” box, I typed “OEM QuickFinder” because I suspected the OEM version was the reason my QuickFinder didn’t appear. I was right.

2. The second, and most probable possibility is that you do NOT own a version of WordPerfect which comes with the QuickFinder. As I’ve already mentioned, the QuickFinder search utility is NOT available in the OEM, Family Pack, WordPerfect Home Edition and Productivity Pack versions of WordPerfect®. This also includes any version of WordPerfect which were bundled with other software, or came with your computer.

[TAB] [TAB] [TAB] [TAB] [TAB]

Default tabs are set at half inch increments, and while most people know they can change the tab settings in a document, there are countless people all over the world pressing:

[TAB] [TAB] [TAB] [TAB] [TAB]

to move their cursor and text to the desired spot on a page.

please stop. Tabs are EASY! Let’s change a few, shall we?

Before we begin, let’s review some Tab Rules:

1. Make sure your ruler is displayed (View, Ruler).
Setting tabs via the menu and dialog box is WAY too much work.

2. When you make a mistake, UNDO [CTRL+Z].
Trust me. Do not waste time trying to fix a tab. UNDO and try again.

3. Place your cursor where you want the new tab settings to take effect.
See the Blogs on WordPerfect Codes to understand why.

TO REMOVE A TAB, click and drag the little triangle down and off of the ruler bar. When you see the little garbage can, lift your finger off the mouse button.

TO SET A TAB, click the ruler bar, below the numbered line, EXACTLY where you want the tab to be set. If you make a mistake? UNDO and try again.

TO MOVE A TAB, click on the tab you want to move and drag it to another location on the ruler bar. Beware of the garbage can, if you see it, the tab will be deleted if you lift your finger off the mouse button. If you miss clicking on the tab and accidently set another one, right next to it? UNDO and try again.

Congratulations, you are now free from the drudgery of [TAB] [TAB] [TAB] [TAB] [TAB]

Reveal Codes, Simplified.

Overwhelmed when you Reveal Codes in your WordPerfect document? Sure, there are a lot of codes, but for the most part, they fall into two categories: “open” codes and “paired” codes. Let’s look at some visual characteristics and functional differences:

“OPEN” codes appear in Reveal Codes enclosed in a rectangle. When used, they take effect at the location of the cursor and continue to the end of the document OR until they are changed. For instance: Consider an open code which designates that double spacing should begin at a certain place in the document. The text will be double spaced from the starting point (the location of the cursor when the code was changed) to the end of the document OR until a single space code is inserted. Some other examples of open codes? Font, Tab Sets, Date, Headers and Footers and Paper Size designations.

“PAIRED” codes are just that – a pair. There’s a beginning code and an end code. My favorite description of the appearance of paired codes are “little price tags.” The beginning code has a rectangular left side and a pointed right side, while the end code shows a rectangular right side and a pointed left side. They do like little price tags. Some simple examples would be bold, italic and underline. For instance: When you reveal codes to view a bolded word, you will see a beginning code preceding the word and an end code following the word. Whatever lies between the codes is controlled by the codes. One important thing about paired codes – they are a pair. That means that they are inserted together and deleted together. You can’t just delete one. When you do, the other disappears as well.

Admittedly, there’s more to it than that. But it’s a strong start.

Keep Text Together on the Same Line

Ever type a date and have the year wrap to the next line? July 4,
2005.

What about typing a series of numbers and spaces, only to have the text word wrap – separating the numbers and making them difficult to read at a glance?

And what about the name of a person or company? How do you prevent a person’s middle initial from wrapping to the next line? How do you force the “Inc.” to STAY with the company name?

Instead of pressing the space bar, try inserting a “Hard Space” to connect the letters or words.

In WordPerfect, a hard space is inserted at the cursor location by pressing [CTRL+Spacebar].

In Microsoft Word, a hard space, also called a non-breaking space, is inserted at the cursor location by pressing [CTRL+SHIFT+Spacebar]

In WordPerfect, when you reveal the codes, you will see a rectangle with the letters “HSpace” inside. A HSpace code keeps the text together. Use it anytime you need to keep words or letters together on the same line. It’s like typing a hidden character which tricks the computer into thinking two words are really one.

In Word, when you turn on paragraph symbols, the non-breaking space will display as a small circle.

But PLEASE. Don’t use hard/non-breaking spaces to replace tabs.

If you promise not to use hard spaces instead of tabs, I promise to provide information on tabs and how to set them.

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

The fastest increasing quantity on this planet is the amount of information we are generating. It is (and has been) expanding faster than anything else we create or can measure over the scale of decades. Information moves faster too. Sometimes instantaneously. In our struggle to keep up, we sometimes adopt new technology without considering the unintended consequences.

So are you ready to click away from here, thinking, “What is she talking about?”

I’m talking about the technology driven methodology we’ve adopted to create and revise legal documents. Providing clients with the ability to edit their own legal documents seemed harmless in the beginning. In the beginning, we talked to the client about every single change. We still proofed our documents, revision by revision. Some of us used boxes of red felt tip markers to check off each completed revision. We didn’t worry about the content of the documents because we always read them when they came back to us.

Then we discovered metadata. We discovered our clients computing skills were . . . different than ours. Rather than discuss every single revision, we spent time comparing the content of the returned document with our version of it. Then we spent additional time cleaning up the format of those returned documents. When we did read an entire document, we sometimes discovered the content wasn’t “right.” If only word processing software came with a “content” checker along with a spell and grammar checker.

Some firms have tackled the problems head on. They’ve researched and implemented proactive solutions, whether they be software purchases and upgrades, staff training, methodology changes, or a combination of the three. Good for you!

Many firms have dismissed the risks and continue to allow clients to edit their own documents without implementing procedures to effectively and safely manage the process. Not so good for you.

How Did This Happen? The impetus for change was that the client wanted editing rights to their own legal documents. Feeling the pressure from clients to adopt MS Word as a primary word processor, many law firms converted. Other firms adopted a “dual platform environment” whereby they continued to harness the power of WordPerfect to edit their documents and converted them to Word when sending them to clients.

With more recent advancements in technology, the issue isn’t whether your firm uses Word or WordPerfect. What matters is that you protect yourself, your client’s interests and the integrity of the documents for which you are responsible. Admittedly, you have choices as to how that can be done. Continue reading “Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.”

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