Tag: WordPerfect

Need a New Page? Don’t Hit Enter Till You Get One, Hit CTRL+Enter

Sometimes the smallest computer tip escapes me because I’ve known and used it for so long, but today, I helped someone create a Table of Contents for a document and when I turned on Show/Hide paragraph marks, check out what I saw on the page my client had reserved for the TOC:

I didn’t count the hard returns, but suffice it to say this is NOT the best way to get a new page. In this particular situation, as soon as the Table of Contents is generated and fills the page, ALL those hard returns will have to be deleted.

In the broader scope of document editing, anytime someone presses the Enter key multiple times to get to the next page, all those extra hard returns will have to be deleted when the document is edited and pagination changes. When this method of getting to a new page is used multiple times throughout a document, editing can easily turn into a circular game of adding and deleting hard returns every time text is added or removed.

Instead of pressing the Enter key over and over and over and OVER again, try pressing the keyboard shortcut “CTRL+Enter” to insert a page break at the location of your cursor.

With the paragraph marks shown, it looks like this:

>

I’ll address all the unnecessary spaces and tabs after the word ARTICLES in another post.

WordPerfect: How to Change Outline Format when “Edit Style” is Grayed Out

Below is an example of a basic 4 level, double spaced, flush left outline:

But suppose you wanted to change your outline format from flush left paragraphs to indented paragraphs? If you are comfortable with WordPerfect Bullets and Numbering, you might click “Outline” in reveal codes or “Modify” in the Property Bar to open the “Create Format” dialog box to display settings for the active outline:

So far, so good. But when you look more closely, you’ll see that the “Edit Style” button is grayed out. Unavailable.

that’s inconvenient.

But there’s another way. Actually, TWO other ways. Check it out:
Continue reading “WordPerfect: How to Change Outline Format when “Edit Style” is Grayed Out”

Troubleshooting WordPerfect Publish to PDF.

Is WordPerfect PDF only publishing the current page of the document unless you select/highlight the entire document text?

The Fix:
1. In WordPerfect, click File, Publish to PDF.
2. Select “Settings . . . ” in the bottom right corner of the dialog box.
3. Change the “Export range” to “Full Document” and click “OK” to save the new setting.
4. Cancel the “Publish to PDF” menu and, as an extra precaution, exit WordPerfect to make sure the change holds.
Continue reading “Troubleshooting WordPerfect Publish to PDF.”

automatic text generation. a variation for the easily distracted.

In the previous #pragmaticcomputingtip, entitled “automatic random text generation. improved?” I shared a nifty little feature in Word 2007 and 2010 which automated the generation of random text.

Check it out and then come on back and I’ll walk you through you a variation.

no. really. check it out. I’ll wait.

okay, welcome back.

While =rand(p,s) is effective and fun, its use has a potential problem. It generates interesting text. Okay, “interesting” is debatable, but it generates English text that makes sense, which means there’s a potential for distraction.

If you don’t want your reader/learner/audience to focus on the content of your text, there’s another, similar feature that generates nonsensical random text that will keep people focused on the form of your document/website without tempting anyone to read for content absorption. Try this:
Continue reading “automatic text generation. a variation for the easily distracted.”

printer tshooting with WordPerfect

Every once in a while, I dig into WordPerfect to disable a little known setting:

“Reformat documents for the WordPerfect default printer on open”

This eliminates a few different problems, two of which come immediately to mind:

1. Older WordPerfect documents won’t open correctly in a newer version of WordPerfect.
2. Existing documents won’t print to the correct paper trays, but new documents will.

Sometimes an error message will indicate a missing (and OLD) print driver, sending someone on a quest to find it. When it’s found and loaded on a new machine, WordPerfect can open the document.

That’s a good workaround, but sometimes an old printer driver can’t be found or and/or old universal drivers won’t do the trick. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of this type of issue since HP isn’t making Windows 7 64 bit drivers for their old printers.

Try this instead: Click Tools, Settings, Environment, 2nd check box – UN-check “Reformat documents for the WordPerfect default printer on open”

WordPerfect SWITCH and CASEOF

In generating a WordPerfect merge document, one of my clients wanted to type an acronym for a plaintiff ONE time and have the merge process insert many different things in the document, based on that one, shortened client reference.

Let’s look at how to do that. The code looks like this:

(click to zoom any image)

Step 1. In the process of setting up the WP merge, a data field was created for the plaintiff, named “Plaintiff Short.”

This particular merge form was only used for three clients, so the example is limited to three. Keep in mind, you can have more or less.

Here’s the code as it appeared in the WP merge form document:

CODES(
SWITCH(FIELD(Plaintiff Short))
CASEOF(BIGBANK1)
INSERT(The Big Bank of Central Southeast, a Florida corporation)
CASEOF(BIGBANK2)
INSERT(Small Town Bank, a Florida corporation)
CASEOF(CREDITUNION)
INSERT(The Friendly Local Credit Union, a State Chartered Credit Union)
DEFAULT
KEYBOARD(Please the Name of the Bank and Click “Continue”)
ENDSWITCH
)

Note: You can’t just type this code. Here’s how to insert the code into your form document.

Step 2. Open the merge form. In the Merge subtoolbar, click the “Insert Merge Code” button and select “More . . . ” The following dialog box appears:

The first code I insert is “CODES(merge codes)” which ignores hard returns and spaces between its parenthesis. With my cursor between the parenthesis of the CODES() merge code, I press enter to insert a hard return and place my cursor on the following line, so it looks like this (the cursor is shown in red):

CODES(
|)

Step 3. Leaving the “Insert Merge Codes” dialog box open and find the “SWITCH(exp)” merge code in the list click Insert. Another dialog box, entitled “Insert Merge Code” is displayed. I don’t enter anything and click “OK”

The code should now look like this (:

CODES(SWITCH(|))

Leave the Merge Code dialog box displayed if it doesn’t bother you, close it if it does. (I closed it so as not to confuse anyone.) Next click the “Insert Field” button on the Merge subtoolbar and select the field you need. In this case, I selected the “Plaintiff Short” field and clicked insert.

Step 4. Close the “Insert Field” dialog box. If you closed the “Insert Merge Code” dialog box, open it again by Placing the cursor on the next (empty) line, click the “Insert Merge Code” button and select “More . . . ”

Step 5. Insert the “CASEOF” code. With the cursor between the parenthesis of the CASEOF code, type the text which might be entered into the “Plaintiff Short” data field during a merge:

In this case, the text “BIGBANK1” is entered.

Step 6. Repeat step 5 as many times as needed, changing the text to be entered in each possible scenario. (In my example code above, I added an option for text entry to allow for the possibility of a new client.)

Step 7. Finish by inserting the “ENDSWITCH” merge code. The end parenthesis for the CODE command still appears and it completes the code snippet!

Step 8. One simple way to use the result of that snippet is to insert the “Plaintiff Short” field into the document everywhere the Plaintiff’s acronym should appear, but there are lots of other possibilities!

Want to learn more? Visit www.pragmaticcom.com and schedule a training session!

viewing invisible grid lines

Can’t see the grid lines for labels or margins in WordPerfect? It could be a problem with Windows and flatscreen monitors. (Corel’s support database – Answer ID 207679) Try this:

For Windows XP:
1. Right click on the Desktop, select Properties.
2. Select the Appearance tab.
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown.
5. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray.
6. Click OK, then click Apply on the Appearance tab.
7. Click OK, and open WordPerfect.

For Windows Vista:
1. Right click on the Desktop, select Personalize
2. Click on Window Color Appearance
3. Click on Open Classic Appearance
4. Click the Advance button
5. Select 3D Objects in the Item dropdown
6. Under Color 1, choose a darker shade of gray.
7. Click OK, then click Apply on the Appearance tab.
8. Click OK, launch WordPerfect.

The grid lines should be more visible. (The darker the shade of gray you select the more visible the grid lines will be.)

WordPerfect Auto Numbering Made Even Easier!

Let’s break this up into three parts, shall we?

1. How to use a custom outline/auto paragraph numbering macro I may have written for you.
2. Tips for working with the WordPerfect auto numbering/outline feature.
3. Issues with using auto numbering when allowing MS Word users to edit your document.
__________

Part 1: Using Pragmatic Macros

To format any document with a custom auto numbering style using a WordPerfect macro written by me:

1. Place the cursor where you want the numbering to begin or at the top of the document. (I always put it at the top of the document so it’s easy to find later.)

2. Play the macro. Depending on your preferences, I’ve either given you a shortcut key (ALT+O) or placed a button on your toolbar which shows a I.A.1. descending top left to bottom right of the button. So either type your shortcut key or click your button. The screen will flash a few times and insert the first number at the location of the cursor. If you don’t need a number in that exact spot (like at the top of the doc), turn it off with “CTRL+H”

3. Once the macro has been played in a document and the document has been saved, the macro never needs to be run in that document again. (Unless you accidentally delete it – another reason I place it at the top of the document instead of placing it at the first numbered paragraph).
__________

Part 2: TIPS for Working with Auto Paragraph Numbering: Continue reading “WordPerfect Auto Numbering Made Even Easier!”

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.”

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