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The surgical techniques presented here were originally compiled by Sheila Moore,
"Queen of Word Processing", fellow instructor and valued friend, who holds more knowledge in her head than the law should allow. Thank you, Sheila for trusting me to edit and present this version.
Discover Industrial Strength Survival Techniques
When you open a WordPerfect document in Microsoft Word 97, conversion takes place immediately. Depending on the formatting in the converted document, you may find it necessary to perform minor surgery.The items listed below should be considered when editing a converted document.
Spot the Intruder
A converted document can be spotted by the {Private} field code inserted in to the document. To see this code, turn on Show/Hide . In case the user wants the document to be saved as a WordPerfect file, Word inserts the {Private} codes to retain the WordPerfect formatting. These can be deleted.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE Hold the Control key down and type A C N V
( Select All: Copy: New: Paste )Pasting an old WordPerfect document into a new Word document tends to strip the file of troublesome codes and patterns. While this is a good approach to cleaning up a converted file, it may not cure all problems.
Tip: To remember this maneuver, think: "You're jealous of someone who has a better air conditioner than you." AC envy! Get it? Dumb, yes, but I bet you'll never forget it.
Click the links below or scroll down to read this page.
 Fonts
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Paragraphs
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Pagination
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Styles
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Field Codes
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Page Numbering
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Uneven Lines
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Footnotes
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Paragraph Numbering
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Font Problems
Fonts may change or appear chopped off.
To fix:
Ctrl-A to select the entire document
Ctrl-D (Format:Font) to select font type.
Note: If you pick a font type, but not a size, the original font sizes will remain as they are, only the type of font selected will change.To reset font attributes to the default settings :
Ctrl-A
Control-SpacebarExplanation
In WordPerfect 5.1, fonts were mono-spaced, that is, all the same width. That is not true in Windows, most fonts are proportional - not the same width. Since each letter is not the same width, the measurement of the document changes.Spacing
If spacing appears "off" it may be due to the spacebar being used to separate text. Remove the extra spaces and set Tabs to guarantee proper spacing.Paragraph Problems
If a converted document appears to have incorrect line spacing: Ctrl-A Select All
Ctrl-1 to reset the line spacing to single space OR
Ctrl-2 for double space.To remove all paragraph formatting:
(line spacing, indents, alignment, paragraph spacing and pagination)
Ctrl-A
Ctrl-Q to reset the paragraph formatting to the default settings. This does not effect font attributes-type, style, or size.
Pagination
Pagination may have changed. You may also see text break across pages strangely. Ctrl-A
Click Format: Paragraph
Click on the Line and Page Breaks tab
Click to remove any checkmarks in "Keep with Next," "Keep Lines Together" or "Page Break Before" The checkboxes may have either a black or gray checkmark. Gray means that the feature is on somewhere in the selected text, only not in every paragraph that is in the selection. Click in the boxes until they are clear.Be aware that Widow/Orphan can also throws off pagination, especially in converted documents. If necessary, turn it off following the steps above. The default is for Widow/Orphan control is "ON" .
Styles
Styles may have been applied to paragraphs and no longer appear correct. To remove all styles: Ctrl-A
Ctrl Shift N to reset all text to the Normal style. OR
On the Formatting Toolbar , click on the down arrow for the Style box (first shortcut on the toolbar). Select the Normal StyleField Codes
Bizarre looking codes in brackets {}.
Note: These may or may not appear shaded.
If the fields appear as a code and not text, you can do one of two things:
1) To see text- click Tools: Options: View . Clear the checkmark next to Field Codes . Or,
2) Ctrl-A to Select the entire document and press Shift-F9 to toggle the fields between viewing codes and viewing results.
Click Tools:Options:View.
Change Field Shading list box to Always.Field Problems
You may have codes in the document that look correct, but do not properly update.
Ctrl-A
F9 to update
If updating fails, redo the numbering or marking.
Page Numbering
Page numbering may have to be redone. Remember, in Word you must insert a section break for each area of your document that will have different numbering styles or if page numbering is to restart. You must also decide if the next section begins on the next page or continues on the same page.Example: Your document has a Table of Contents and a main body. The Table of Contents is to be numbered in lower case Roman numerals with the main body numbered regular Arabic numerals. In order to accomplish this, a section break is placed at the end of the Table of Contents using the Section Break: Next Page option.
Remember , before applying Roman numerals to the Table of Contents section, make sure your cursor is somewhere in the Table of Contents area (Section 1).
How to Apply the Section Break
Insert: Break
Section Breaks: Continuous
Repeat the process for the main body of your document.
Uneven Lines
Lines created using the underscore key may be improperly spaced.
Remove and Redo using this method:
Place cursor on the line where you want to underline
Set a Tab where you want to line to end
Ctrl-U to turn on underlining
Ctrl-Tab to create the line.Section Breaks
Word places a section break wherever a major change in page layout occurs. i.e. different margins, headers/footers, page size/orientation, etc. Each time there was an "On-Off" code pair in WordPerfect, you can expect a section break in Word. To see section break markings , change to the normal view. View: Normal . You may need to delete and reinsert section breaks to correct the pagination.Footnotes
If you used a footnote style in WordPerfect that is not an option in Word 97, Word will not copy the formatting. To convert the footnote numbering style to any of Word's accepted footnote styles:View: Footnote s (not necessary, but good to observe changes as they occur)
Insert: Footnote: Options
Select number format to use
Click OK, then
Click cancel- to avoid actually adding another footnote.
Paragraph numbering problems
If paragraphs numbering is incorrect.
Verify that all paragraph numbers were inserted using codes and not typed in as text.
Select the numbered paragraphs
Turn numbering off. Format: Bullets and Numbering
Select None .Turn numbering on again. Format: Bullets and Numbering
Select a Number Style .
