Agree absolutely. Much as I loved WordPerfect and liked to oppose the
all-embracing Micro$oft, I have to admit that the best way forward for me
was to quickly forget WP and learn to use Word (naturally, and no doubt
obvious by my posts, I am still learning). I then took all my old WP
documents and put them in a separate subdirectory in my documents. If I ever
need one, I simply load it in and convert it to a Word document (the first
time I did this I was asked to insert my Word CD to load in the add-in). Now
all is sweet. IMO Word is a hugely complex and on the whole excellent
program, and learning from the MVPs here and their various papers is all a
help.
"Charles Kenyon" wrote in message
...
Like Suzanne, I am puzzled by your reference to header-footer commands. I
don't know of such c ommands. In WP headers and footers are separate
entries that do have such commands. In Word, they are part of the section
formatting.
Here is some general info on moving from Word Perfect to Word. It may not
help with your immediate problem but should make your life easier in the
future.
Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one another. Each
program's methods have strengths and weaknesses; but, if you try to use
one of these programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing on a
string! You can easily make a lot of extra work for yourself. In the
(short) long term (weeks rather than years) spending the time to learn
Word will save you time if you are spending any time at all (more than an
hour a day) using Word.
See http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordperfect.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...ordPerfect.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...AndGotchas.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Genera...Converters.htm
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/conc...ion/index.html
for information on Word for Word Perfect users.
For mo
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart2.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...platePart1.htm
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/bull...olbullets.html
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Number...gExplained.htm
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Custom...latesStore.htm
Function Keys
In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a
special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like
pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this.
Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys()
Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True
End Sub
Word's Extend key (F8) gives something similar to block processing.
Formatting and Styles
Learn about Styles - really learn!
http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm I resisted for years and
now regret every day of those years because although that string was still
very hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very
important projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word
concept of organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into
place and instead of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on
the very powerful text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it
will start doing your work for you instead of running around behind you
trying to undo what you just thought you did.
Converting documents Word / Word Perfect
Some special characters in Word Perfect documents don't convert well to
Word. There is a macro to assist with this described at
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/...html#macroword and can be
found at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/WPSymbolConv.bas.
This was prepared by Edward Mendelson.
Otherwise, look at the macro from
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=212396
Use these on _copies_!
As for converting documents from Word Perfect to _use_ in Word... In a
word, don't plan on it. I would not recommend using converted documents
long-term. They will be filled with formatting anomolies that will get you
at the worst time. This is especially true of any documents containing
automatic numbering or bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word
using the following process:
In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as
text files.
Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your
formatting to look.
Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save
this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using
styles, not direct formatting. Save it again.
To use a template within Word, use File = New and pick your template.
This will create a new document for you.
Merge documents have special problems and should be recreated from text
files or retyped in Word. To convert data files, consider generating
labels in WP as a document, converting that to Word, and then using
http://www.gmayor.com/convert_labels...mail_merge.htm to get a new Word
data file.
Note that conversions usually do create documents that look passable and
print OK; the problems I'm referring to have to do with editing / making
changes, that is, using the documents long-term. (See below on reusing
documents vs. using templates.)
Conversion back to Word Perfect: There is a problem (in addition to the
ones mentioned for conversion _to_ Word) with Version 2002 (XP) and later
of Word. The conversion file only works for conversion _to_ Word, not from
Word to Word Perfect! Earlier versions went both ways. To fix this, you
need to find the old conversion file WPFT532.CNV from a Word 97 or Word
2000 installation and copy it to your new installation, replacing the file
of the same name. Note, the change making the file one-way was done as a
security measure. While I don't know of any problems the old file causes,
keep the new installation's file somewhere as a backup just in case.
Menus and AutoFormat as you type
Turn off the adaptive menus (display full menus all the time). This is
under Tools Customize Options. Also, I recommend that under Tools
AutoCorrect Options AutoFormat as you type that all options under "Apply
as you type" and "Automatically as you type" be turned off.
Boilerplate and Forms
In WP a lot of people use macros to hold chunks of text - boilerplate. In
Word this function is filled by Templates, AutoText and AutoCorrect, not
macros. Follow the links at
http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebre...s.htm#AutoText for more
information on these tools.
You can use FILLIN and ASK fields or UserForms to query the user. For more
about online forms, follow the links at
http://addbalance.com/word/wordwebresources.htm#Forms or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...nTheBlanks.htm especially
Dian Chapman's series of articles. You may also want to look at
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFl...nesInForms.htm.
Letterhead
How to set up letterhead or some other document where you want one header
(or no header) on the first page and a different header on other pages.
http://www.addbalance.com/word/headersfooters.htm This gives step-by-step
instructions. (This page also has the following links)
Some other pages to look at:
Letterhead Tips and Instructions
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm
Letterhead Textboxes and Styles tutorial
http://addbalance.com/word/download....StylesTutorial
(for simulating different margins on different pages, among other things)
Reusing Documents vs. Using templates
General practice in WP is to have a document and copy and edit it to
create a new document. This is not good practice in Word. In Word,
construct a good, tight, template for your documents and use that template
when constructing new documents. Among other things, this can avoid
embarrassing "metadata"
(http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/metadata.htm) and things like
surprise headers and footers from creeping into new documents.
Sharing normal.dot - centralizing normal.dot
It is tempting to try to share customizations and regularize processes by
sharing normal.dot. Do not do this! See
http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm and
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm for ideas on sharing
customizations.
It's a lot of reading, I know. It's OK to chunk it down and do a bit each
day, but I would recommend that you make it a top priority to do that bit
each day. In the (short) long run, it will save you both time and grief.
--
Charles Kenyon
Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word
Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide
See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs which is awesome!
My criminal law site: http://addbalance.com
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This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
"LHD" wrote in message
...
I routinely used WordPerfect before I retired, and have not had occasion
to
write long documents since then. We have a relatively new Dell Dimension
that came with Microsoft Word. I was asked to write about a 50 page
document, which I started in Word Perfect, before I found that it was
never
saved in the correct format, due to some inexplicable interference with
Word.
So I copied to Word, to complete the document. However, in restoring a
deleted passage, Word duplicated about 5 times inserting it randomly in
the
body of my document and surrounded it with Header-Footer commands. How
do I
get rid of this? I have read the manual and Word for Dummies.and cannot
find any explanation? Makes me almost wish I weren't retired so I could
call
tech support and not have to deal with it..