Those darned WP Typographic Symbols!!! Argh!
Here's how I've tested the copy/paste unformatted text process (very
unscientific test!) Once the doc is in Word 2003 ... save it ... then open
in Word 97. If the WP Typographic Symbols still exist - they will appear in
Word 97. I don't know about Word 2000, they do not appear after the above
copy/paste unformatted text process in Word XP or 2003. (I keep Word 97
around on an old laptop because so darn many attorneys still use it. What
are they waiting for???)
I think the key to this is to paste unformatted text. Insert, File never
did enough "cleanup" to make it worth leaning on, at least for the work I do
with legal secretaries in small firms. YMMV! Give it a whirl, I'll do the
same with Insert, File, and we'll se what we discover!
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:
Thanks for the tip! I'll have to try it the next time I'm forced to deal
with a WP doc. Although fortunately this happens less and less frequently in
my business, I'm about to begin a project that involves having a couple of
dozen writers submitting short stories, and inevitably at least a couple of
them will still be using WP.
Now that I think of it, though, this is the method I use for these short
stories: I have a template for the anthology that I use to (as a first step)
create a separate file for each story (later they're assembled into the
finished ms using Insert | File). I use Copy/Paste to dump (most of) the
author's doc into it, and it seems to me that I'm still cleaning up the WP
Typographic Symbols in some of those.
FWIW, does Insert | File to operate the same way as copying and pasting
without the final paragraph mark? I would expect it to.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"AnnieB" wrote in message
...
Nope - opening the WP doc in Word works just fine. Done this for year's
in
firms where WP has gone bye-bye. Believe me, if it hadn't worked, I
would've
been strung up by groups of stressed legal secretaries! (Scary thought!)
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:
If it does all that, it's definitely worth trying, but I would guess it
would works well only if you could open the doc in WP and copy. I don't
see
how such a copy/paste would get rid of the section breaks after the
document
had been opened in Word.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"AnnieB" wrote in message
...
IME it does get rid of the dreaded plethora (*lots* is an
understatement!)
of
Section Breaks (continuous) and otherwise) left over from WP.
Otherwise I
couldn't have counted on using this process over the years. My
experience
is
with Word 2000, XP, and 2003 vs. WordPerfect docs of much dubious
heritage,
age, and funkiness of their own. And ... it often gets rid of those
nasty
WP
Typographic Symbols (is that the correct expression?)
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:
The final paragraph contains *formatting,* not corruption; that's
why
you
don't copy it. But this approach won't help if the WP document
contains
section breaks, which Word will think it does if the margins or
header/footer change between pages; a converted WP doc will contain
*lots*
of section breaks.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.
"AnnieB" wrote in message
...
Wanda,
If you have a number of WordPerfect files which you expect to use
in
Word,
here are a few ideas:
1) Investigate Levit & James (www.levitjames.com) product named
CrossWords.
This product does an incredible job converting WP documents to
Word.
Many
law firms use this product. I've used it in many conversions
from WP
to
Word. They provide excellent service and assistance in fine
tuning
the
conversion for your set of WP documents.
2) Investigate MicroSystems (www.microsystems.com) - they also
provide
WP
to
Word conversion capabilities. Their approach is different from
Levit &
James.
I have never used Microsystems WP to Word conversion
product/system.
3) If neither of the above is a possibility, here's a taste of the
approach
I take at law firms who cannot or will not use the Levit & James
product
(CrossWords.) The approach works because it is based on the way
Word
works.
Create a template containing a standard set of styles relevant to
your
documents. (This is usually done by the consultant working with
the
help
desk or the "Word" person at the firm.) Make sure this template's
page
layout is as you desire. To improve Word's justification ( which
is
pretty
crappy), go to Tools, Options, Compatibility and choose "Do full
justification like WordPerfect 6.x for Windows". This template
will
be
your
"container" for the text in the old WP doc. (One other thought - I
have
seen
way too many Normal templates with screwed up page layout,
compatibility,
etc. I am almost tempted to say close Word, blow away your Normal
template
and then open Word. It regenerates the Normal template.)
It is helpful to print the WP document, so you can refer to it for
formatting. Maybe your documents are not as long or rigidly
formatted
as
some legal documents, so you may not have to print the document.
Open the WP document in Word. Select all text EXCEPT the last
paragraph
mark. As far back as Word 1.1 we knew that this last paragraph
mark
can
contain corruption and it can be helpful to not copy it.
Open a document based on the template discussed above which
contains
your
standard set of styles. The choose Edit, Paste Special,
Unformatted
Text.
Now you have unformatted text in a Word container.
Before you fixate on formatting paragraphs, words, etc. you
should
continue
to work in a "top down" fashion. Insert Section Breaks where
needed.
Start
at the first section and make page layout changes for that section
as
desired. Set up your page numbering in this first section, as
desired.
(BTW
- Insert, Page Number from the menu is to be avoided. I have seen
(and
read)
that the "frame" (what is it called nowadays?) in which the page
number is
placed can cause comparison problems when using, for example, a
comparison
product like DeltaView. There are other issues as well with that
damned
Insert, Page Number.) Proceed to the next section and make page
layout
changes, set up page numbering; continue on this way.
Now you have a Word container whose sections are properly
formatted,
containing unformatted text. Now you can apply styles, and then
proceed
to
formatting words (characters.)
If you need to generate a TOC, TOA, or set up automatic paragraph
numbering;
or you need tables, etc. you can proceed in those directions,
knowing
the
container for your document is nicely set.
Maybe this helps ..? Or might have been overkill!
AnnieB
"wanda" wrote:
I have a document in word office - document was transferred from
an
old
word
perfect program. After downloading the document, the format is
wrong.