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#1
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
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How do I go back and forth between Word and WordPerfect?
Is the .rtf extension the best way to go back and forth between Word and
WordPerfect with a minimum of imcompatibility? I am not yet familiar with Word but I'm very familiar with WordPerfect. I'm revising Word documents sent to me but I'm doing the revisions in WordPerfect. Thanks in advance. |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
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How do I go back and forth between Word and WordPerfect?
Microsoft Word and Corel Word Perfect use different file formats. That
simple statement hides a problem of great complexity. Word and Word Perfect use totally different models of document structure. In short, there is no simple answer to your question. So, it is not to avoid your question that I must ask; what do you mean by "a minimum of incompatibility?" If you mean to ask what format to use so thet the resulting file can be opened in either programme without causing a system error, rtf will do. If you mean, what format to use that will accurately maintain all formatting, nothing shall-especially with round-trip conversions. And, in the end, you will simply have to try a variety of combinations with typical document formatting. Microsoft has gone to great lengths and expended a lot of resources producing a good WP to Word filter. It works very well with a variety of documents in one direction; WP to Word. Alas, the Word to WP conversion ability was dropped from the most recent filter mostly because of security converns. So, that takes us to the option of using the older Microsoft filter. It also works well for most documents but can fail spectacularly with complex formatting. e.g. two snakeing columns followed by one followed by two with each section containing complexly-formatted tables which in turn have MS Graph objects and imported Excel tables. For many not-too-complex documents, the WP import filter works well. However, you will find that formatting has to be "touched up". e.g. WP has no concept of a continuous section break and inserts a page break. And you still have the problem of convereting to Word when you have completed the editing. If you save as word, and you have used any of WP's more recent features, they might not survive the conversion to Word. And if you save in WP, the formatting is preserved only to be lost in opening using the Word converter to open. Tom MSMVP Windows Shell/User wrote in message ... | Is the .rtf extension the best way to go back and forth between Word and | WordPerfect with a minimum of imcompatibility? I am not yet familiar with | Word but I'm very familiar with WordPerfect. I'm revising Word documents | sent to me but I'm doing the revisions in WordPerfect. Thanks in advance. |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
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How do I go back and forth between Word and WordPerfect?
Tom's answer is thorough. If someone wants to use a Word Perfect document as
the basis for new Word documents, I advise saving a copy of the WP document as plain text and pasting that text into a Word template that is set up properly. Then format the text using styles in Word to make it look like the original. Save as a new template and use that for Word documents. If you look at a converted document, it is _very_ complex at the file level even though it may look the same. It can make for a great deal of difficulty editing. If this is going to be much of your work in the future, I would advise getting and learning Word. It will not be a painless process, but will be worthwhile. You'll end up with more satisfied clients and less hair-pulling on your part. I have a whole page of advice / links that I send people making this transition; let me know if you want it. -- 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! --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- 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. "annedill" wrote in message ... Is the .rtf extension the best way to go back and forth between Word and WordPerfect with a minimum of imcompatibility? I am not yet familiar with Word but I'm very familiar with WordPerfect. I'm revising Word documents sent to me but I'm doing the revisions in WordPerfect. Thanks in advance. |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
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How do I go back and forth between Word and WordPerfect?
I second Charles' remarks. I used to be a devoted WP user (in pre-windows
times) and I have still got extensive WP documents archived. Initially I resisted Word because of the perceived arrogance of Microsoft. But when I took the plunge, I realised how much better Word actually is. There appear to be the odd bugs but what you can do with it is simply marvellous (eg comments and track revision), as well as Word being probably the acceptable standard. It's well worth the transition. Occasionally I look at my WP documents via Word, and note that it is quite erratic with font conversions. So what I do now is use my old WP (from a DOS window) for all casual inspections. If I want to go further, I convert to Word and manually clean up the result. I am using W98, Word 2000. Charles Kenyon wrote: Tom's answer is thorough. If someone wants to use a Word Perfect document as the basis for new Word documents, I advise saving a copy of the WP document as plain text and pasting that text into a Word template that is set up properly. Then format the text using styles in Word to make it look like the original. Save as a new template and use that for Word documents. If you look at a converted document, it is _very_ complex at the file level even though it may look the same. It can make for a great deal of difficulty editing. If this is going to be much of your work in the future, I would advise getting and learning Word. It will not be a painless process, but will be worthwhile. You'll end up with more satisfied clients and less hair-pulling on your part. I have a whole page of advice / links that I send people making this transition; let me know if you want it. -- 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! --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- 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. "annedill" wrote in message ... Is the .rtf extension the best way to go back and forth between Word and WordPerfect with a minimum of imcompatibility? I am not yet familiar with Word but I'm very familiar with WordPerfect. I'm revising Word documents sent to me but I'm doing the revisions in WordPerfect. Thanks in advance. |