WordPerfect for Windows revisited: Some tips

WordPerfect for Windows revisited: Some tips

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Recently I accepted a task that required me to use WordPerfect, the word processor that I abandoned more than three years ago when I moved to Windows. Actually, I could still use Ami Pro or Winword and convert the file I would create to WP file format before handing it to the WP-bound publisher, but I decided against doing so because the document would contain a large number of footnotes and would be too risky to convert. I thought I'd better use WP right from the start to make sure I wouldn't get into trouble. With hundreds of pages being written I didn't want to discover the file turned out unusable after all. So I installed WPWin 6.0a, which was not the latest version from WordPerfect but contained revisions from Version 6.0 that we reviewed more than a year ago.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this revision, the release date of which was April 20, 1994, worked markedly faster than the first release. To be fair, of course, I have to attribute some of the improvement to the faster CPU I am using now, plus the 16 MB RAM as opposed to the 8 MB I had on my previous machine. Still, Version 6.0a has definitely been optimized and made to run more efficiently. Most of the bugs of the first release have been ironed out, and it is now what a word processor should be. WPWin 6.0a has improved speed in basic formatting, scrolling, printing, graphics handling, table manipulation and editing, importing 5.x documents, document comparing, outlining, and launching WPDraw. Use of ExpressDocs templates and large documents handling have also been enhanced. All these improvements explain why some computer magazines still bestow prestigious awards to WordPerfect for Windows, despite the onslaught from Winword 6.0.

In addition, new features have been added as well. For instance, WPWin 6.0a has the QuickCorrect tool, akin to Winword's AutoCorrect; this feature allows you to automatically replace your common spelling errors and mistyped words, to insert special characters, or to expand abbreviations. (You know, I had thought this feature was to be found only in WPWin 6.1, the latest generation, but it turned out I was mistaken. It s already included in Version 6.0a.) Clearly the folks in Orem, Utah, have done their homework.

Furthermore, over the years that I've been using and championing Ami Pro, I have also found out that WordPerfect still commands a large number of faithful followers. It is not really surprising if we take into account the fact that, for most people, changing such a tool as the word processor that they use everyday is not as easy as changing the cars that they drive. (Well, even changing cars is not that easy; you'll still have to learn all the buttons that control the air conditioner, the radio, etc.)

Nevertheless, this task gave me a valuable opportunity to get to know WPWin again and to explore more of its features. Here are some tricks that I learned along the way, and who knows, if you happen to be a WPWin fanatic you can make use of them too.

Selecting text

One of the nicest things about working within the Windows environment is that we can select an element, such as a string of text and a piece of graphics, and manipulate it. WPWin now lets you choose among several different ways to make your selection. When you need to highlight a single word, for instance, there is an easier way than to drag and brush the mouse pointer across it. Just place the insertion point anywhere inside the word, and doubleclick with the left mouse button. Right now I happen to use a Logitech mouse, the middle button of which I've set up to simulate doubleclicking, and this makes it even more simple to highlight a word.

WPWin is smart enough to count how many times you click within the specified time span set by the mouse software. Clicking three times will highlight the entire sentence, and clicking four times will highlight the entire paragraph. The latter is a very handy feature if you want to create lists of bulleted items, for example.

You also can make a selection by placing the mouse pointer in the left margin. The pointer will now point to the right. Clicking once will select an entire sentence on the right of the pointer, clicking twice will highlight the entire paragraph. Clicking the right mouse button, however, will bring up a selection menu by which you can select the entire page or even the entire document.

Remember that once a piece of text has been selected, you can press the right mouse button to invoke WPWin QuickMenu, on which you can select the command you want to use on the selected text.

Smart saving

Let's say you're in the middle of editing a long document. Suddenly you have to be off to an urgent meeting and you don't want anybody to have a look at what you're doing. So you save your file, close WPWin. Nobody else can read it, as it is password-protected. But the next time you open the file, you curse yourself because you've forgotten on which page you were when you saved the file. Well, it's time to learn the smart saving method in WPWin, and only WPWin can do this for you without the help of complicated macros.

First, click on File, and then Preference. Doubleclick on Environment, and enable Set QuickMark on Save by clicking once on the adjacent box. This option will preserve the location of your insertion point each time you save your file, so when you open the file again you'll find the insertion point exactly where it was when you last worked on that hundred-page long document.

While you're at it, you can also enable the Prompt on Exit option under Save workspace. Again, only WPWin has this feature; the next time you exit WPWin, the program will ask you if you want to save the workspace. If you choose Yes, the next time you start WPWin, all the documents on the screen at the time you exited will be opened automatically for you. Isn't that nice?

The best is that other programs, as well as WPWin itself, offers a list of five or more most recently opened files under the File menu item. By saving your workspace when you exit, you'll save a couple of steps before starting work again.

Easy on the eyes

One of the features in Winword 6.0 that I like very much is the Blue background, white text option. I like it because it is softer on my eyes. Here's what I do to simulate it in WPWin. First, I place the insertion point right at the beginning of the document. Then I click on Layout, Page, and Border/Fill. I choose the 100 percent fill, and I click on the Foreground button. WPWin gives me a palette of colors from which I can choose the background color (forget the inconsistency!). When I click on OK, the color of the page will turn into the color I've chosen. Then, while the insertion point is still at the beginning of the document, I change the color of the font. I just click on the mouse right button and click on Font. At the bottom of the dialog box that appears there will be Color Option. I usually choose white.

Of course, once I've completed everything and before I print the document, I have to open the Reveal Code window and delete all these color settings. But, to tell the truth, I really find the very dark green background and white font combination a really soothing one. Try it.

WPWin ships with a macro that does a similar thing, REVERSE.WPM. However, the macro only affects selected text and converts it into a box with colors of your choice, as you can see on the left page in the accompanying illustration.

Finally, just like Ami Pro, the Status Bar on the bottom of WPWin contains several goodies as well. One difference is that, in WPWin, you have to doubleclick on the bar. You can also select which of the button bar components you want displayed (fonts, page number, insert mode, etc.). You can do this by placing the mouse pointer on the bar and clicking the right mouse button. Now, if you want to change the character attributes, you have to doubleclick on the current font name displayed on the bar. If you want to overwrite text, for instance, doubleclick on the Insert mode item on the bar and Insert will turn into Overwrite. Double clicking on the Page item lets you use a powerful feature, the Go To dialog box; you can move to the top or the bottom of a current page, the last position, or select the last selected item. These are indeed very useful shortcuts.

Customizability is one of the strong points touted by WPWin. With such an improved performance, maybe it's time to have a second look at WPWin 6.0a. Or, better still, WPWin 6.1.