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.