WD97: Word Development Tools and White Papers

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

This article lists several development resources that are available for download from the Microsoft Office Developer Web site.

MORE INFORMATION

The following files are available in the Microsoft Office Developer Web site.

WordPerfect 5.1 Macro Text Extractor

Executable file contains: cvt_doc.doc, wp51cvt.dot

WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS uses a proprietary file format for storing macros. This macro-to-text utility converts macros written for WordPerfect 5.1 to standard text for viewing and printing.

NOTE: The utility does not translate WordPerfect macro code to Visual Basic for Applications.

For more information about this file, see the following Microsoft Office Developer Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/WordDev/Articles/cvt1.htm

WordBasic Migration to Visual Basic for Applications

Executable file contains: Wbmigrat.doc

Microsoft has integrated WordBasic migration to Visual Basic as transparently as possible. When a template file is opened, either directly or indirectly (attached templates are an example of indirect) the WordBasic code is converted to Visual Basic automatically. In most cases the user doesn't even know that a conversion process happened. This paper explains the conversion process, many of the known conversion issues, and solutions to resolve conversion issues.

For more information about this file, see the following Microsoft Office Developer Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/worddev/articles/wbmigrat.htm

Updated WbODBC.wll

Executable file contains: Wbodbc97.dot, Wbodbc.wll, Test.mdb, Readme.txt

If you've written Word 7.0 solutions that use the ODBC functions in WbODBC.wll (a Word add-in library available in the Microsoft Word Developer's Kit, 3rd edition), you'll need to install this updated version of the WLL to run your solution in Word 97. In addition to a new version of the WLL, this download also includes new versions of the sample ODBC macros template (WbODBC97.dot) and the corresponding test database (Test.mdb). The macros in WbODBC97.dot have been updated to use Visual Basic and demonstrate how to use the ODBC add-in functions successfully in Word 97. For complete information about this update, see the Readme.txt file included in this download.

For more information about this file, see the following Microsoft Office Developer Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/WordDev/Articles/WbOdbcdl.htm

Converting WordPerfect Macros to Microsoft Word 97 Visual Basic

White Paper: Converting WordPerfect Macros to Microsoft Word 97, Visual Basic for Applications

Executable file contains: wpconv.doc

This document describes the methodology, approach, and requirements for converting macros developed for various versions of WordPerfect to Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Word. Because of the complexity of macros, there's no automatic conversion utility available for converting macros from WordPerfect to Visual Basic for Applications. However, an unsupported macro-to-text utility is available that converts macros written for WordPerfect 5.1 to standard text for viewing and printing.

For more information about this file, see the following Microsoft Office Developer Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/WordDev/Articles/wpconv.htm

Updating String Functions in WLLs and DLLs for Word 97

Microsoft Word add-in libraries (WLLs) and dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that expose string-returning or string-processing functions that worked in earlier versions of Word (6.0 or 95) may not work correctly when used in Word 97.

The following outline describes the string-related problems you may encounter, along with the three steps necessary to make string functions from old WLLs and DLLs work with Visual Basic for Applications in Word 97. (Step 4 is necessary only if you want to keep using old WordBasic code in a template after converting it to Word 97.) Note that after you make the suggested changes in your source code, your modified WLL or DLL can still work in Word 95. However, it will not work in 16-bit environments.

For more information about updating string functions in WLLs and DLLs for Word 97, see the following Microsoft Office Developer Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/WordDev/Articles/UpdtWlls.htm