The information in this article applies to:
SUMMARY
Included below is a short-form summary of enhancements made in Word 6.0 to
conversion of documents to and from WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS and
WordPerfect 5.x for Windows. This initial summary is followed by specific
information on each enhancement. All improvements listed have been made
since the immediately previous Word 2.0c product release. Areas of added or
improved support include:
MORE INFORMATIONAdvanceWith use of its new ADVANCE field format, Word 6.0 now successfully converts the majority of the cases where Advance codes are used in WordPerfect documents. WordPerfect up, down, to-line, left, and right Advance formats and horizontal/vertical combinations thereof are mapped to equivalent Word 6.0 ADVANCE \U, \D, \Y, \X, \L, and \Y formats, and vice versa. AnnotationsWord now exports annotations as WordPerfect comments, but also inserts a marker with the comment. This marker appears as a harmless [Unknown] code in WordPerfect Reveal Codes and enables, Word to subsequently reimport these comments as annotations instead of hidden text. Because WordPerfect comments cannot contain non-text structures such as tables, graphics, and so forth, these contents of a Word annotation are lost when saving as WordPerfect format. Block ProtectWordPerfect block protect is a character/line protection property. Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect block protect to the closest equivalent paragraph protection using Keep With Next and Keep Lines Together paragraph formats, and vice versa. Borders, Dashed and DottedWord 6.0 now supports dashed and dotted borders and converts WordPerfect dashed and dotted graphic box (frame) and table borders to these equivalents, and vice versa. Word paragraphs with dashed or dotted borders are converted to WordPerfect Text boxes with equivalent border settings. CaptionsWord 6.0 now converts WordPerfect figure box captions to captions including SEQ (sequence) field entries that prepare resulting frames for cross-referencing. Caption positions: above inside, above outside, below inside, and below outside for the original figure box are retained. ColorWhen you choose to save as WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS, Word 6.0 now maps Word for Windows font colors to the standard color codes that WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS understands (for example, [Color:Blue]). If you instead choose to save as WordPerfect 5.x for Windows format, font colors are mapped to specific RGB color codes (for example, [Color:0%,0%,100%]) that are understood by WordPerfect for Windows. This differentiation enables the most accurate round-trip conversion of color. Columns, ParallelWord 6.0 in most cases now converts WordPerfect parallel columns with or without block protect into Word tables with rows that break across pages. If a parallel column layout itself contains a box (frame) or exists on a page containing a paragraph anchored box, it is instead converted to a newspaper column layout because Word tables cannot contain frames. Columns, Variable-WidthBecause of its new support for variable-width columns, Word 6.0 now fully supports conversion of WordPerfect variable-width column layouts. Compatibility OptionsWord 6.0 includes an interface to modify certain display behavior for certain layout and pagination properties in Word that are normally inconsistent with WordPerfect without affecting the manner in which a document is actually saved. When a document is converted from WordPerfect, several of these options are automatically triggered so that Word can make converted documents more closely retain their original appearance. Compatibility options used during WordPerfect conversion include: Conditional End-of-PageWordPerfect conditional end-of-page is a line protection property. Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect conditional end-of-page settings to keep with next paragraph format. Cross Reference Targets (Bookmarks)Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect cross-reference targets to bookmarks and vice versa. Cross ReferencesWord 6.0 now converts WordPerfect footnote and endnote number, page, and box (figure, text, user, and equation) cross-references to equivalent cross-reference fields, and vice versa. Only the textual result of WordPerfect paragraph and outline cross- references are retained because there are not equivalent cross- reference fields for these types of references in Word. DDE LinksWord 6.0 fully supports the conversion of documents containing dynamic data exchange (DDE) links to and from WordPerfect for Windows. To facilitate proper export of DDE links, the converter provides separate options to convert to WordPerfect 5.0, WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS, and WordPerfect 5.x for Windows formats. Selecting WordPerfect 5.x for Windows format will ensure that DDE links are retained. EquationsWord 6.0 now converts WordPerfect equations directly into Microsoft Equation Editor 2.0 format, and vice versa. Word 6.0 equations (OLE 2.0 objects) are retained as WordPerfect equations (not as OLE 1.0 objects) when converting to WordPerfect 5.x for Windows format. Font SubstitutionWord 6.0 has significantly expanded its ability to map to the proper font or closest available alternative when converting to or from WordPerfect. When opening WordPerfect documents, Word accomplishes this with the following steps: Footnotes and EndnotesBecause of its new ability to include both footnotes and endnotes in the same document, Word 6.0 now fully supports conversion of WordPerfect footnotes and endnotes. Frame and Graphic PositioningBecause of its new two-pass WordPerfect conversion architecture (see Two-Pass Conversion Architecture below) and drawing layer, Word 6.0 now maintains frame and graphic positioning much more effectively during conversion. Full JustificationWord 6.0 now adjusts character spacing when converting WordPerfect paragraphs formatted as fully justified in order to best reconcile the model differences in the spacing of justified text in the two products. Word accomplishes this by condensing character spacing by 3 twips (3/1440ths of an inch) per 12 points of font size when converting fully justified WordPerfect paragraphs to justified paragraphs in Word. Graphic on DiskWord 6.0 converts WordPerfect Figure boxes containing a link to a source graphic on disk by dynamically calling the WPG Graphic import filter to process the graphic file. If the graphic file is not available in the location specified in the WordPerfect Figure Box, Word 6.0 prompts you with the option to specify the location of the graphic, ignore the graphic and continue conversion, or cancel conversion. If you choose to ignore the graphic, an IMPORT field is created and a frame placeholder appears in the converted document. Hyphenation ZoneWord 6.0 now converts WordPerfect's Left Hyphenation Zone percentage to an appropriate Hyphenation Zone measure, and vice versa. Kerning, Automatic and ManualBecause of its new support for automatic kerning of fonts, Word 6.0 now successfully converts WordPerfect automatic kerning. The Points and Above measure in Word is set to the current font size active at the location at which kerning was applied in the original WordPerfect document. Keyboard Input FieldsWord 6.0 now converts WordPerfect INPUT, PROMPT/KEYBOARD, and STATUSPROMPT/KEYBOARD merge field combination into FILLIN fields in Word. Word FILLIN fields are not preserved in conversion to WordPerfect. Language CodesWord 6.0 now converts all WordPerfect Language codes that have equivalents in Word to these equivalents, and vice versa. Layered DrawingIn WordPerfect, the Wrap Around = No setting causes text that would otherwise follow the frame to overlap the frame instead. Line NumberingWord 6.0 now converts WordPerfect line numbering within constraints imposed by model differences in the two products. These limitations include: Master Documents/Subdocument LinksWord 6.0 converts WordPerfect subdocument links to equivalent INCLUDETEXT fields and vice versa. Word 6.0 also prompts for missing subdocuments at the time of conversion. If a subdocument is missing, you can either cancel conversion or open the document without the subdocument links. OLE ObjectsWord 6.0 fully supports the conversion of documents containing object linking and embedding (OLE) objects to and from WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows. To facilitate proper export of OLE links, the converter provides separate options to convert to WordPerfect 5.0, WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS, and WordPerfect 5.x for Windows formats. Selecting WordPerfect 5.x for Windows ensures that OLE objects (with the exception of Equation Editor 2.0 objects ) remain as objects and retain all the necessary binary data, while choosing WordPerfect 5.0 or WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS converts OLE objects to pictures that can be understood by these versions of WordPerfect for MS-DOS. Paragraph NumberingParagraph numbering in Word is a function that does not depend upon placement of explicit formatting codes within a document. Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect paragraph numbering into appropriately numbered paragraphs while retaining information that allows the restoration of paragraph numbering codes if you subsequently save the document back into WordPerfect format. PRIVATE FieldsFor greater fidelity in conversion of documents between Word and WordPerfect, Word 6.0 now includes a PRIVATE field. The converter uses this field to store special binary information about how a WordPerfect document was constructed before it was converted to Word. This enables Word to later use this information to more accurately reconstruct formatting features that would otherwise change or be lost in conversion back to WordPerfect. Round-Trip Frame ReassemblyWord 6.0 significantly improves coexistence with WordPerfect through round-trip disassembly of framed objects. This is necessary because Word allows mixed text and graphics to appear within frames, but WordPerfect does not allow similar functionality in its boxes. On export from Word, frames are now converted to text boxes with separate figure boxes for each graphic. When opening the same document back into Word, such collections of boxes are reassembled into the original mixed text-and-graphics frame. Retain Graphic Background OptionWordPerfect treats all WPG graphic images having white backgrounds as if they have transparent backgrounds when placed inside transparent figure boxes (boxes without background shading defined). To accommodate this behavior, Word 6.0 by default removes background color when importing WordPerfect documents. Secondary Merge Files (Data Documents)Word 6.0 now automatically detects and converts WordPerfect secondary merge files to data source document format. Secondary files containing 32 fields or less become tables, and those with greater than 32 fields become tab-delimited. WordPerfect conditional print merge constructs and macros are not retained. StylesStyles are now retained in conversion to and from WordPerfect. Word 6.0 converts WordPerfect open, paired, and outline styles containing paragraph formatting to Paragraph styles. WordPerfect styles that contain only character formatting become Word 6.0 Character styles. Text or nonparagraph or character-level formatting properties contained in WordPerfect styles (for example, table definitions) are converted as text or direct formatting. SuppressWord 6.0 now honors WordPerfect header, footer, and header/footer page number suppression codes. Word accomplishes this through use of the different odd and even and different first page header and footer formats and/or section breaks. Table and Frame InteractionWord 6.0 doesn't allow tables to contain frames or nested tables. Therefore, conversion of WordPerfect tables constructed in this manner can be extremely difficult. Through the use of its new two-pass WordPerfect converter architecture (see "Two-Pass Conversion Architecture" below), Word 6.0 is now able to deal much more effectively with interactions between WordPerfect tables and boxes. Table HeadersBecause of its new ability to define one or more table header rows, Word 6.0 now successfully converts table header rows to and from WordPerfect. Table Row HeightsWord 6.0 accurately maps WordPerfect table row top and bottom cell margins to equivalent space before and space after paragraph margin settings. This improvement has a significant positive effect on maintaining as closely as possible the original length and pagination of table-intensive documents. Tables of Authorities/Short and Long CitationsBecause of its new support for tables of authorities, Word 6.0 now successfully converts WordPerfect short and long-form table of authority entries and tables of authorities. Word accomplishes this by converting WordPerfect short and long form entries to TC \s and TC \l fields, and by converting generated or non-generated (compiled) Tables of Authorities to TOA fields, and vice versa. Text-Based LinedrawWord 6.0 is now much more effective at converting documents containing WordPerfect text-based line drawing characters. It accomplishes this by using the TrueType MS Linedraw font to appropriately express these characters. Two-Pass Conversion ArchitectureThere are certain WordPerfect features that are extremely difficult or impossible to convert reliably because to convert these features, our converter requires information that is stored further "downstream" in the document data stream, but our converter only makes one sequential pass through a WordPerfect document in Word 2.0c. Underline Format CombinationsWordPerfect allows double underlining of words and spaces or words and tabs only. In Word 6.0, double underline is applied continuously. Word 6.0 now detects these two underline format combinations and makes the necessary calculations to turn the double underline format and off in Word to retain appearance. All other underline combinations with the exception of Word 6.0 dotted underline format, to which WordPerfect has no equivalent, are retained in conversion to and from WordPerfect. Vertical and Horizontal Graphic Line PositioningThrough use of its new drawing layer, Word 6.0 is now much more effective at converting and positioning WordPerfect graphic lines. These lines are now mapped to equivalent rectangular drawing objects. Windows Metafile SupportWordPerfect 5.1 and 5.2 for Windows allow embedding of graphics in WPG format only, WPG and Windows Metafile (WMF), or WMF format only. Word 6.0 now retains graphics regardless of which embedding method was used in WordPerfect. WordPerfect LabelsWord 6.0 now detects WordPerfect Label page type and creates a table with appropriate row, column, page margin and paragraph indent dimensions to achieve the same result when printing to the same label sheets.A white paper detailing the history and thought process behind improvements made to our WordPerfect conversion capability and other WordPerfect migration tools is available as part of the "Microsoft Word 6 for Windows Resource Kit". "Microsoft Word 6 for Windows Resource Kit"This kit is available wherever computer books are sold or directly from Microsoft Press. To place a credit card order, call toll-free (800) MSPRESS or (615) 793-5090 and request Department FKB. Additional query words: textconv wpft5 conversion converted converts transfer transfers translation translate perfect
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Last Reviewed: December 10, 1999 © 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use. |