Microsoft KB Archive/66714

Word: What’s New with Word Version 5.50

PSS ID Number: Q66714 Article last modified on 01-24-1995

5.50

MS-DOS

= SUMMARY =

Microsoft Word version 5.50 was designed with two major goals in mind: making the program easy to learn and easy to use. To make Word easier to learn and use, the interface (the way Word looks) has been changed to a character window interface. The advantages of this new interface are as follows:


 * 1) A new, more intuitive menu system that includes a menu bar along the top of the screen with pull-down menus so that all of the available commands can be found quickly. The pull-down menus group commands that are similar or related in function to make the commands easier to find.
 * 2) The ability to have up to 9 documents or style sheets open at once in overlapping windows (10 total windows including the Help window).
 * 3) Online Help information now appears in a window that can remain open in the background for easy referral.
 * 4) A formatting ribbon now appears that displays information pertaining to the selected (highlighted) text and allows any of the displayed information to be modified to provide quick formatting. Text can be easily formatted for a particular font, font size, font attribute (such as bold), or paragraph style from the style sheet.
 * 5) The speed formatting keys for character formats toggle character formatting on and off. For example, CTRL+B will apply bold formatting to the selected text or remove bold formatting if the text is already formatted for bold.
 * 6) The cursor for has been changed to a flashing underscore instead of a single selected character (block). This change eliminates the need for applying character formatting twice when formatting a single character.

The character window interface also follows a standard function key assignment that is consistent with Word for Windows and Macintosh Word. These function key assignments differ from the key assignments in Word version 5.00, but to assist Word 5.00 users in adjusting to the new interface, the capability to use the Word 5.00 function key assignments is available. The option to use Word 5.00 function keys can be selected during Setup or at any time by choosing Customize from the Utilities menu (check the box next to “Use Word 5.0 Function Keys”). The function of the DEL and INS keys is different in the new character window interface. The INS and DEL keys will NOT insert from or delete to the scrap as they did in Word version 5.00. To retain the functionality of the INS and DEL keys in Word 5.00, check the box next to “Use INS for Overtype Key” in the Utilities-Customize dialog box.

This new interface will also pose a few hurdles for Word 5.00 macros. With the new interface, keystroke sequences used to access Word’s word processing features have changed. To assist Word 5.00 users in updating their macros to run in Word 5.50, a macro conversion utility is provided (MACROCNV.EXE). This macro converter is designed to be a “tool” to assist in converting Word 5.00 macros. Once Word 5.00 macros have been converted with the macro converter, it is still necessary to review and edit the macros in order to optimize them. Please be aware that the macro converter will not be able to convert 100 percent of the commands in Word version 5.00 macros.

For more information about what is new with Word version 5.50, please refer to Chapter 1 of the “Getting Started” pamphlet that is included with the Word documentation.

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================================================================ Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1995.