Microsoft KB Archive/121000

= Enable Word Processing Converter Capabilities and Limitations =

Article ID: 121000

Article Last Modified on 8/16/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 6.0a
 * Microsoft Word 6.0c

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This article was previously published under Q121000



SUMMARY
The table below provides a summary of features which are supported for export and import between Enable word processing documents and Microsoft Word. These features are supported by both the 16 and 32-bit versions of the converter, designed for use with Word 6.x and Word 7.0 respectively. For more details about conversion limitations mentioned in this summary, see the Import of Enable to Word and Export of Word to Enable sections that follow the table.

Features are organized by type formatting: character, paragraph, section, document, and other. "Yes" means the feature exists in both products and is converted from one product to the other. "No" means the feature is not converted from one product to the other either because of limitations or that feature does not exist in the destination product. "N/S" means the feature is not supported in the source product and therefore not converted.                 ENABLE                       WORD FORMATTING      TO                           TO FEATURE          WORD                         ENABLE

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Character Formatting

All Caps        N/S. Converted to normal text in                                             all capital letters.

Bold            Yes. Yes.

Colors          N/S. No.

Condense/       N/S. No. Expand

Extended        Yes. (See "Extended         Yes. (See "Extended Characters      Characters" under "Import    Characters" under "Export of                 of Enable into Word" for     Word to Enable" for more information.)               information.)

Fonts           Yes. Limited since Window's                                             printer drivers usually are more complete than those used in Enable. Font changes in                                             Word due to style changes are not exported. Also, font changes in multiple columns are not exported to Enable 3.0 or 4.0. (See "Fonts and                                             Rulers" under "Export of Word                                              to Enable" for more                                              information.)

Hidden          N/S. Converted to Enable comment.

Italic          Yes. Yes.

Kerning         N/S. No.

Language        N/S. No.

Small Caps      N/S. Converted to normal text in                                             all capital letters.

Strikethrough/  Yes (converted to dashes). Yes, except for strikethrough Overstrike                                   contained in multiple columns.

Superscript/    S/S only. (Enable doesn't   Raised/Lowered is converted Subscript -      support Raised/Lowered)      to S/S. Also, the underline Raised/Lowered                               is removed from underlined superscript or subscript.

Underline       Yes. Yes, with the exception of                                             underline on a word-by-word basis.

Paragraph Properties

Alignment       Yes. (See "Text Flow and    Yes                 Text Alignment" under                 "Import of Enable into Word"                 for more information.)

Borders/        N/S. No. Shading

Bullets/        N/S. Converted to text items. Numbering

Hyphenation     Yes, with exception of       Yes. hyphenation zones within an Enable document.

Indents         Yes. Yes.

Keep Lines      Yes. Yes. Together

Keep with Next  Yes. Yes.

Line Spacing    Yes. (Only the last line    Limited. "Before" and "after"                 space setting in an Enable   spacing for paragraphs is not                 paragraph is imported.)      exported. Also, proportional fonts may format improperly when exported to Enable 3.0 or 4.0. (See "Line Spacing"                                             under "Export of Word to                                              Enable" for more                                              information.)

Page Breaks     Yes. Yes.

Rulers          Yes. Yes. (See "Rulers" in "Export                                             of Word to Enable" for some                                              limitations.)

Styles          N/S. No.

Tabs            Yes. (Some alignment tabs    Yes, except tab leaders.                 may be adjusted to            (Some alignment tabs may be                 accommodate product           adjusted to accommodate differences.)                product differences.)

Widow/Orphan    Yes. Yes. Control

Section Properties --

Columns         Yes. Yes. (Gutter widths less than                                             .2" are set to .2".) (See                                              "Columns" under "Export of                                              Word to Enable" and see                                              "Converter Options" for more                                              information.)

Document Title  Converted to standard text   N/S. followed by a page break at beginning of document.

Endnotes        N/S. Converted to Enable footnotes.

Footnotes       Yes. (Long footnotes may    Yes. (Long footnotes may be                 be formatted differently.)   formatted differently.) (See                 (See "Footnotes" under       "Footnotes" under "Export of                 "Import of Enable into       Word to Enable" concerning                 Word" concerning footnotes   nonnumeric footnotes.)                 at the end of a document.)

Headers/        Yes. Yes. Footers

Line Numbering  Yes. Yes.

Vertical        N/S. No. Alignment

Document Properties ---

Margins         Yes. Yes.

Orientation     Yes. Yes, except for orientation changes within a document.

Paper size      Yes. Yes.

Other Features --

Annotations -   N/S. No. Text

Draw/           N/S. No. Paint Frames

Drawing Layer   N/S. No.

Fields/         Yes, with exception of       Page, Date, Time, TC, XE, Embedded        printer "percent" commands. and Includetext fields are Commands                                     converted to equivalent Page, Date, Time, embedded command. All other fields are converted to text.

Frames          N/S. No.

Graphics        No. No.

Index           Yes. Yes.

Master          N/S. No. Documents

OLE Objects     N/S. No.

Outlines        Converted to Word's          The display and printing will bullets/numbering           appear different. (See                (including blank lines in    "Outlines" under "Export of                 Enable outline.) (See        Word to Enable" for more "Outlines" under "Import    information.)                 of Enable into Word" for                 more information.)

Revision        N/S. Latest version of revisions Marking                                      converted to static text.

Tables          To tabbed text. To side-by-side columns in                                             Enable 4.5; to a single column in Enable 3.0 and 4.0. Tables in headers, footers, and footnotes are not converted. (See "Tables"                                             under "Export of Word to                                              Enable" and "Converter                                              Options" for more                                              information.)

TOA             Converted to comments;       References are not converted, spade reference marks are   and the compiled TOA will discarded. appear as standard text.

TOC             Yes. (See "TOC" under       Yes. (See "TOC" under "Export                 "Import of Enable into       of Word to Enable" for more                 Word" for more information.) information.)

IMPORT OF ENABLE INTO WORD
In general, Enable word processing documents can be imported to Word with minimal impact on the document and its formatting features. Modifications that you should anticipate, as well as the few conversion limitations that do exist, are discussed in the feature summary that follows.

Bold

See Character Attributes.

Character Attributes

All character attributes such as bold, italic, superscript, subscript, and underline are imported as expected.

Columns

Enable's snaking and side-by-side columns are imported as expected.

Document Titles

Enable's Document Title will appear on the first page as standard text followed by a page break when imported to Word.

Embedded Commands (%Commands)

Enable's %ALT is converted to Word's different odd and even header and footer feature.

Enable's %LNUM is converted to Word's line numbering feature.

The following %commands are converted to the following Word field codes:

     Enable     Word %Command  Field Code --     %DATE      DATE %NUMDATE  DATE %TIME     TIME %INCLUDE  INCLUDETEXT The embedded command %INCLUDE (used to include an external file) is converted to Word's INCLUDETEXT field code. In the Word document, this appears on screen as "%INCLUDE xxx", where xxx is the name of the "included" file. To load (or refresh) the contents of the included file, position the insertion point on %INCLUDE and press F9.

All printer-related "%commands" are ignored during import.

Extended Characters

Enable special characters are supported in Word through the Symbol function found on the Insert menu. During conversion, all special characters are transferred to the closest matching character in either the Symbol or MS LineDraw fonts supported by this Symbol function. A point size is assigned to each according to the size set in the Enable document.

Fonts

When an Enable document is imported, character type face, point size and attribute (for example, bold and italic) are mapped based on the default Windows printer.

Footnotes

Enable has an option that allows a single footnote to be continued at the bottom of the following page. Word does not process the text of long footnotes in the same way. As a result, an imported Enable document with a footnote that continues from one page to another is formatted differently.

The Enable option to save footnotes at the end of a document results in footnotes being printed on a separate page. When imported into Word, the footnotes will begin where the text of the document ends.

Graphics

The conversion utility does not import pictures and graphs contained within an Enable document.

Hyphenation

See "Rulers."

Indents

See "Text Flow and Text Alignment."

Indexes

Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for indexes. In Enable, index terms can be created in two ways. One method is to insert an index special entry by selecting TOOLS, INDEX, INSERT and keying the index term into the "special" area. The second approach is to apply the Enable index attribute to the characters of the index term. This is done in a way similar to applying an italic or bold attribute to text. The first method does not show the index term in the body of the printed document, the second does.

When Enable compiles the index, it creates a new document containing only the compiled index. This index document is a standard Enable file and is generally given an extension of WPI. In most cases, the Enable user places an %INCLUDE filename command at the start of the original document to cause the index document to be printed. In other cases, the user may use the interwindow-copy function to copy the contents of the index document into the original document.

Unlike Enable, Word does not create a separate document when the index is compiled. In Word, the user selects one of the INSERT options to cause the index to be created and inserted into the original document.

Each %INCLUDE filename command in an Enable document is converted into a field in the Word document, specifically the INCLUDE TEXT field. As a result, the Enable-generated index document is printed by Word as expected. Also, if the index document was interwindow-copied into the original document, it displays and prints as expected.

During the conversion process, an XE field is inserted into the Word document for all index entries found in the Enable document. These can readily be used by Word to compile a new index.

Italics

See "Character Attributes."

Line Numbering

Occasionally with an imported Enable document, line numbering does not appear when printed or displayed in page preview in Word. This can occur because of differences in ruler structure between Word and Enable. The problem can be corrected by moving the left margin in Word to the right using the Page Setup command.

Line Spacing

Because Word allows only one line-space setting per paragraph, only the last line-space setting used in a paragraph in Enable is retained.

Outlines

Enable's outlines (including any blank lines within the outline) are imported as Word's bullets/numbering.

Overstrike

Enable's overstrike attribute are converted to dashes.

Passwords

Password-protected Enable files are not imported into Word. Remove the password in Enable first, and then import into Word.

Rulers

Word supports a single hyphenation zone that applies to an entire document. Enable permits the hyphenation zone to be reset with each ruler. Due to this difference, only the last hyphenation zone set within an Enable document is used to set the hyphenation zone in Word.

Alignment tabs consisting of several characters on an Enable ruler can be adjusted to accommodate implementation differences between Word and Enable. For example, if you have typed N's (for numeric tabs), or carets(^) (for centering), or X's (for alphanumerics) on an Enable ruler and the length of the item being aligned is greater than the number of alignment characters, then when imported into Word, the item adjusts to the left of where it aligned in Enable.

Superscript/Subscript

See "Character Attributes."

Table of Authorities

All Table of Authority entries are converted to Word's comments and the spade reference marks are discarded.

Table of Contents

Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for table of contents (TOC). In Enable, a TOC entry is created by inserting a "special" TOC entry. This entry contains the TOC term plus codes that determine the level and the numbering to appear to the left of the term when Enable compiles the TOC and creates a new document containing the text of the TOC. This TOC document is a standard Enable WP file and is generally given an extension of .WPT.

In most cases, the Enable user places an %INCLUDE filename command in the beginning of the original document to cause the TOC document to be printed. In other cases, the user may use the interwindow-copy function to copy the contents of the TOC document into the original document.

In Word, TOC entries are generally created by applying a style to the entry. Word has a number of built-in styles for this purpose. The style applied to the entry determines its level (in the compiled table), the indenting, and other formatting needs. Alternatively, a Word user can insert a special field type (TC) for creating TOC entries.

Unlike Enable, Word does not create a separate document when the TOC is compiled. The Word user selects one of the INSERT options to cause the table to be created and inserted in the original document.

Each %INCLUDE filename command in an Enable document is converted to an "Include Text" field. As a result, the Enable-generated TOC document is printed by Word as expected. Also, if the table was interwindow-copied into the original document, it displays and prints as expected.

During the import, an XE field is inserted into the Word document for each TOC entry found in the Enable document. The text of the TOC entry is included within the body of the Word document. These XE fields can readily be used by Word to compile a new table.

The level assigned to the TOC entry is forwarded during the conversion process. However, Enable and Word have different methods of compiling and offer different features for providing any optional numbering to appear to the left of the term. These are product specific and not part of the conversion process. Word has many more options for formatting the TOC than does Enable.

Tables

Enable's tables, which are tabbed text, are imported into Word as tabbed text.

Tabs

See "Rulers."

Text Flow and Text Alignment

Enable does not flow text through its "special" text areas, such as comment text. When an Enable document is imported into Word, the text above and below any "specials" will appear as part of one paragraph.

Hanging indents in Enable that begin in the middle of a paragraph are preserved going to Word, but the indented portion acts like a separate paragraph. Centered and flushed right text is implemented in Enable 3.0/4.0 by inserting blanks before the text. These blanks are preserved during import. The text may not appear to be centered or flush right if the font is changed or if Word reformats the lines.

Underline

See "Character Attributes."

EXPORT OF WORD TO ENABLE
The export of Word documents into Enable 3.0, 4.0, and 4.5 format has conversion limitations due to differences in environment and product features. Enable operates in a non-graphical, text-based environment and Word operates in a graphical environment. Although text is not lost, in some cases the formatting information cannot be exported. As a result, the format of the document when opened in Enable may appear quite different. The conversion utility does not export the following Word features:


 * Annotations
 * Automatic Paragraph Numbering
 * Borders and Shading
 * Bullets/Line Numbers
 * Certain Symbols (see "Extended Characters")
 * Colors
 * Condense/Expand
 * Drawing Layer
 * Frames
 * Graphics
 * Kerning
 * Language
 * Mail Merge Information
 * Master Documents
 * OLE
 * Ruler Tabs, which are not part of Enable's feature set or operate differently in Enable
 * Spacing based on point size (such as between characters, lines, and paragraphs)
 * Special characters in the DOS range of 240-255
 * Styles
 * Table of Authorities
 * Vertical Alignment

The conversion limitations of the export of Word documents into Enable are discussed in the feature summary that follows.

All Caps

See "Character Attributes."

Bold

See "Character Attributes."

Bullets/Numbering

Word's bullets/numbering is exported to Enable's outline.

Character Attributes

All character attributes such as bold, italic, superscript, subscript, and underline are exported as expected with two exceptions. Enable cannot underline any subscript or superscript text. If this combination is used in Word, superscript takes precedence when the file is exported to Enable. Also, underline that is applied on a word-by-word basis is not exported. See "Fonts" for related information.

Word's raised/lowered functionality is converted to Enable's superscript/subscript. Word's small caps and all caps are converted to normal Enable text with capital letters. Any strikethrough in multiple columns is ignored.

Columns

Word's variable-width columns are exported as Enable's side-by-side columns in 4.5. For Enable 3.0 and 4.0, they are exported as single columns. For a method of exporting variable-width columns to Enable 4.0, see "Converter Options."

Word's fixed-width columns are exported as Enable's snaking columns. If the gutter width is less than .2 inch, the gutter width is set to Enable's minimum value of .2 inch. (In some cases, this may result in columns being shifted off the edge of the page.)

Any font changes in multiple columns are ignored for export to Enable 3.0 or 4.0.

Line numbering changes in multiple columns are ignored.

Any strikethrough in multiple columns is ignored.

Endnotes

Endnotes created in Word are exported to Enable as footnotes.

Extended Characters

Special characters (Word's Symbols) that are in the value range 240-255 of the DOS codepage are not exported. Those in the ranges of 0-15 and 127-239 are exported on a "best match" basis for the MS LineDraw font only. Characters that do not have an equivalent in the DOS codepage (for example, Wingdings) cannot be exported successfully.

Fields

Word's PAGE, DATE, TIME, INCLUDETEXT, TC, and XE fields are exported to the equivalent Enable feature. For all other Word fields, the text last associated with the field is displayed as standard text. All date fields display in month name, numeric day, and year format.

Fonts

The marked differences in font and printer support that exist between the text-based Enable versions and the Windows-based graphics-oriented Word are likely to have a significant impact on the printed appearance of a document that has been exported from Word to Enable. Among these differences are:


 * During export, Word's font information is mapped into codes understandable to the version of Enable selected by the user. The accuracy of this mapping is limited by the level to which Enable supports the default Window's printer. For example, if Enable did not support the scaleable font feature of the printer, then much of the point size information is not recorded in the exported document.
 * Font changes that occur due to style changes are not recognized by the export process.
 * Any font changes within multiple columns are ignored for export to Enable 3.0 or 4.0.
 * Word's TrueType fonts are mapped to an internal font of the Window's default printer if supported by Enable.

Footnotes

All non-numeric footnote references (which appear as a superscript text to the right of the reference text) are included in the export. However, Enable's sequential numeric values are inserted into the non-numeric references.

Enable has a feature that allows a single footnote to be continued at the bottom of the following page. Word does not process the text of long footnotes in the same way. As a result, an exported Word document with a long footnote is formatted a little differently.

In an Enable-created document, all footnotes are saved at the top of the document. However, in an exported Word document, instead of saving the footnotes at the top of the document, footnotes are saved as they are encountered within the Word document. This does not cause any problems when opening the exported document in Enable. However, such files should either be printed from within Enable word processing or be resaved in Enable before they are printed from the main menu in Enable.

Frames and Associated Text

In Word, text can be entered into a frame, which can be positioned and sized by the user. Since Enable does not have a corresponding feature, text within a Word frame may appear at unexpected positions on the page when the exported document is opened in Enable. Since graphics are not exported, the frame box is not included in the exported document.

Headers and Footers

If a header or footer is present in the Word document, the distance between the header/footer and the first/last line of text is set to .33 inch.

Hidden Text

Hidden text in Word is exported as an Enable Comment.

Indexes

Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for indexes. In Enable, index terms can be created in two ways. One method is to insert a "Index Special" entry by selecting TOOLS, INDEX, INSERT and keying the index term into the "special" area. The second approach is to apply Enable's index attribute to the characters of the index term. This is done in a way similar to applying an italic or bold attribute to text. The first method does not show the index term in the body of the printed document; the second does.

When Enable compiles the index, it creates a new document containing just the text of the compiled index. The index document is a standard Enable file and is generally given an extension of .WPI.

During the export process, Enable does not automatically compile the index entries in the Word document and create a second Enable document containing the index information. All index terms in a Word document are exported to Enable's "Index Special" entry. These do not have Enable's "index character attribute" applied to the index term(s). However, the exported document includes the compiled indexes as standard text.

Italics

See "Character Attributes."

Line Spacing

Word has the capability to separate paragraphs by a specified number of points. Since Enable does not have this feature, such information is omitted in the export. As a result, any exported Word document containing spacing before and/or after paragraphs has different line spacing than the original, which may also affect pagination when the document is opened in Enable.

The 3.0 and 4.0 versions of Enable used the fixed number of positions on the ruler between the left and right margins to determine where lines should break. This behavior produces significant variations in text format, especially where proportional fonts have been exported from Word. Additionally, the use of large fonts on a line exported to these versions may produce overlap to previously printed lines. This is due to the fixed vertical spacing used in Enable 3.0 and 4.0. Use the %LINES command, change line spacing, or insert one or more blank lines above the overlapping line to correct such anomalies before printing.

Orientation

See "Page Setup."

Outlines

Enable and Word handle construction and formatting of text outlines in very different ways. Word treats each outline level with an implied hanging indentation. Enable does not. When outline text is exported, no text is lost, but the display and printing of the data will appear different than in the original Word document.

Page Breaks

Due to the differences in the way Word and Enable support fonts, the exported Word document is often paginated differently in Enable. The degree of difference varies, based on the level of support Enable provides for the default Window's printer. See "Fonts" for related information.

Page Setup The following information is not included in the exported document:


 * Print range
 * Lines per inch (always assumed to be automatic in Enable 4.5, and 6 lines per inch in Enable 3.0 and 4.0)
 * Text graphic density
 * Paper tray information

Changes in page orientation are not exported from Word to Enable. Enable prints the entire document in either landscape or portrait mode, depending on the initial setting in Word. Raised/Lowered

See "Character Attributes."

Rulers

Exported documents may contain extra rulers. This is due to the different way Enable and Word handle text flow such as hanging indents.

Alignment tabs (such as centering, decimal, and right) are adjusted to accommodate implementation differences between Word and Enable.

The ruler in Enable 3.0/4.0 indicates the maximum number of characters allowed on a line, not the maximum width of the characters in inches. The export converts Word's margins based upon 10 cpi. Whenever a proportional font or a fixed pitch font that is not 10 cpi is in use in the Word document, the corresponding area of the exported Enable document may require adjustment to the ruler.

Small Caps

See "Character Attributes."

Strikethrough

Strikethrough characters in Word are converted to the overstrike attribute in Enable. Strikethrough characters in multiple columns are ignored for all exports.

Superscript/Subscript

See "Character Attributes."

Table of Authorities

table of authorities (TOA) references are not converted. The compiled TOA from Word will appear in the Enable document as standard text.

Table of Contents

Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for table of contents (TOC). In Enable, TOC entries are created by inserting a "special" TOC entry. This entry contains the TOC term plus codes that determine the level and the numbering to appear to the left of the term when Enable compiles the TOC and creates a new document containing the text of the TOC. This TOC document is a standard Enable WP file and is generally given an extension of .WPT.

In most cases, the Enable user places an %INCLUDE filename command at the start of the original document to cause the TOC document to be printed. In other cases, the user may use the interwindow-copy function to copy the contents of the TOC document into the original document.

In Word, TOC entries are generally created by applying a style to the entry. Word has a number of built-in styles for this purpose. The style applied to the entry determines its level (in the compiled table), the indenting, and other formatting needs. Alternatively, a Word user can insert a field type (TC) for TOC entries and a field type (TOC) for where the compiled table will appear in the document. Unlike Enable, Word does not created a separate document when the TOC is compiled. The Word user selects one of the INSERT options to cause the table to be created and inserted in the original document.

Only Word's TC fields are exported as table of contents entries. Text containing one of the Heading styles is not automatically treated as TOC entries.

All level information is retained in the exported document. No TOC style information is exported.

Tables

Word's tables are exported to Enable 4.5 as side-by-side columns. As this feature is not available in Enable 3.0, the tables are exported to a single column in that version. The default for export to Enable 4.0 is also a single column; however, see "Converter Options" for a method to convert tables to side-by-side columns in Enable 4.0.

Tables defined in headers, footers, and footnotes are not converted to side-by-side columns. Rather, a single space is inserted between the cells, maintaining the text in a row.

Tabs

See "Rulers."

Text Flow

Since Enable 3.0 does not have the capability to reformat the entire document with one command, files exported from Word to Enable 3.0 need to be reformatted manually. This is most quickly accomplished by going to each ruler within the document and pressing ALT/F6 and ENTER.

Underline

See "Character Attributes."

MEMORY CONSIDERATIONS
In some cases, when Enable processes large documents that have been exported from Word, the user may encounter Enable's "Short of Memory" message. If this occurs, the user may attempt to avoid the memory restriction according to the following guidelines:

If the memory shortage occurs while attempting to print the document:


 * Try printing the document from the main menu after saving it in Enable.
 * If Enable is running in the Windows DOS Box, try starting Enable at the DOS prompt after exiting Windows.
 * Break the document into two or more sections in Enable.

If the memory shortage occurs while attempting to read the document into Enable word processing:


 * If Enable is running in the Windows DOS Box, try starting Enable at the DOS prompt after exiting Windows.
 * Break the document into two or more sections in Word and re-export these sections to the appropriate Enable format.
 * Export the document from Word as ASCII text and read into Enable.

Additional query words: textconv word6 6.00a 6.00c winword office enabler kit

Keywords: KB121000

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