Article ID: 183340
Article Last Modified on 9/21/2004
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh
- Microsoft Word 6.0 for Macintosh
- Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh
- Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh
This article was previously published under Q183340
SUMMARY
This article lists the conversion features available in Microsoft Word 6.x for the Macintosh and Word 98 Macintosh Edition for converting documents to and from WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS and WordPerfect 5.x for Windows. The "More Information" section lists specific information on each feature.
Note Because Word 6.x and Word 98 share the same WordPerfect 5.x converter, this article refers to both versions as simply "Microsoft Word."
Areas of common support features include:
- Advance
- Annotations
- Block Protect
- Borders (Dashed and Dotted)
- Captions
- Color
- Columns, Parallel
- Columns, Variable Width
- Conditional End-of-Page
- Cross-Reference Targets
- Cross-References
- DDE Links
- Equations
- Font Substitution
- Footnotes and Endnotes
- Frame and Graphic Positioning
- Full Justification
- Graphic on Disk Links
- Hyphenation Zone
- Kerning
- Keyboard Input Fields
- Language Codes
- Layered Drawing
- Line Numbering
- Master Document/Subdocument Links
- OLE Objects
- Paragraph Numbering
- PRIVATE Fields
- Round-Trip Frame Reassembly
- Retain Graphic Background Option
- Secondary Merge Files (Data Documents)
- Styles
- Suppress
- Table and Frame Interaction
- Table Headers
- Table Row Heights
- Tables of Authorities
- Text-Based LineDraw
- Two-Pass Conversion Architecture
- Underline Format Combinations
- Underline of Trailing Spaces
- Vertical and Horizontal Graphic Line Positioning
- Windows Metafiles
- WordPerfect Labels
MORE INFORMATION
Advance
With use of the ADVANCE field format, Word 6.x and Word 98 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 Microsoft Word ADVANCE \U, \D, \Y, \X, \L, and \Y formats. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word.
Annotations
Microsoft Word 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 re-import these comments as annotations instead of hidden text. Because WordPerfect comments cannot contain non-text structures such as tables, graphics, and so forth, these components of a Word annotation are lost when saving as WordPerfect format.
Block Protect
WordPerfect block protect is a character/line protection property. Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect block protect to the closest equivalent paragraph protection using Keep With Next and Keep Lines Together paragraph formats. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word.
Borders, Dashed and Dotted
Microsoft Word supports dashed and dotted borders and converts WordPerfect dashed and dotted graphic box (frame) and table borders to these equivalents. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word. Word paragraphs with dashed or dotted borders are converted to WordPerfect text boxes with equivalent border settings.
Captions
Microsoft Word 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.
Color
When you choose to save as WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS, Microsoft Word maps Macintosh font colors to most of 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, Parallel
In most cases, Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect parallel columns with or without block protect to 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-Width
Because of its support for variable-width columns, Microsoft Word fully supports conversion of WordPerfect variable-width column layouts.
Compatibility Options
Microsoft Word includes an interface to modify certain display behavior for certain layout and pagination properties in Microsoft 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 Microsoft Word can make converted documents more closely retain their original appearance. Compatibility options used during WordPerfect conversion include:
- Do not add automatic tab stop for hanging indent -- When a Microsoft Word paragraph is formatted with a hanging indent, it normally acts as if there is an automatic tab stop set to the level of the indent. WordPerfect does not behave in this manner, so this behavior is deactivated when opening WordPerfect documents.
- Don't balance columns for Continuous section -- Microsoft Word automatically balances columns preceding a continuous section break. WordPerfect does not behave like this; so, this feature is turned-off in Word when opening WordPerfect documents.
- Wrap trailing spaces to next line -- This option configures Microsoft Word to be consistent with WordPerfect in the way it treats trailing space characters at the end of a line. With this option active, spaces at the end of a line can be underlined and can be used to insert space to the right of a right-aligned paragraph or right-aligned tab-stop position.
Conditional End-of-Page
WordPerfect conditional end-of-page is a line protection property. Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect conditional end-of-page settings to Keep With Next paragraph format.
Cross Reference Targets (Bookmarks)
Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect cross-reference targets to bookmarks and WordPerfect converts these elements from Microsoft Word.
Cross References
Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect footnote and endnote number, page, and box (figure, text, user, and equation) cross-references to equivalent cross- reference fields. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word. 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 Links
Microsoft Word partially 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 help ensure that DDE links are retained.
Equations
Microsoft Word converts most WordPerfect equations directly into Microsoft Equation Editor 3.0 format. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word 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 Substitution
Microsoft Word 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, Microsoft Word accomplishes this with the following steps:
- Microsoft Word detects font names under Macintosh OS while reading a WordPerfect document and checks for an exact font name match under Windows.
- If an exact name match is not available, Microsoft Word examines the metrics of the original WordPerfect font, queries the Windows system to determine what fonts are available for the current (default) printer, and then makes the best match possible from the list of available fonts.
Once a WordPerfect document has been opened in Microsoft Word, the original WordPerfect font name is displayed on the formatting toolbar, and the substituted Macintosh font is applied for display and printing.
For those instances where this is a more desirable mapping, Microsoft Word also provides a friendly interface to allow you to easily map missing WordPerfect document fonts into fonts of your choice that are available on your system. You can choose to perform a permanent font conversion or to just choose a new temporary mapping, leaving the original WordPerfect font information intact in the Microsoft Word file.
In addition, Microsoft Word supports a significantly enhanced number of possible target fonts when saving as WordPerfect. You can also customize export font-mapping through use of our expanded font- mapping file functionality.
For more information about converting fonts, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Word Help, type the following text
fonts, converted files
and then click Show Topics. Select the "Specify fonts to use when converting files" topic, and click Go To. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.
Footnotes and Endnotes
Because of its ability to include both footnotes and endnotes in the same document, Microsoft Word fully supports conversion of WordPerfect footnotes and endnotes.
Note, however, that conversion of footnote references is unpredictable, and not supported.
Frame and Graphic Positioning
Because of its two-pass WordPerfect conversion architecture (see the "Two- Pass Conversion Architecture" section) and drawing layer, Microsoft Word maintains frame and graphic positioning much more effectively during conversion.
Full Justification
Microsoft Word 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. Microsoft 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.
Note You do not have an option to modify how the converter functions in Microsoft Word for the Macintosh to condense character spacing in fully justified paragraphs when opening WordPerfect documents.
Graphic on Disk
Microsoft Word 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, Microsoft Word 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 Zone
Microsoft Word converts the WordPerfect Left Hyphenation Zone percentage to an appropriate Hyphenation Zone measure. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word.
Kerning, Automatic and Manual
Because of its support for automatic kerning of fonts, Microsoft Word successfully converts WordPerfect automatic kerning. The Points And Above measure in Microsoft Word is set to the current font size active at the location at which kerning was applied in the original WordPerfect document.
WordPerfect Manual Kerning is actually applied within WordPerfect documents as Advance formatting and is converted as such. For more information, see the "Advance" section.
Keyboard Input Fields
Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect Input, Prompt/Keyboard, and Statusprompt/Keyboard merge field combination to Fillin fields. Microsoft Word Fillin fields are not preserved in conversion to WordPerfect.
Note For a successful merge, replace the converted Fillin fields with the appropriate mail merge field (Ask, Fillin, and so on).
Language Codes
Microsoft Word converts all WordPerfect Language codes that have equivalents in Word to these equivalents. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word.
Layered Drawing
In WordPerfect, the Wrap Around = No setting causes text that would otherwise follow the frame to overlap the frame instead.
Because of its drawing layer, Microsoft Word fully supports the conversion of WordPerfect boxes for which the Wrap Around option has been set to "No" by converting such boxes to drawing objects. These drawing objects can be placed above or below document text with no ensuing wrapping.
Line Numbering
Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect line numbering within constraints imposed by model differences in the two products. These limitations include:
- Microsoft Word does not support an option not to number blank lines; therefore, if the WordPerfect option is activated, blank lines will still be numbered when opening a WordPerfect document into Microsoft Word.
- In WordPerfect, if you choose to restart line numbering on each page, the line number always restarts as 1, regardless of the starting line number specified. In Microsoft Word, line numbering restarts at the top of the page beginning with the starting line number.
- Line numbering is a section property in Microsoft Word, and a line property in WordPerfect. Therefore, starting points for changes in line numbering may be delayed or incorrect when you open a WordPerfect document in Microsoft Word.
Master Document/Subdocument Links
Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect subdocument links to equivalent IncludeText fields and WordPerfect converts these elements from Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word 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 Objects
Microsoft Word 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 3.0 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 Numbering
Paragraph numbering in Microsoft Word is a function that does not depend upon placement of explicit formatting codes within a document. Microsoft Word 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. Because these codes are hidden within the file, they are difficult remove; hence, they can lead to corruption.
For more information on troubleshooting corrupted documents in Microsoft Word, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 176050 WD98: Troubleshooting Corrupted Documents, Word 98 Macintosh Edition
Private Fields
For greater fidelity in conversion of documents between Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, Microsoft Word 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 Microsoft Word. This enables Microsoft Word to later use this information to more accurately reconstruct formatting features that would otherwise change or be lost in conversion back to WordPerfect.
The Private field is used in numerous scenarios (at least 12) by the Microsoft Word WordPerfect converter. Some examples of format features that depend on this technology for accurate round-trip conversion from and back to WordPerfect include Tables Of Contents and Figure Boxes.
In addition, Microsoft Word embeds codes in the same manner in harmless locations in exported WordPerfect documents to enable optimal round-trip conversion to and back from WordPerfect format. These codes appear as [Unknown] codes in WordPerfect Reveal Codes.
Round-Trip Frame Reassembly
Microsoft Word significantly improves coexistence with WordPerfect through round-trip disassembly of framed objects. This is necessary because Microsoft Word allows mixed text and graphics to appear within frames, but WordPerfect does not allow similar functionality in its boxes. On export from Microsoft Word, frames are converted to text boxes with separate figure boxes for each graphic. When opening the same document back into Microsoft Word, such collections of boxes are reassembled into the original mixed text-and-graphics frame.
Retain Graphic Background Option
WordPerfect 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, Microsoft Word by default removes background color when importing WordPerfect documents.
Note You cannot modify how the converter processes these graphics in Microsoft Word for the Macintosh. This capability is only available to Word for Windows 6.0c.
Secondary Merge Files (Data Documents)
Microsoft Word automatically detects and converts WordPerfect secondary merge files to data source document format. Secondary files containing 32 fields or fewer become tables, and those with greater than 32 fields become tab-delimited.
Note WordPerfect conditional print merge constructs and macros are not retained and are therefore not supported.
If you choose to save a Microsoft Word data source document in tab or comma delimited or table format as a WordPerfect 5.0 Secondary File or WordPerfect 5.1 or 5.2 Secondary File, the document is converted to a secondary merge file delimited with the appropriate merge commands for that version of WordPerfect. Conditional print merge constructs are not retained.
Styles
Styles are retained in conversion to and from WordPerfect. Microsoft Word converts WordPerfect open, paired, and outline styles containing paragraph formatting to Paragraph styles. WordPerfect styles that contain only character formatting become Microsoft Word 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.
For more information about converting styles, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Word Help, type the following text
converting files, compatibility options
and then click Show Topics. Select the "Customize Word to work with converted documents" topic, and click Go To. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.
Suppress
Microsoft Word honors WordPerfect header, footer, and header/footer page number suppression codes. Microsoft Word accomplishes this through use of the different odd and even and different first page header and footer formats and/or section breaks.
Note These section breaks may be converted as Next Page section breaks by default. To change this, double-click each section break and change Section start to the appropriate option.
Table and Frame Interaction
Microsoft Word doesn't allow tables to contain frames or nested tables. A table can, however, be framed. Therefore, conversion of WordPerfect tables constructed in this manner can be extremely difficult. Through the use of its two-pass WordPerfect converter architecture (see the "Two-Pass Conversion Architecture" section of this article), Microsoft Word is able to deal much more effectively with interactions between WordPerfect tables and boxes.
Note It has been reported that you may experience difficulty converting documents constructed in this manner and it is not recommended.
Table Headers
Because of its ability to define one or more table header rows, Microsoft Word successfully converts table header rows to and from WordPerfect.
Table Row Heights
Microsoft Word accurately maps WordPerfect table row top and bottom cell margins to equivalent space before and space after paragraph margin settings. This feature 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 Citations
Because of its support for tables of authorities, Microsoft Word successfully converts WordPerfect short and long-form table of authority entries and tables of authorities. Microsoft 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. WordPerfect will convert these elements from Microsoft Word.
In contrast, Microsoft Word does not support exporting tables of authorities and converts WordPerfect tables of authorities as normal text.
Text-Based Linedraw
Microsoft Word is 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.
Note The font used for this may be damaged if the conversion results in display degradation at point sizes smaller or larger than 12 point.
Two-Pass Conversion Architecture
There are certain WordPerfect features that are extremely difficult or impossible to convert reliably because to convert these features, the Word converter requires information that is stored further "downstream" in the document data stream.
To address this problem in Microsoft Word, the WordPerfect converter uses a unique "two-pass" architecture. By scanning through a WordPerfect document two times, the converter can reliably convert many more formatting features with almost no decrease in performance.
Underline Format Combinations
WordPerfect allows double underlining of words and spaces or words and tabs only. In Microsoft Word, double underline is applied continuously. Microsoft Word detects these two underline format combinations and makes the necessary calculations to turn the double underline format on and off in Word to retain appearance. All other underline combinations with the exceptions of Microsoft Word Dotted, Dot Dash, and Dot Dot Dash underline format, to which WordPerfect has no equivalent, are retained in conversion to and from WordPerfect.
In addition, in WordPerfect if underlining is defined to begin at the beginning of a line and that definition is followed by any combination of tabs or indents, WordPerfect underlines only the text that follows by default. Microsoft Word interprets this layout correctly.
Vertical and Horizontal Graphic Line Positioning
Through use of its drawing layer, Microsoft Word effectively converts and positions WordPerfect graphic lines. These lines are mapped to equivalent rectangular drawing objects.
Windows Metafile Support
WordPerfect 5.1 and 5.2 for Windows allow embedding of graphics in WPG format only, WPG and Windows Metafile (WMF), or WMF format only. Microsoft Word retains graphics regardless of which embedding method was used in WordPerfect, but it converts the graphics to the native PICT format.
For more information about possible problems with this graphic conversion, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 180095 WD98: WMF/EMF Pictures From Word 97 Convert Incorrectly
WordPerfect Labels
Microsoft Word 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.
Note Since Microsoft Word's maximum table column number is 32, labels converted from WordPerfect, may contain truncated records or incorrect results.
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