Microsoft KB Archive/105316

WordPerfect 5.x Converter Enhancements in Word for Windows 6.0

Q105316

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0

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:

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 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c offers no equivalent functionality, and WordPerfect Advance codes are ignored during conversion.

Annotations

Word 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.

In contrast, in Word 2.0c, WordPerfect comments are imported as annotations, but Word annotations are exported as hidden text. This results in loss of annotations in round-trip conversion to and then back from WordPerfect format.

Block Protect

WordPerfect 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect Block Protect codes altogether.

Borders, Dashed and Dotted

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not support either of these border types and converted WordPerfect dashed and dotted borders to single borders.

Captions

Word 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.

In contrast, although Word 2.0c retains caption text and positioning, it marks captions with TC fields that do not adequately prepare captions for cross-referencing.

Color

When 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c maps all colors to standard color values, which negatively affects round-trip conversion.

Columns, Parallel

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c converts all parallel column layouts into newspaper (snaking) columns. This often results in loss of variable column width, vertical offset of related items in each column, and potential distortion of layout if the original WordPerfect parallel column layout contains a single column that spanned more than one page.

Columns, Variable-Width

Because of its new support for variable-width columns, Word 6.0 now fully supports conversion of WordPerfect variable-width column layouts.

In contrast, Word 2.0c converts WordPerfect variable-width columns to Word fixed-width columns, resulting in degradation of document layout.

Compatibility Options

Word 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:

Don't add automatic tab stop for hanging indent -- When a Word 6.0 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 -- 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 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. Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect conditional end-of-page settings to keep with next paragraph format.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect conditional end-of-page codes altogether.

Cross Reference Targets (Bookmarks)

Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect cross-reference targets to bookmarks and vice versa.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect target codes altogether.

Cross References

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect cross-references altogether.

DDE Links

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not differentiate between WordPerfect for MS-DOS and WordPerfect for Windows file formats. As a result, DDE is not supported in conversion.

Equations

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c only supports the import of WordPerfect equations, and these are converted into Word EQ fields, which are less convenient to edit than Equation Editor objects.

Font Substitution

Word 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:

Word detects font names while reading a WordPerfect document and checks for an exact font name match under Windows.

If an exact name match is not available, 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 Word, the original WordPerfect font name is displayed on the formatting toolbar, and the substituted Windows font is applied for display and printing.

For those instances where this is a more desirable mapping, Word also provides a friendly interface to allow you to easily map missing WordPerfect documents 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 Word file.

In addition, 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 on import font substitution and use of a custom export font-mapping file, double-click the Help button on the Standard toolbar in Word, and then type readme. Press ENTER twice, choose the File Conversion topic, and then choose the Substituting Fonts When Converting Documents topic.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not query the system to determine whether a font is actually available, often resulting in substitution of fonts not actually available on the system. Export font mapping is also more limited.

Footnotes and Endnotes

Because 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c can include footnotes or endnotes in a document, but not both. As a result, when reading WordPerfect documents that contain both footnotes and endnotes, Word 2.0c retains footnotes but converts endnotes as normal text.

Frame and Graphic Positioning

Because 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c has significantly more difficulty in appropriately positioning frames and graphics.

Full Justification

Word 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.

If you do not want Word to condense character spacing in fully justified paragraphs when opening WordPerfect documents, you have the option of modifying how the converter functions. For more information on how to set the MSTXTCNV.INI FavourAppearance flag to not allow condensed spacing for fully justified paragraphs, double- click the Help button on the Standard toolbar in Word, and then type readme. Press ENTER twice, choose the File Conversion topic, and choose the Modifying Conversion Options topic.

Graphic on Disk

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not provide the option of specifying the location of a missing graphic on disk.

Hyphenation Zone

Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect's Left Hyphenation Zone percentage to an appropriate Hyphenation Zone measure, and vice versa.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect hyphenation zone settings.

Kerning, Automatic and Manual

Because 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.

WordPerfect Manual Kerning is actually applied within WordPerfect documents as Advance formatting and is converted as such. See the discussion of Advance format above for more information.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not support kerning or Advance formats and, therefore, ignored WordPerfect automatic and manual kerning.

Keyboard Input Fields

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores these WordPerfect merge commands altogether.

Language Codes

Word 6.0 now converts all WordPerfect Language codes that have equivalents in Word to these equivalents, and vice versa.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect language codes altogether.

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 new drawing layer, Word 6.0 now 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c's Wrap Around option, regardless of Yes or No setting, is not equivalent to this WordPerfect format. The result is that text intended to overlap a box in WordPerfect instead appears beneath (following) the resulting frame in Word.

Line Numbering

Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect line numbering within constraints imposed by model differences in the two products. These limitations include:

Word 6.0 does not support an option not to number blank lines, and therefore if WordPerfect's option to do so is activated, blank lines will still be numbered when opening a WordPerfect document into 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 Word 6.0, line numbering restarts at the top of the page beginning with the starting line number.

Line numbering is a section property in Word 6.0, and a line property in WordPerfect. Therefore, starting points for changes in line numbering may be delayed when opening a WordPerfect document into Word.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect line numbering altogether.

Master Documents/Subdocument Links

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c converts subdocument links to and from INCLUDE fields, but does not dynamically check for the existence of supporting subdocuments.

OLE Objects

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not differentiate between WordPerfect for MS-DOS and WordPerfect for Windows file formats. As a result, OLE objects are not supported in conversion.

Paragraph Numbering

Paragraph 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0 converts WordPerfect paragraph numbering to literal text, resulting in loss of edibility if you choose to convert the document back into WordPerfect format.

PRIVATE Fields

For 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.

The PRIVATE field is used in over 12 scenarios by the Word 6.0 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, 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.

In contrast, accurate round-trip of many such elements is not possible in Word 2.0c and earlier.

Round-Trip Frame Reassembly

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c degrades this formatting during round-trip conversion of such files.

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, Word 6.0 by default removes background color when importing WordPerfect documents.

If you do not want Word to remove backgrounds from graphics when opening WordPerfect documents, you can modify how the converter processes these graphics.

For more information on how to set the MSTXTCNV.INI RetainBackground flag to retain backgrounds for WPG images, double- click the Help button on the Standard toolbar in Word, and then type readme. Press ENTER twice, choose the File Conversion topic, and choose the Modifying Conversion Options topic.

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.

If you choose to save 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignored all WordPerfect merge commands and converted contents of secondary merge files as literal text.

Styles

Styles 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores style definitions and converts all styled text with direct formatting.

Suppress

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.x ignores WordPerfect suppress codes, often resulting in display of headers, footers, and/or page numbers on pages on which they were not intended to appear.

Table and Frame Interaction

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c frequently experiences difficulty converting documents constructed in this manner.

Table Headers

Because 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c converts tables, but WordPerfect header rows are retained only on the first page of the table.

Table Row Heights

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect table border margins, resulting in Word tables that are significantly shorter than their WordPerfect counterparts.

Tables of Authorities/Short and Long Citations

Because 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not support tables of authorities and converts WordPerfect tables of authorities as normal text.

Text-Based Linedraw

Word 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.

In contrast, the font used for this same purpose by Word 2.x is not scaleable, often resulting 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, 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.

To address this problem in Word 6.0, we redesigned the WordPerfect converter to us a unique "two-pass" architecture. By scanning through a WordPerfect document twice, the converter is able to 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 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.

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. Word 6.0 now interprets this layout correctly, whereas in Word 2.0c the underline format extends to the left margin.

Vertical and Horizontal Graphic Line Positioning

Through 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c converts WordPerfect graphic lines to frames and experiences difficulty in properly positioning overall page layout due to the offsetting effect of frames on surrounding text.

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. Word 6.0 now retains graphics regardless of which embedding method was used in WordPerfect.

In contrast, Word 2.0c does not retain graphics when opening WordPerfect documents if those graphics were embedded in the original documents in Windows Metafile format only.

WordPerfect Labels

Word 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.

In contrast, Word 2.0c simply separates text from each label in a Label document with page breaks.

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"

ISBN 1-55615-720-7

$39.95

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.

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