Microsoft KB Archive/108870

RFT-DCA Converter Enhancements in Word 6.0 for Windows

Q108870

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0

SUMMARY

Included below is a summary of corrections made to the RFTDCA.CNV converter in Word 6.0 that is used to convert between Word 6.0 for Windows and Revisable-Form Document Content Architecture (RFT-DCA) file format. All improvements listed here have been made since the immediately previous Word 2.0c product release. These include:

Character Format Termination

When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, any character property that was originally terminated (turned-off) at the very beginning of a line is not terminated in Word. Instead, it carries forward until redefined later in the document. This problem has been corrected.

Character Mapping

When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, superscripted numeric EBCDIC characters 1 through 9, the EBCDIC acute accent, and the EBCDIC caron accent are incorrectly converted. These characters are now mapped to the most similar values available in the ANSI character set used by Word.

Columns

When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, "Flowing and Balanced," "Flowing but not Balanced," and "Related Text" columns all revert to normal, single-column wrapping text. Support for all three column types has been added in the Word 6.0 revision of the RFT-DCA converter as follows:

"Flowing and Balanced" columns are now converted to columns balanced with continuous section breaks.
"Flowing but not Balanced" columns are now converted to columns.
"Related Text" columns are now converted to tables.

When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, column breaks are not always correctly preserved. This problem has been corrected.

Endnote Position

When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, endnotes positioned at end-of-document or with a Locate Endnotes code, and endnotes when combined in a single document with footnotes are not positioned correctly. This problem has been corrected.

Font Mapping

When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, RFT-DCA Typestyles (otherwise known as Generic Font IDs or GFIDs) are mapped to non- TrueType fonts such as Courier or Pica. Because fixed width fonts are commonly used in conjunction with spaces to horizontally align text in RFT-DCA format and non-TrueType fonts don't always allot spaces the same width as characters for on-screen display, this mapping often results in compromise of horizontal alignment for display.

All RFT-DCA font styles are now mapped to the TrueType font Courier New. The result is a significant improvement in overall document appearance following conversion.

Hanging Indents

When a Word 2.0c document is converted to RFT-DCA format, hanging indent formats are not always emulated correctly. Hanging indents are now correctly mapped to appropriate combinations of RFT-DCA indent and required backspace codes.

Indexes and Tables of Contents

When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, index and table of contents entry markers are lost, and generated indexes and tables of contents are converted as normal text with loss of indentation formatting.

Index and table of contents entry markers are still not retained, but the formatted appearance of generated indexes and tables of contents is now retained.

Line Spacing

When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, exact line spacing is applied by default. The purpose of this option is to minimize pagination differences. However, the tradeoff is possible cropping of text, disappearance of underline formatting, and so forth. Therefore, single line spacing is now applied by default.

If you want to have exact line spacing applied by default, see the Modifying Conversion Options topic under File Conversion in the WDREADME.HLP help file installed with Word 6.0.

Margins

When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, margin changes are not always retained. This problem has been corrected.

Tables

Several improvements and corrections have been made to table conversion both to and from RFT-DCA format. These include:

When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, Line Format Change (LFC) codes are inserted following every table row. This results in unwanted blank lines appearing between table rows when the document is opened from RFT-DCA format into DisplayWrite. LFCs are now only emitted, only if column widths or other line formatting changes.
When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, if space- before is set to any value other than 0" and/or line spacing is set to any value other than Auto or 1 within a table cell, table appearance is compromised. Line spacing and space before are now emulated by inserting carriage returns before paragraphs to most closely approximate required spacing.
When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, single-column, multi-row tables collapse to normal text. This problem has been corrected.
When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, tables containing greater than 10 columns collapse to normal text. As many as 49 columns within a table (the absolute maximum allowed by RFT- DCA) are now supported for export from Word to RFT-DCA format. Minimum column width of 3 characters still applies.
When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, if table cells contain tabs, the table layout may be compromised. Coordination of tabs used to emulate table layout in conjunction with normal tabs within cells has been improved to the extent that model differences between Word and RFT-DCA formats allow.
When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, RFT-DCA Required Carrier Returns (paragraph marks) following Tables of Tabular Columns are lost. The visual result is that space that originally separates the table from text that follows is lost. This problem has been corrected.
When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, inter-column gaps (column spacing) within Text Column Tables is not always correctly retained. The average column gap is now used to determine column spacing in conversion to Word.
Support has been added for export of merged-table cells.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on current RFT-DCA converter limitations, double-click the Help icon in Word, type readme, press ENTER twice, choose File Conversion, choose Conversion Limitations, and view the "Converting Between Microsoft Word 6.0 and RFT-DCA" topic.

Additional query words: textconv conversion converted converts transfer transfers translation translate problem corrections fix fixes dcarft rftdca dca/rft rft/dca rft dca word6

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