WordPerfect Tips

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TIP #1: MAKING TABLE COLUMNS THE SAME WIDTH:  (All Versions)

After you've added new columns to a table, you can quickly make them all the same width. To do this, move the insertion point toward the left or right edge of any of the table cells until it turns into an arrow, then double-click to select the entire row. Right-click in the table and choose Format from the QuickMenu. Select Column at the top of the dialog box. Then simply click in the Width: text box. WPWin inserts an amount that makes all the columns equal width. Choose OK and the columns are adjusted. 

Note: each row in your table must have the same number of columns in order for this method to work.

TIP #2: SWITCHING BETWEEN OPEN DOCUMENTS (All Versions)

To switch between open documents, choose Window from the pull-down menu.  The documents you have open are listed at the bottom of the menu, with a checkmark next to the current document. To switch to a document, just choose the document name from the menu or press the number listed before the document.

You can also cycle through the open documents by pressing Next Document (Ctrl+F6) or Previous Document (Ctrl+Shift+F6)

TIP #3: KEEP TEXT TOGETHER ON ONE LINE (Versions 9 and Earlier)

Versions Earlier than 9:

Hard Space (Ctrl/Spacebar) - This will keep text together on one line.  When you want a name of a person or a Company Name to remain on the same line and not wrap on to the next line.

     Example: Danna(Ctrl/Space)Jo(Ctrl/Space)Smith

Hard Hyphen (Ctrl/-) - This will keep text together on one line.  This can be used when you want a phone number to remain on the same line and not wrap on to the next line.

     Example: 814(Ctrl/-)863(Ctrl/-)4666

For Verion 9:

* Keep words together by:

• Position cursor where you want to insert the hard space
• Click Format/Line/Other Codes
• Enable the Hard Space [HSpace] button
• Click Insert

* Copyright (C) Corel Corporation. 1998-2000. All rights reserved.

TIP #4: DOT LEADERS WITH INDENT (Versions 9 and Earlier)

Versions 6.1, 6.0a, 5.2:

QUESTION . . .

When I create lists, I like to set dot leader tabs so dot leaders appear between the list items. When I have a lot of text in the last column, I want it indented, so it doesn't wrap back to the left margin But when I insert an indent code, the dot leaders no longer appear. How can I have dot
leaders work with an indent code?

ANSWER . . .

You can use dot leaders with the Indent feature by inserting a couple of extra codes. First, set up your dot leader tabs as you normally would, using either the Ruler or the Tab Set dialog box (Format/Layout, Line, Tab Set). Once the dot leader tabs have been set, press (Tab) to move to that tab stop (the dot leaders are inserted in your document). Then press Margin Release (Shift+Tab), Indent (F7). Any text you now type will wrap to this tab stop, as it normally does with Indent.

Version 9:

• Select your list/paragraph.
• From the Format menu, choose Line and then choose Tab Set.
• Select your Tab type and click Set and Close.

TIP #5: REPLACE DEFAULT BULLETS WITH ONES YOU PREFER (for Versions Prior to 9)

It's easy to replace the default bullet characters in WordPerfect 6.1 and 7.0

Here's how you can do it:

In a blank document, select INSERT/Bullets and Numbers

In the Bullets and Numbers dialog box, select the bullet you want to change in the Styles list, and    click EDIT.

In the Styles Editor dialog box, press (Delete) to remove the current character code.

Press Ctrl/W to open the WordPerfect Characters dialog box.

Select the character that you want to use as your new bullet and then click the Insert and Close button.

Back in the Styles Editor dialog box, click on the new character in the Contents box, to the left of the blinking red rectangle. This will convert the character to a Word-Perfect character code and reposition it.

Click OK twice to finish the job.

Your new character becomes the new WordPerfect default for that bullet type.  You'll have to remember which characters correspond to the standard bullet entries, since you can't rename the default entries in the dialog box.

Version 9:

WordPerfect 9 defaults to using the previous selected style.

TIP #6: QUICK CORRECT - FORMATTING AS YOU GO (Version 8.0)

Example:  If you start a document with a roman numeral ( I ) each time you hit the enter key, you'll get the next roman numeral ( II ) without you even selecting the bullet option.

The Fix:

1. From the Menu, choose TOOLS/Quick Correct
2. Select the Format as you go TAB
3. Uncheck from the list - Quick Bullets
4. OK

TIP #7: QUICKLY CONVERT CASE (All Versions)

How can I easily convert text in uppercase letters to lowercase letters and vice versa?  WP has a shortcut key that quickly toggles the case of selected text. To use this feature, select the text you want to convert and press (Ctrl+K). If the text was originally in lowercase letters, or mixed upper and lowercase, it will be converted to all uppercase letters. Similarly, if the text was in all uppercase letters, it will be converted to lowercase. However, when converting to lowercase, WP still capitalizesthe first word in each sentence, as well as any "I's" in the text. Each time you press (Ctrl+K), the case of the selected text wil be toggled.

You can also change the case of text in WP by selecting the text and choosing Edit, Convert Case, then selecting the option you want, such as Lowercase. This method gives you the additional option of converting to Initial Capitals, which capitalizes the first letter of each word in the selection.

NOTE:  If you have the WP DOS keyboard selected, the (Ctrl+K) keystroke is not assigned to the Case toggle feature. However, you can create or edit a custom keyboard and assign the Case Toggle feature to any keystroke you want to.

TIP #8: LIST OF LAST FILES OPENED (All Versions)

The file pull-down menu in WP displays a list of the last nine (four in WP6.1) documents you've opened.  This makes it easier to open a recent file you were working on by selecting that filename from the File menu, or by pressing the number displayed next to the file you want to open.

If you DON'T want the filenames displayed on your Menu - turn it OFF:

WordPerfect 8.0 & 9:

• TOOLS/Settings and doubleclick Environment
• Select the Interface Tab
• Uncheck the Display Last Open Documents On The File Menucheckbox 
• Choose OK, then Close

Turning this display off does not affect the actual files in any way.

WordPerfect 6.1 & 7.0:

• EDIT/Preferences and double-click Environment.
• Uncheck the Display Last Open Filenames checkbox 
  Choose OK, then Close.

Turning this display off does not affect the actual files in any way.

Note: You can also see a list of of the most recent files you've opened in the Open file dialog box.  FILE/Open, then click the drop-down arrow to the right of the File Name/Name/Filename drop-down list. A list of the most recent documents you've opened will be displayed. To open one of these files again, select it from the list and choose Open then OK. Unlike the list displayed on the File pull-down menu, it is not possible to turn this list of last-opened documents off.

TIP #9: QUICK HORIZONTAL LINE (Versions7.0, 8.0 and 9.0)

In WordPerfect 7.0:

To get a horizontal rule in WordPerfect faster than the old-fashioned way of choosing Graphics/Horizontal Line: in WordPerfect7, a new feature called QuickLines can do it.  To use QuickLines, place the insertion point on a blank line where you'd like the horizontal line to appear, then type: 

• Three hyphens (---) and press (Enter) to insert a single line. 
• Or, if you want, type three equals signs (===) and press (Enter) to insert a double line.

In WordPerfect 8.0 & 9:

In Wordperfect 8, things have changed a little bit. Since it's common to use three dashes to represent an em dash (-), QuickCorrect in WordPerfect 8 converts three dashes into an em dash instead of a horizontal line. So where is the QuickLines feature? It's still there. You just have to type an
extra hyphen or equals sign.

In other words, to use the Quick-Lines feature in WordPerfect 8, simply follow the same steps as described above, except type four hyphens (----) or equal signs (====) and press (Enter) to insert a single or double line.

If you don't want to use this feature, you can turn it off by choosing Tools/QuickCorrect. 

• In WordPerfect 8.0 & 9, select the Format-As-You-Go tab and deselect the QuickLines checkbox in the Format-As-You-Go Choices list box. 
• In WordPerfect  7.0, choose Options and deselect the QuickLines checkbox in the Quick-Correct Format-As-You-Go Options list box.

To reactivate QuickLines, go through the same process and select the QuickLines checkbox.

You can also use the same procedure to select/deselect other QuickCorrect/Format-As-You-Go features such as Quickbullets, QuickIndent, CapsFix, and so forth.

TIP #10: GRAPHICS IN THE MIDDLE OF A LINE (All Versions)

If you use graphics that need to stay in a certain position relative to your text, you may find that if you go back and edit the text, the graphics boxes don't move with the text, so they're no longer positioned correctly. This is easy to fix.

If you need a graphics box to move with the text around it, rather than remaining fixed in a specific location on the page, you can format it to use either a paragraph or a character anchor. A paragraph anchor keeps the graphics box in a specific spot in relation to the current paragraph, such as always 1" from the top of the paragraph. A character anchor keeps the box in a specific location within a line of text, such as always between the same two words.

After inserting the graphics box into your document, you can change its anchor type. To do this in version 7, 8 or 9, rightmouse click the graphics box and choose Position from the QuickMenu. From the Attach Box To pop-up menu, choose the option you want, such as Paragraph or Character. Specify any other placement settings you want in the dialog box, then choose OK.

If you're using 6.1, rightmouse click the graphics box and choose Position from the QuickMenu. For a paragraph anchor, select Put Box in Current paragraph.  For a character anchor, select Treat Box as Character. Specify any other settings you want, then choose OK.

TIP #11: CHANGE THE DEFAULT JUSTIFICATION (All Versions)

The default justification setting in WP is left justification.  Perhaps you would rather have fully justified text as your default.  To do this, you can insert a code in the Document Initial Style. 

WordPerfect 8.0 & 9:

• Choose FORMAT/Styles
• Select Document Style and choose Edit
• Select the Justification button to choose your alignment

WordPerfect 6.1 & 7.0:

• Choose FORMAT/Document/Initial Codes Style

In the Styles Editor dialog box, choose Format, Justification and select the justification you want to use, such as FulL.    If you want to change any other default settings, insert the appropriate codes using the pull-down menus in the Styles Editor dialog box. When you're finished, select the Use As Default checkbox at the bottom of the dialog box (if it's not already selected) and choose OK.  In version 8.0, choose Yes to apply the settings to all new documents then choose Close.

TIP #12 - WANT TO PRINT A LIST OF FILES LOCATED IN A PARTICULAR DRIVE/DIRECTORY (All Versions)

Using the FILE/Open dialog window, you can print a list of files that are on a particular drive and/or folder.   If you don't want to 'print' the listing, you can have the file list sent to Wordpad to simply VIEW the listing or send the list to the Clipboard so that you can paste the listing into your word processing program.

This is extremely helpful if you want to review the entire file listing to delete certain files from your drive, archive files, etc.

STEPS:

•  From the WP80 menu, select FILE/Open 
• With the dialog window open, select the drive and/or folder so that  the files are showing in the right window of your screen 
•  From the menu, select FILE/Print File List 
•  From the dialog box that appears you can select: 
  •   Print List to Printer 
  •   Send the list to Wordpad 
  •   Send the list to the Clipboard (in .rtf format) 
  •   You can also select the option to include folders 
•   Click OK  (after  you've selected options) 

If you selected:

• Print File List - it will print the listing to your default printer
• WordPad - it will load Wordpad program and pull in listing
• Clipboard - it will copy listing to Clipboard, and you can paste into Word, WordPerfect, WordPad, etc.

TIP #13 - REDUCE WHITE SPACE IN TABLES (All Versions)

When creating tables, WordPerfect automatically provides space above, below, to the right and to the left of text in a table cell. These cell margins are convenient, but in some cases they take up too much space both horizontally and vertically, which can cause unwanted wrapping.  It's simple to eliminate, or at least reduce, these margins. Decreasing the top and bottom margins of selected rows reduces the height of those rows, which is one good way of reducing your table's height without having to change font size. 

To do this, select the rows you want to change:

• Right-mouse click the selection. 
• Choose FORMAT. 
• Make sure ROW is selected near the top of the dialog box (or Row tab in version 9), then type the row margin amounts you want in the Top and Bottom counter boxes.

You can also change the left and right margins of selected columns to reduce horizontal white space.  Select COLUMN near the top of the dialog box (or Column tab in version 9), then type the column margin amounts you want in the Left and Right counter boxes. Choose OK when you're finished.

TIP #14 - SELECTING MULTIPLE FILES (All Versions)

You can select consecutive multiple files in all versions by selecting the first file (by leftmouse clicking on it) , then holding down (Shift) and selecting the last file. When you do this, all the files between are also selected.

If the files you want to select aren't right next to each other, hold down (Ctrl) as you click each filename with the mouse.

Once you've selected the files, you can open, copy, move or delete them at the same time by rightmouse clicking and selecting the option you want, or by using the options on the Menu Bar.

TIP #15 - CORRECTING HIGHLIGHTED SPELLING MISTAKES (Spell-As-You-Go) (All Versions)

As you type, WordPerfect's Spell-As-You-Go feature automatically underlines words that aren't found in the Spell Check dictionary with red hash marks.

You can turn this feature off by doing the following:

• TOOLS/Proofread/OFF

Turn this feature back on by:

• TOOLS/Proofread/Spell-As-You-Go

Misspelled words can be corrected during a regular spell check, but if you
want to correct them as you type:

• Right-click the word.  Then select the correct spelling from the list of alternatives in the QuickMenu that appears. If the word is spelled correctly, you can add it to the dictionary by choosing Add from the QuickMenu, or you can skip it in the current document by choosing skip in Document from the QuickMenu.

In WordPerfect 8 & 9, you also have the ability to correct misspelled words
using the Prompt-As-You-Go drop-down list on the Property Bar (formatting toolbar). 

• Click on the misspelled word and then use the drop-down list on the Property Bar (formatting toolbar) to select the correct spelling from the list of choices in red.

NOTE: The Prompt-As-You-Go drop-down list also displays a list of synonyms from the Thesaurus for words that aren't misspelled. You can select one of these words from the drop-down list to automatically replace the current word.

TIP #16 - CHANGING THE BACKGROUND COLOR (All Versions)

You can have WordPerfect use the background and text colors you've set up in Windows instead of the default white background and black text.  First, you need to tell WordPerfect to use the Windows colors. 

To do this in WordPerfect 8 & 9:

• From the menu, select TOOLS/Settings
• Double-click Display
• Click on Document Tab
• Select Windows System Colors
• Click OK
• Click CLOSE

To do this in WordPerfect 6.1 & 7.0:

• From the menu, select EDIT/Preferences
• Double-click Display
• Click on Document Tab
• Select Windows System colors
• Click OK

Then, change the colors using the Windows Control Panel:

• On the Windows NT/95 Taskbar
• Choose Start/Settings/Control Panel
• Double-click the Display Icon
• Select the Appearance TAB at the top of the dialog box
• From the Item drop-down list, select Windows to change the editing screen background. Select the color you want from the Color pop-down palette.

Change the color of any other areas by selecting the Item from the
drop-down list (or by clicking it in the preview area in the top half of the dialog box) and then selecting the desired color.

To change the font color

• Select the Color pop-down palette to the right of the Font drop-down list.  When you've finished, choose OK
• Choose FILE/Close to exit Control Panel.

TIP # 17 - INSERTING CHAPTER AND PAGE NUMBERS (All Versions)

You can divide your Word Perfect document into Chapters and restart page numbering for each Chapter. Here's how:

1. Place your cursor at the beginning of the first chapter (section 1).
2. From the 'Format menu', choose 'Page' and then choose 'Numbering'.
3. Choose the Position for the page numbers (for example, Top Right) from the Position drop down list. Choose the A-1 Page Numbering Format.
4. Click the 'Set Value' button.
5. Select the 'Chapter' Tab and choose the appropriate chapter number (1 for the first chapter/section, 2 for the second chapter/section, 3 for the third chapter/section, etc.). Verify that the 'Let number change as pages are added or deleted' option button is selected and click 'Apply'.
6. Select the 'Page' Tab and set page number to 1 to allow the page numbering to start with page number one for this section. Verify that the 'Let number change as pages are added or deleted' option button is selected and click 'Ok'.
7. Click 'Ok' to close the Select Page Numbering Format dialog box.
8. Repeat these steps for each section.