ID: q105316
6.00 WINDOWS kbinterop
The information in this article applies to:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Word 6.0 now converts WordPerfect cross-reference targets to
bookmarks and vice versa.
In contrast, Word 2.0c ignores WordPerfect target codes altogether.
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.
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.
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.
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:
1. Word detects font names while reading a WordPerfect document and
checks for an exact font name match under Windows.
2. 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” (without
quotation marks). 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.
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.
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.
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" (without the quotation marks). Press ENTER twice,
choose the File Conversion topic, and choose the Modifying
Conversion Options topic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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" (without the quotation marks). Press ENTER twice,
choose the File Conversion topic, and choose the Modifying
Conversion Options topic.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
KBCategory: kbinterop KBSubCategory: Additional reference words: 6.00 textconv wpft5 conversion converted converts transfer transfers translation translate perfect
Last Reviewed: March 27, 1998