WD: Using the ADVANCE Field in Word

ID: Q118637

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
Microsoft Word for Windows 95, version 7.0
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

The ADVANCE field may cause "advanced text" to (1) appear lowered rather than raised, or (2) disappear from view.

For the following examples, assume an ADVANCE field can be found after "Have" in the sentence "Have a nice day." For example,

   line 5
   line 6          Have {ADVANCE \u 72} a nice day.

In the example above, the ADVANCE field would advance "a nice day." one inch or 72 points up the page from the text "Have." For example,

                         a nice day.

   line 6          Have

CAUSE

LOWERED: If the line spacing is set to Single, the upward motion of the advanced text actually increases the line's overall spacing. Therefore, the text before the ADVANCE field appears to have been lowered, and the text after the ADVANCE field appears to have remained where it was originally positioned. For example, see "Have a nice day." on line 6. The text "Have" appears to have been lowered when actually the line spacing has increased and the text adjusts to consume its full height. Hence, "Have" is sitting on the bottom of the line space and "a nice day" has risen to the top of the line space.

                         a nice day.

   line 6          Have

DISAPPEARS: If line spacing is set to Exactly, the advanced text is positioned beyond the given amount of line spacing and will disappear from view. It will not display correctly in print preview, page layout view, but it will print correctly. For example:

                                       <the text "a nice day" does not
   line 2                              display as the ADVANCE field
   line 3                              pushes it up to line 1 It
   line 4                              disappears from view as it goes
   line 5                              beyond line 6's line space;
   line 6          Have                however, it will print.>

STATUS

This behavior is by design. ADVANCE fields allow for better conversion of WordPerfect documents. They are not necessarily the best method to position text in Word.

RESOLUTION

Method 1: Format lines that include an ADVANCE field with Exactly line

          spacing. (To do this, choose Paragraph from the Format menu,
          choose the Indents And Spacing tab. In the Line Spacing box
          choose Exactly, use the default point size shown and choose the
          OK button.)

          Again, the text may disappear from view as the advanced text
          moves beyond a line's given amount of line spacing, but it will
          print. The line following the Advance field may appear clipped on
          the display but will print fine as long as its final position is
          within the margins.

Method 2: Frame text and position the frame on the page, rather than using

          an ADVANCE field.

MORE INFORMATION

ADVANCE switches (\D, \U, \L, and \R) are relative pen movements WITHIN a line of text. For example, {ADVANCE \U 72} in the middle of a line will position text after the ADVANCE field 1 inch above the text, left of the ADVANCE field. The effect is similar to formatting all the characters after the ADVANCE field as "raised by 72 pt."

To raise or lower text in Word:

1. From the Format menu, choose Font.

2. Select the Character Spacing tab.

3. In the Position box, select Raised or Lowered.

4. In the By box, specify in points the amount you want to raise or lower

   text, and choose the OK button.

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, \L, \R, \X, and \Y formats, and vice versa.

Word 6.0 for Windows is the first version of Word to support Advance formatting of WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS and versions 5.1 and 5.2 for Windows. Advance formatting is not a feature of earlier versions of Word where Advance codes are ignored during conversion..

For additional information, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Advance and WordPerfect

KBCategory: kbusage KBSubcategory: kbfield Additional query words: 6.0 6.0a WordPerfect word perfect advance 6.0c 7.0 word95 word7 word6 winword word97

Keywords          : kbualink97 kbfield 
Version           : 6.0 6.0a 6.0c 7.0 97
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: February 6, 1998