Help Screen

Issue: February 1996
Section: Word processing
Pages: 196


Contents

Missing WinWord fonts
Changing justification defaults in WordPerfect
Tab settings in WinWord tables
Getting to Ami Pro style sheets
Word and numbers
WordPerfect batch conversions in Ami Pro
Split lines in WordPerfect 6.1


Missing WinWord fonts

Q I have installed several TrueType fonts on my notebook computer, but I can't use these fonts in Word for Windows. Although they all show up in the Fonts dialogue box in the Windows Control Panel, and the Enable TrueType Fonts check box is selected in the TrueType dialogue box, whenever I open documents in Word for Windows, all I see are those ugly System, Roman 10cpi and Courier 10cpi fonts.

I can't use the TrueType fonts in Windows Write, either, but I can use them in Windows Paintbrush. I never print from this computer, but I really want to use those TrueType fonts when I create WinWord documents. What do I have to do to get them to show up?

- Lito Carlos

A There's only one reason this font problem could be happening, and it has to do with your default printer setting, of all things.

Judging from the fonts that you can see, it's clear you have an old printer that just can't handle graphics. That would account for the short font list, since applications like Word for Windows and Windows Write base their font lists on the fonts that the printer is able to handle.

To solve this problem, you could install a driver for your desktop PC's default printer or for the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II by following the instructions below.

On your notebook computer, double-click the Printers icon in the Windows Control Panel, and in the Printers dialogue box, click the Add button. Choose HP LaserJet Series II from the list that appears, then click the Install button. Insert whatever Windows installation disk the system requests, and then click OK.

Once the driver has been installed, double-click its name in the Installed Printers list to make it the new default. Click Close, and that's it. Your TrueType fonts will now be available in all your applications.

Changing justification defaults in WordPerfect

Q Is there a way to change the default settings in WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows so that whenever I enter text into a new document, it will automatically be justified?

- Robert Goodman

A Absolutely. Fire up the program, then just follow these steps:

1. Select Format-Document-Initial Codes Style.

2. In the Styles Editor dialogue box, select the Use as Default check box, then select Format-Justification-
Full from the dialogue box's menus, as in Figure 1

Click OK to close. From now on, WordPerfect will automatically justify your text. Note that you can change most initial style elements for your documents in the Styles Editor dialogue box, from selecting a default font to inserting boilerplate text or a graphic that you want to appear in every new document.

Tab settings in WinWord tables

Q I often use tables in Word for Windows 6.0 to help me align text in columnar format. This works fine, but I'd like to be able to indent text within a table cell. Whenever I try to do this by pressing the <Tab> key, the cursor moves to the next column.

Is there a way to insert the equivalent of a tab indent inside a cell?

- Ilan Ogen

A Sure there is. Instead of pressing <Tab>, press <Ctrl>+<Tab> to insert a left-aligned tab at the default setting. Once the tab has been set, you can press <Ctrl>+<Tab> to move the cursor to the tab stop.

You can also use the horizontal ruler to set tab locations and alignments within tables, just as you do for normal paragraphs. Click the tab alignment box on the far left side of the ruler (see Figure 2) to cycle through the alignment settings (left-aligned, centred and right-aligned) until you find the one you need, then click in the ruler segment for the appropriate table column in which to insert a tab stop.

After you've placed a tab stop marker on the ruler, you can drag it to change the position of the tab.

Getting to Ami Pro style sheets

Q I use Ami Pro 3.1 and have created several personalised style sheets for memos, fax cover sheets and letterhead. These are the style sheets I pick 90 per cent of the time when I select File-New. The problem is, I have to scroll down to the bottom of a long list to find them.

Is there any way I can force my own style sheets to appear at the top of Ami Pro's Style Sheet list?

- Bill Bryce

A No problem, although the fix isn't intuitive. You've probably noticed that Ami Pro's own style sheets all start with an underscore character (_), which gets sorted before any alphanumeric character, so Ami Pro's style sheets top the Style Sheet list.

But you can fake Ami Pro out quite easily. Just use File Manager or the DOS rename command to rename your personal style sheets so that they start with an exclamation point (!). For example, if you have a personal style sheet called memo.sty, change its name to !memo.sty. Since the exclamation point is sorted before the underscore Ami Pro uses, your style sheets will appear first in the list.

You'll still have to scroll up a bit to select your style sheets, however, because Ami Pro doesn't automatically display that part of the list in the style sheet window. It displays its own sheets first, even if there are other style sheets "above" it (see Figure 3). But scrolling up a few items is a lot easier than scrolling down through Ami Pro's 50 style sheets.

Word and numbers

Q Can you tell me how to perform simple calculations in Word 6 or Word 7? Often when I'm putting together an invoice or a business letter I want to enter a few figures and make a calculation, without running the calculator applet.

- Arno Corelli

A Yes Arno. There are several ways to do this in Word, without having to fire up a calculator applet or invoke an OLE relationship with Excel.

One way is to insert a formula field. Choose Insert-Field from the Word 7 menu, then select =(Formula) in the list box. Type in the formula you want to add. If you just want to make a one-off calculation, type in the actual numbers you want to calculate. For example, type =4+5+6+7

Click OK. Word inserts the field in your text at the current insertion point, formatted according to the text around it.

If you want to check the formula you've entered, right-click on the field, and select Toggle Field Codes in the pop-up menu. The field codes are displayed. You can edit them just as you would any other text. Then right-click on the field and select Update Field from the pop-up menu to see the result.

When you toggle the field codes you see something like:

"The sum of the first 9 integers is {=1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 \* MERGEFORMAT}"

When you update the field to see the results, the Word document shows:

"The sum of the first 9 integers is 20"

You can do much more complex formulas with Word fields. The following Formula field, from Word help, sums the entries in a column in a Word table. (The numeric picture switch (\# $#,#0.00) instructs Word to display the sum with the currency symbol and to use a comma as a thousands separator.)

"Our profits this month are { = SUM(Table3 C2:C7) \# $#,#0.00 }."

"Our profits this month are $91,483.54."

For more details, open the WordBasic reference in Word Help, and search for "calculate".

You can also create a single line macro:

Insert Str$(ToolsCalculate())

Associate the macro with a shortcut key for easiest use. Now, type in your expression, select it and run the macro to replace the selection with the result. This is handy for on-the-fly evaluation of general expressions, such as (8*9)+(567/3).

WordPerfect batch conversions in Ami Pro

Q I recently switched from WordPerfect 4.2 to Ami Pro 3.1, and need to convert 811 WordPerfect documents into the new format. Ami Pro supplies a batch conversion macro (called convert.smm), but unfortunately it doesn't work for WordPerfect 4.2. That seems odd, considering that it's one of the file types listed in Ami Pro's File-Open dialogue box.

What's the deal? Do I have to convert those documents one at a time?

- David Evans

A This is a great question. Because of a limitation in Ami Pro's macro language, the convert.smm macro can't handle the entire list of conversion
filters available in the program. Fortunately,
there's a simple solution for your problem. Here's the process:

1. Exit Ami Pro, start the Windows Notepad accessory, and open the file amipro.ini, located in your main Windows directory.

2. Scroll down through the file until you find the section marked "[Filters]", then look for the line that begins "WordPerfect ver 4.2 =".

3. Highlight that line, press <Ctrl>+X to cut it, then move the cursor back to the beginning of the first line in the [Filters] section and press <Ctrl>+V to paste it as the first entry.

4. Close, and save your changes without changing the file name.

Now, run the modified macro by choosing Tools-Macros-Playback, selecting the file convert.smm in the Play Macro dialogue box, and clicking OK. Your WordPerfect 4.2 filter will appear in the filter list, although it won't appear as the first item.

Split lines in WordPerfect 6.1

Q I need to format some lines of text so that the first part of the line is left-aligned and the rest of the line is right-aligned. I recently switched to WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows from WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. In the DOS version, I could get this effect just by pressing <Alt>+<F6> between the first and second parts of the line. In the Windows version, <Alt>+<F6> seems to do nothing at all.

Is there an equivalent keystroke combination for the DOS command in version 6.1 for Windows?

- Ben Luey

A There is, but I'm not surprised you haven't found it. In WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows, the keystroke command for Flush Right is <Alt>+<F7> instead of <Alt>+<F6>. (In WordPerfect for DOS, <Alt>+<F7> takes you to the Columns and Tables menu.)

Type the text you want to appear flush left, press <Alt>+<F7>, then type the second part of the line to reproduce that split alignment.

You can get the same effect by selecting Format-Line-Flush Right after typing the first part of the line.

Many previous users of WordPerfect for DOS have similar difficulties with the keystroke command changes in the Windows version. There is an easy way to work around this: switch to the DOS keyboard layout. To make the switch, select Edit- Preferences, then double-click the Keyboard icon. Choose <WPDOS Compatible> in the Keyboard Preferences dialogue box, click Select, then click Close in the Preferences dialogue box, and you'll be able to use all your familiar DOS version keystrokes.

- George Campbell


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