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The Original Shareware (WeMake CDs)(Volume 1.1)(CDs, Inc)(1993).iso
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1988-08-02
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TextOut/5
WordPerfect 5.0 to ASCII Conversion Program
Version 1.0
Another Shareware Product from:
CrossCourt Systems
Created by:
Chris Wolf
(Member - Association of Shareware Professionals)
FEATURES
TextOut/5 is a standalone program for IBM-compatible computers that
converts WordPerfect 5.0 document files to ASCII. It improves upon
WordPerfect's Text Out command, in both the "DOS Text" and "generic
word processing" formats.
1. TextOut/5's default format is similar to WordPerfect's "DOS
Text" option, except that TextOut/5 expands tabs to spaces, a
feature that was dropped from WordPerfect in version 5.0. In a
similar vein, TextOut/5 formats hanging indents properly, while
WordPerfect 5.0 does not.
2. In its "generic word processing format", TextOut/5 drops all of
the unwanted spaces that WP inserts for centered or right flush
text. This makes it easier to align these items properly in
the target word processor.
3. TextOut/5 can mark certain font attributes, such as
underlining, in the ASCII file by using special characters.
This is useful if you want to transfer the ASCII file to
another word processor and restore the attributes.
4. TextOut/5 can be run from the DOS command line, and will accept
wildcard filespecs.
5. TextOut/5 converts files at about twice the speed of Word
Perfect.
6. TextOut/5 can be used by someone who does not have WordPerfect,
but who may have received WordPerfect files from elsewhere.
7. TextOut/5 can recover text from files that have been damaged to
the point where WordPerfect refuses to load them.
TextOut/5's default ASCII format is very much like that of the
WordPerfect 4.2 "Save as DOS Text File" command. Indents, tabs and
centering are emulated by the use of spaces, and each line is ended
with a hard carriage return. The format is suitable for use for
electronic mail and many other purposes. See the "OPTIONS" section
for information on the other formats TextOut/5 can produce.
Text/Out5 omits most page-formatting characteristics. This means
that, for example, the left margin is not expanded to spaces; the
top and bottom margins are not expanded to blank lines; page
breaks, headers, footers, and page numbering are omitted; and top-
to-bottom centering is ignored.
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If a document has been "Fast-Saved", TextOut/5 will still convert
it, but will warn you that the formatting may not be correct.
Unless you have recently made a change in margins or tabs without
having gone to the end of the document, the ASCII format will
probably be fine. If you use TextOut/5 often and have problems on
Fast-Saved documents, you may want to change your setup options to
disable Fast Saves.
USE
To run TextOut/5, type TO5 followed by two filenames. The first
one is the name of the input (WP 5.0) file, the second is the
output (ASCII) file. For example:
TO5 TEST.DOC TEST.ASC
The file names can include wildcards, employed in the same way as
with the DOS COPY command. For example,
TO5 A:P*.*
would convert all files starting with the letter P in the current
directory on drive A: to ASCII files of the same name on the
current drive and directory, while
TO5 \DOCS \TEXT\*.TXT
would convert all files from the \DOCS directory to the \TEXT
directory while changing their extensions to TXT.
If a file already exists under the output name, it will be replaced
without warning. If the input and output names are the same,
TextOut/5 will not proceed with the conversion.
OPTIONS
TextOut/5 has many options which can be invoked by "switches" on
the command line. These switches must start with a slash or a
hyphen. This is followed by a letter identifying the option, and,
for some of the switches, a numeric value. The identifying letter
can be either upper or lower case and the switches can appear
anywhere on the command line -- before, after, or in between the
filenames. There must not be any spaces between the slash, the
letter and the number. A command that used the /T, /B, and /C
switches might look like:
TO5 /T /B60 /C62 EXAMPLE.DOC \NEW\EXAMPLE.ASC
There are eight options controlled by twelve switches (keep
reading, it will make sense in a minute).
"Generic Format" Options
These two options would usually be used together to produce a
format similar to WordPerfect's "generic word processing"
option. This format has tabs and carriage returns exactly
where the operator originally typed them, with no spaces or
"soft returns" added. This is usually the best format to use
if you want to transfer the resulting ASCII file to another
word processor.
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1. /R keep only hard <R>eturns
This will keep only WordPerfect's hard returns from the
ASCII file, in effect turning each paragraph into a single
long line of text.
2. /T keep <T>ab characters
This will keep tab characters in the ASCII file, rather
than replacing them with spaces. This differs slightly
from WordPerfect, in that it will also suppress the use of
spaces to position text that is centered between the
margins or flush to the right margin.
Font Attribute Options
These eight options, composed of four pairs of switches, allow
the start and end of certain font attributes to be marked in
the ASCII file using special characters. They would usually be
used in conjunction with the generic-format options if you were
moving the ASCII file to another word processor and wanted to
restore the original format.
The naming of these switches is intended to be mnemonic, but is
limited somewhat by the use of single letters within a 26-
character alphabet. The first switch of each pair, used for
the "start attribute" code, should remind you of the function,
while the switch for the "end attribute" code simply follows
the first alphabetically. Thus /B for bold is paired with /C,
and /U for underline is paired with /V. Subscripting and
superscripting are less obvious, with /I and /J intended to
remind you of things often used as subscripts, while /X and /Y
might be used as superscripts (powers).
1. /B# and /C# <B>oldface
There are several ways to use these and the following
paired options.
If you want to mark boldface text using the default
characters of { (ASCII 125) at the beginning and } (ASCII
123) at the end, all you have to do is specify /B by
itself.
If you want to mark boldface text, but want to use
different characters, perhaps because the default
characters may occur in your document, you can specify
either or both of the /B and /C switches with a numeric
ASCII value (as indicated by the # symbol in the switch
template above). In the case of the /B switch, the ASCII
character corresponding to the numeric value will be used
to mark the start of boldface; the value given for the /C
switch will be used to mark the end.
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The value must be decimal (i.e., hexadecimal is not
allowed) and cannot be zero. Only a single ASCII value can
be used for each switch; it is not possible to mark with a
multi-character code, such as [B]. So, for example, /B17
would cause a Ctrl-Q to be used at the start of bold text,
while /C35 would put # symbols at the end of bold text.
In some ways the use of ASCII values is inconvenient, but
DOS puts restrictions on the use of many characters on the
command line, so something like /B< /C> will not work. The
use of numbers gives maximum flexibility.
2. /I# and /J# subscripts
Read the description of /B and /C above for a full
explanation of how the paired options work. If you use /I
without a number, the beginning of a subscript will be
marked with ~ (ASCII 126) and the ending with | (ASCII
124).
3. /U# and /V# <U>nderlining
Read the description of /B and /C above for a full
explanation of how the paired options work. If you use /U
without a number, the beginning of underlining will be
marked with < (ASCII 60) and the ending with > (ASCII 62).
4. /X# and /Y# superscripts
Read the description of /B and /C above for a full
explanation of how the paired options work. If you use /X
without a number, the beginning of a superscript will be
marked with ^ (ASCII 94) and the ending with \ (ASCII 92).
Other Options
1. /P# tab-fill <P>itch
Word Perfect 5.0 stores all tabs, indents, centering, etc.
using absolute measurements, i.e. inches. It also allows
you to intermix different font sizes at will. This can
cause some inconsistencies in spacing when converting to
ASCII files, where an inch is a meaningless measurement and
all characters are the same size.
When expanding tabs and the like to spaces, TextOut/5
translates WP's internal measurements to 10 spaces per
inch. If a document is written primarily in another pitch,
this may not give quite the right spacing. This would be
most noticeable in tables, particularly if you used a very
small font size (large pitch). In this case, the columns
in the table might all run together. You can specify a
different pitch for the tab filling by using, for example,
/P12 to indicate 12 pitch.
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2. /H <H>eaderless WP file
This option can recover the text from a damaged file that
may not be usable with WP. There are many different kinds
of damage that may occur to a file, however, and the
quality of the results from TextOut/5 may vary widely.
BEFORE YOU USE THIS OPTION YOU MUST REMOVE THE HEADER FROM
THE FILE. If you don't, the program will still work, but
you will probably recover less text than if you had removed
the header. To do this, you must have a byte-level editor
such as WP's Program Editor, QDOS's QED, the Norton
Utilities, etc. and you must know how to use it on binary
files. Using the editor, find the first recognizable text
in the file and delete everything that precedes it. Don't
delete anything else, even though much of it may look like
junk. Save the result under a new name.
Run TextOut/5 using this new headerless file as input and
specifying the /H option. Chances are that you will want
to use the generic-format options as well as the attribute-
marking options, because they will produce a file that can
be most easily restored to its original format. Remember
that the output file will be ASCII, so you should not
Retrieve it directly into Word Perfect. Use the Retrieve
command found as option 2 on the Text In/Out - DOS Text
menu.
If the first attempt is unsatisfactory, try editing the
headerless file again, this time looking for large blocks
of a single character. Try deleting these and running
TextOut/5 again.
REGISTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION
TextOut/5 is Copyright 1988, CrossCourt Systems.
Chris Wolf, the author of TextOut/5, is a member of the Association
of Shareware Professionals (ASP), a group dedicated to high
standards in the development, documentation, and support of
shareware products.
If you find TextOut/5 to be a useful and valuable product, please
register your copy with CrossCourt Systems by sending payment to
the address below. In the spirit of shareware, the amount is left
up to you to determine, based on the number of copies you are
using, the frequency of use, and the amount of time it saves you.
Those who send $15 or more will be sent one subsequent update (be
sure to specify what version you currently have). VISA and
MasterCard are accepted. Microsoft C source code is available at
personal-use and commercial-use rates.
TextOut/5 may be distributed to others, as long as 1) the program
is not altered in any way, 2) this documentation file is always
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included, and 3) no charge is made for such distribution beyond a
modest disk preparation fee. For bulletin board distribution,
please use the file name TEXTOUT5.ARC or TXTOUT.ARC
TextOut/5 has been tested and performs its functions essentially as
described above, without causing any damage to the computer in use
or any of its files. However, all users are responsible for
backing up their own files, and CrossCourt Systems assumes no
responsibility for any damage or losses incurred as a result of its
use.
Chris Wolf can be reached on Compuserve at 72446,2704. If you
encounter problems with any conversion, I would like to hear about
them. If you have suggestions for improvements, they would be
appreciated also.
CrossCourt Systems
1521 Greenview Ave.
East Lansing, MI 48823
(517) 332-4353
Other shareware from CrossCourt Systems
ConvDW - converts IBM Displaywrite 3 or 4 files to ASCII, offering
many of the same options as TextOut/5. Unlike WP 5.0, DW has a
space-formatted, text-out-like command, but does not have a
generic-format option. ConvDW, of course, offers both. Usually
found as CONVDW.ARC on bulletin boards.
ConvDCA - converts IBM DCA/RFT format files to ASCII, offering many
of the same options as TextOut/5. Usually found as CNVDCA.ARC or
CONVDCA.ARC on bulletin boards.
TextCon - a program to reformat ASCII files before importing them
to your word processor. TextCon performs extremely intelligent
"cleaning" operations on your ASCII files, so you have less editing
to do after importing them. It removes unneeded hard carriage
returns (even with tricky paragraph formats), strips excess spaces
used for margins or justification, and does other processing to get
the cleanest conversion possible. Can also perform other unusual
formatting tasks such as splitting long lines in generic-format
files. Usually found as TEXTCN.ARC or TEXTCON.ARC on bulletin
boards.
