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CONVERT.DOC
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1987-10-28
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CONVERT.ARC
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Size: 5888 bytes
Date: 10/27/87
Uploaded by Sylvain Gagnon
Number of times accessed: 0
Keyword: ASCII to First Word Converter
Description...
Have you ever tried to reformat a plain ASCII (text) file using First
Word or First Word Plus? If you had, you know it is almost
IMPOSSIBLE!
That's because First Word uses 'soft' space to separate the words
while a explain text file contains 'hard' space. The difference is
'soft' space CAN be STRECHTED, while 'hard' space CAN'T. That means
First Word WON'T be able to had more spaces at between words of a
plain text file to make it right justified. Also, First Word knows if
the line is part of a paragraph if it has a 'soft' space at its end.
Therefore, such a line can be truncated to fit if too long. Now you
can see all the trouble involved in converting a text file to First
Word 'by hand'. There is where CONVERT.PRG comes into play...
CONVERT.PRG takes any (well almost, I'll explain later) text file
(can't be a First Word file) and converts it to a First Word file.
Spaces are converted to soft space and space at the beginning of a
line (if any), are converted in INDENT. Tabs are also converted in
soft space, but the amount of soft space for each tab is determined
at the begining (either 4, 5 (default) or 8). The 'header' line is
also modified to have the tab set right.
Now the limitation... Because CONVERT uses a 'blank line' to tell the
end of paragraph, if paragraphes are just separated by indents, it
will think they are (the lines) part of one BIG paragraph. That is
not really important, you just have to delete the space added at the
end of each paragraph yourself BEFORE reformating. The other
limitation (well, not really a limitation) is because the program ue
same filename as the one you specified, but replace the extension
with ..DOC' extension (you won't fool it).
I use that program to convel to First Word so I could edit them
before printing them on the VAX pgonquin) and they REALLY look nice
(with appendices, headers, page numbe contents!).