How Do I Love Thee? Part 2

A Paean to My Favorite Word Processing Application

By Bayle Emlein

Reason #3: Reveal Codes. This is WordPerfect’s most distinguishing feature. Tap the F3 key and your text with all the formatting codes is revealed in a window below the onscreen/print compatible version. Too much visual clutter? F3 again, and all that information is tucked away. Like several of my WordPerfect compatriots, I frequently untangle formatting nightmares in documents created in other applications by importing them and untangling the code spaghetti. Export a magically clean and organized document and send it back to its originator. Unless you’ve looked under the hood, you have no idea how much invisible junk is embedded. I’ve reduced file size by 30% by just removing unnecessary codes. One can do this by Saving to a .txt file, but this strips out all the codes. Using Reveal Codes and the ability to Search for formatting codes, one can select the codes to remove and keep desired features.

Reason #3a: Searching for formatting codes and selecting the target in Reveal Codes.

Reason #4: Typesetting. Closely related to Reveal Codes, Typesetting allows control of the horizontal and/or vertical placement of each element to 1/1,000 of an inch. This feature alone makes an adequate desktop publishing application out of WordPerfect with absolutely, completely no additional learning curve or expense. I find it wonderful for filling in pre-printed forms since I do not compose on paper.

Reason #5: Make It Fit. Need to get that document all onto one page? Need to turn in a 2 page paper to complete your M.A.? You can fuss forever with font sizes, line spacing, and margins. Or you can click twice, select the parameters that you feel are most likely to skate past notice, click once more and be done.

Reasons #6 and #7: Line Spacing and Font Size selectable to two decimal places. And if that isn’t enough, see Reason #4. I think the Authority to whom I submitted the mandatory 25-page reports no longer cares, so I can confess openly to massage strategies such as adjusting Line Spacing and then creating a Style for fractions of millimeter horizontal adjustment of section headers.

Watch for part 3 of this review coming soon!