Starting

Here’s how to use the world’s most popular word processor, Word Perfect. It’s been published by Word Perfect Corporation. In 1994, Word Perfect Corporation became part of a bigger company, Novell. In 1996, Novell sold Word Perfect to a Canadian company, Corel, which you can reach at 800-77-Corel (if you’re in the USA or Canada) or 613-728-0826. Corel’s technical-support number is 613-728-7070.

Word Perfect has gradually improved. Word Perfect version 4.0 for MS-DOS led to versions 4.1, 4.2, 5.0, and 5.1. Most businesses use version 5.1.

This chapter explains Word Perfect version 5.1 for DOS. It also explains how earlier versions differed.

Discount dealers sell version 5.1 for about $189. Fancier versions have been developed, such as version 6.1 for DOS ($189), version 6.1 for Windows ($179), and version 7 suite for Windows 95 ($219); but they’re controversial because they consume more RAM, run more slowly, and require you to learn different keystrokes.

To use version 5.1 for DOS, you need 512K of RAM. You’ll also want a hard disk. If you don’t own a hard disk yet, buy one! If you don’t, you must have two floppy drives — and making Word Perfect use them is very awkward. If you try using version 5.1 with two floppy drives, they must be modern enough to hold at least 720K each.

I’ll assume you have a hard disk whose CONFIG.SYS file mentions "files" and "buffers" (as I recommended in my MS-DOS chapter). Version 5.1 consumes 4½ megabytes of your hard disk; earlier versions consume less.

When you buy version 5.1, you get a dozen 5¼-inch floppy disks. (You also get 3½-inch disks containing the same info as the 5¼-inch disks. You get just a few 3½-inch disks, because each 3½-inch disk holds twice as many bytes as a 5¼-inch disk.)

Copy Word Perfect to the hard disk

Here’s how to copy Word Perfect to the hard disk.

Version 5.1 Turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A. When you see the C prompt, put Word Perfect’s "Install/Learn/Utilities 1" disk into drive A and type "a:".

The computer will display an A prompt. Type "install".

Here’s what happens next, if your Word Perfect 5.1 disks are 5¼-inch. (The procedure for 3½-inch disks is similar.) I’ll assume your disks were manufactured on or after May 31, 1991. (Disks manufactured before then don’t work quite as nicely.)

The computer will say "Word Perfect Installation". Press ENTER.

The computer will ask, "Do you see red, green, and blue colored boxes?" If you see all three colors (because you have a color monitor), press ENTER; if you don’t, press N.

The computer will ask, "Install to a hard disk?" Press ENTER.

Press C (which tells the computer you want to customize Word Perfect). Press T then W, then type "wp" (and press ENTER). That tells the computer you want to put Word Perfect into a hard-disk subdirectory called "WP". The computer will ask, "Create?" Press ENTER then E. Press ENTER twice.

Next, you perform an exercise in computerized calisthenics, called shove and press. When the computer tells you, shove a floppy disk into drive A and press ENTER several times. Here are the details:

What the computer will say How you should respond

Insert the Install/Learn/Utilities 2 disk insert it and press ENTER 7 times

Insert the Program 1 disk insert it and press ENTER

Insert the Program 2 disk insert it and press ENTER twice

Insert the Spell/Thesaurus 1 disk insert it and press ENTER twice

Insert the Spell/Thesaurus 2 disk insert it and press ENTER twice

Insert the PTR Program/Graphics 1 disk insert it and press ENTER twice

Insert the PTR Program/Graphics 2 disk insert it and press ENTER

Then the computer will ask, "Do you want to install the Small .DRS File?" Press N. Press ENTER 5 times.

The computer will say "Insert the Printer disk". Insert the Printer 1 disk and press ENTER. Press the PAGE DOWN (or PgDn) key repeatedly, until you see the name of your printer. In front of that name, you’ll see a number. Type that number and press ENTER. (If you see two numbers, choose the number that does not have an asterisk.) Press ENTER again.

The computer will say to insert another Printer disk. Insert it and press ENTER twice.

The computer will say "Enter license number". Type that number (which is on the Customer Registration card that came in the Word Perfect package) and press ENTER. Press ENTER again.

You’ll see an A prompt. Turn off the computer, so you can start fresh.

Older versions Turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A. After the C prompt, type "md wp" (so you’re making a subdirectory called WP). After the next C prompt, type "cd wp" (so you’re changing to the WP subdirectory).

Put one of Word Perfect’s floppy disks into drive A, and type "copy a:*.*" (which copies all the floppy’s files onto the hard disk). Follow the same procedure for the other Word Perfect disks. Then turn off the computer, so you can start fresh.

Run Word Perfect

To run Word Perfect, turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A.

If you’ve put the DO.BAT file onto your hard disk (as I recommended in the MS-DOS chapter) and put Word Perfect into the WP subdirectory (as I recommended above), your life is easy! Just type "do wp".

If you have not put DO.BAT onto your hard disk, do this instead: type "cd wp" and then "wp".

You’ll eventually see "Doc 1 Pg 1", which means you can begin typing your document.

Type the document

Begin typing whatever document you wish to create. For example, try typing a novel that begins like this:

Once upon a time, a man was walking down the street, when lo and behold, his house was gone. As he gaped into the hole, a burning sensation in his shoes warned him that…

I’ll let you complete that paragraph yourself! Be creative!

Shift keys To capitalize a letter, type the letter while holding down a Shift key. (One Shift key is next to the Z key; the other Shift key is next to the ? key. Each Shift key has an up-arrow on it.)

BACKSPACE key If you make a mistake, erase it by pressing the BACKSPACE key, which erases the character you just typed. (The BACKSPACE key is in the upper-right corner of the keyboard’s main section. It’s to the right of the + key, and it has a left-arrow on it.)

ENTER key As you type that paragraph and get near the right margin, do not press the ENTER key. Just keep on typing! The computer will press the ENTER key for you automatically.

If you try to type a long word near the right margin, and the word’s too long to fit before the margin, the computer will automatically move the entire word to the line below. The computer’s ability to automatically move an entire word to the line below is called word wrap.

Since the computer automatically presses the ENTER key for you, never press the ENTER key yourself until you reach the end of a paragraph. Pressing the ENTER key there makes the computer return to the left margin, so that you can begin a new paragraph. Pressing the ENTER key means: begin a new paragraph.

If you want to double-space between paragraphs, press the ENTER key twice.

TAB key If you want to indent the new paragraph’s first word, press the TAB key before typing that word. (The TAB key is next to the Q key and has arrows on it.) To indent that word even farther, press the TAB key several times. Each time you press the TAB key, the computer indents a half inch farther.

 

Lists To type a list of short lines, such as this recipe for White Death Cookies —

3 cups of powdered milk

2 cups of water

1 pound of sugar

1 pound of cocaine

mix & shape

bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes

serves 7 ghosts

press the ENTER key at the end of each line.

Try typing this English-French dictionary:

ENGLISH FRENCH

love amour

pain peine

tenderness tendresse

Here’s how. Type the first column’s heading (ENGLISH), press the TAB key several times (to move far to the right), type the second column’s heading (FRENCH), and press ENTER. Type "love", press the TAB key repeatedly until you’re under FRENCH, type "amour", and press ENTER. Use the same technique for the table’s other lines.

Version 4.0 If you’re using version 4.0 (instead of a newer version), the computer will occasionally say "Position hyphen". To reply, tap the F1 key.

CAPS LOCK

If you press the CAPS LOCK key, the letters of the alphabet will be automatically capitalized (and you’ll be in caps mode), until you press the CAPS LOCK key again. When you’re in caps mode, the screen’s bottom right corner says "POS" instead of "Pos".

If your keyboard is modern, its top right corner has a Caps Lock light. When you’re in caps mode, that light glows.

NUM LOCK

On the keyboard’s right side, you’ll see a group of keys containing numbers. That group of keys is called the numeric keypad.

Try this experiment: on the numeric keypad, press the 5 key. If that made a "5" appear on your screen, you’re in number mode. If that did not make a "5" appear on your screen, you’re not in number mode. To switch to or from number mode, press the NUM LOCK key.

If your keyboard is modern, its top right corner has a Num Lock light. When you’re in number mode, that light glows.

In this chapter, we’ll use the numeric keypad for purposes more advanced than typing numbers. So to follow the instructions in this chapter, do not use those keys to type numbers: do NOT be in number mode. (Do not let the Num Lock light glow. Do not let the 5 key put a "5" on the screen.)

Press the NUM LOCK key if necessary, so that you’re not in number mode.

Move the cursor

After you’ve typed a few paragraphs (and pressed the ENTER key at the end of each paragraph), you can move around the screen and edit your document.

Arrow keys On your screen the short, blinking underline is called the cursor. To move the cursor up, press the key that has an up-arrow on it. You can move the cursor in all four directions, by pressing the up-arrow, down-arrow, left-arrow, and right-arrow keys. Each of those keys automatically repeats: so to move the cursor up several lines, just keep your finger on the up-arrow key a while.

(If the arrow keys don’t work, that’s because you’re in number mode. Get out of number mode by pressing the NUM LOCK key.)

HOME key Pressing the HOME key means "very". For example, if you press the HOME key and then the left-arrow key, the cursor will move "very left", to the beginning of the line. You can move very far in all four directions:

Keys you press Where the cursor will move

HOME then the beginning of the line

HOME then the end of the line

HOME then the top of the screen

HOME then the bottom of the screen

Another way to move to the end of the line is to press the END key.

If you press HOME then , and the cursor is already at the top of the screen, the cursor will move to the top of the previous screen. If you press HOME then , and the cursor is already at the bottom of the screen, the cursor will move to the bottom of the next screen.

Instead of pressing HOME then , try this short cut: press the special "-" key that’s on the keyboard’s far right side (at the far right side of the numeric keypad). Similarly, instead of pressing HOME then , press the numeric keypad’s "+" key. (To use those short cuts, make sure you’re not in number mode.)

Pressing HOME twice means "very very". If you press HOME twice and then , the cursor will move "very very up", to the top of the whole document. If you press HOME twice and then , the cursor will move "very very down", to the bottom of the whole document.

Pages A sheet of paper is called a page. The typical page is tall enough to hold 54 lines of your document. The page is taller than your screen, which holds just 24 lines.

If your document is longer than a page, your screen shows a horizontal dotted line at the bottom of each page. (That line is called a page break.)

If you press the PAGE DOWN key (PgDn), the cursor moves down to the next page. If you press the PAGE UP key (PgUp), the cursor moves up to the previous page.

Try this experiment: while holding down the CONTROL key (which says "Ctrl" on it), tap the HOME key. Then press  (to move to the top of the current page) or  (to move to the page’s bottom) or type a number (for example, type 3 and then ENTER, to move to page 3).

When you finish typing a paragraph, you normally press the ENTER key, which tells the computer to end the paragraph. If you press the ENTER key while holding down the CONTROL key, the computer will end the paragraph and insert a page break, so that the next paragraph will appear at the top of the next page.

DELETE key

To delete the character you just typed, press the BACKSPACE key. To delete a character you typed long ago, move the cursor to that character, then press the DELETE key (which says "Del" on it). To delete a passage typed long ago, move the cursor to passage’s beginning, then tap the DELETE key several times (or hold down the DELETE key a while), until the passage disappears.

Insert

Here’s how to insert extra characters anywhere in your document. Move the cursor to where you want the extra characters to begin. Then type the characters you want to insert.

To make room for characters you’re inserting, other characters on that line will automatically move to the right. They might move past the screen’s right edge, so you can’t see them; but they’ll come back onto the screen again when you move the cursor.

Replace characters If your document contains incorrect characters, you can replace them by using two methods:

Method 1. Move the cursor to the beginning of the incorrect characters. Press the DELETE key several times, until the incorrect characters disappear. Then type the characters you want instead.

Method 2. Move the cursor to the beginning of the incorrect characters. Press the INSERT key (which says "Ins" on it); it makes the screen’s bottom left corner say "Typeover". Type the correct characters; they’ll cover up the bad characters. When you finish, press the INSERT key again (to make the screen stop saying "Typeover").

Split a paragraph Here’s how to split a paragraph into two shorter paragraphs.

What word should begin the second short paragraph? Look at the space before that word. Move the cursor to that space. Delete that space (by pressing the DELETE key), then press ENTER. Now you’ve split the long paragraph into two!

If you want to double-space between the two short paragraphs, press ENTER again. If you want to indent the second paragraph, press the TAB key.

Combine paragraphs After typing two paragraphs, here’s how to combine them to form a single paragraph that’s longer.

By pressing the up-arrow key, move the cursor to the first paragraph’s bottom line. Move to the end of that line, by pressing the END key. Delete the end-of-paragraph mark, by pressing the DELETE key.

Press the DELETE key one or two more times (to delete unwanted TABs and ENTERs). Press the SPACE bar (to insert a space between the two sentences).

Function keys

On the keyboard, you’ll see function keys labeled F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, and F10. If your keyboard is modern, those function keys are on the top of the keyboard, along with two extra keys (F11 and F12).

By pressing the function keys, you can give 40 commands, which are explained on the following pages:

Command What the computer will do Keys to press Page

Block define a block F12 (or Alt F4) 187

Bold start (or stop) making text be boldface F6 187

Cancel cancel a command, or restore deleted text F1 189

Center center a title or column heading or block Shift F6 187

Columns/table make columns for newspapers, tables, math Alt F7 192

Date/outline type the date, or create an outline Shift F5 198

End field mark the end of a field, in a merge file F9 201

Exit exit from a menu or document or subsection F7 188

Flush right type next to the right margin Alt F6 190

Font change to a different font Ctrl F8 193

Footnote create a footnote or endnote Ctrl F7 199

Format margins, tab stops, page & document layout Shift F8 190

Graphics insert graphics with captions Alt F9 203

Help help you remember what keys to press F3 201

Indent indent the entire paragraph F4 190

Indent both indent and center the entire paragraph Shift F4 190

List files display a disk’s directory & analyze its files F5 189

Macro use a macro Alt F10 198

Macro define invent a macro Ctrl F10 197

Mark text table of contents, index, cross-reference, list Alt F5 199

Merge codes insert special codes, to control the merging Shift F9 200

Merge/sort handle form letters, mailing lists, sorting Ctrl F9 200

Move move a sentence, paragraph, page, or block Ctrl F4 202

Print print on paper, or show a preview on screen Shift F7 188

Replace search for a phrase & replace it by another Alt F2 196

Retrieve copy a document from the disk to the screen Shift F10 188

Reveal codes show (or stop showing) hidden codes F11 (or Alt F3) 187

Save copy the document to a disk F10 188

Screen create lines, boxes, windows, rewrites Ctrl F3 203

Search search ahead through text, to find a phrase F2 195

Search back search back through text, to find a phrase Shift F2 196

Setup change the way Word Perfect behaves Shift F1 202

Shell leave Word Perfect temporarily & do DOS Ctrl F1 202

Spell check spelling, count words, find repetitions Ctrl F2 196

Style invent or use a style Alt F8 198

Switch switch documents, or switch to & from caps Shift F3 202

Tab align in a column of numbers, align decimal points Ctrl F6 190

Text in/out use other programs, passwords, comments Ctrl F5 202

Thesaurus find synonyms & antonyms Alt F1 196

Underline start (or stop) underlining the text F8 187

Put that chart (or a photocopy of it) next to the computer.

Older versions (such as 4.0) lack the fanciest features (such as "Shell" and "Thesaurus"). Those older versions give the following keystrokes different meanings:

Keystroke New meaning Old meaning When the new meaning began

Ctrl F1 Shell Do nothing version 4.1

Alt F1 Thesaurus Hard space version 4.1

Alt F8 Style Page format version 5.0

Ctrl F8 Font Print format version 5.0

Shift F1 Setup Super/subscript version 5.0

Alt F9 Graphics Merge codes version 5.0

Shift F9 Merge codes Merge end version 5.0

F9 End field Merge return version 5.1

Alt F7 Columns/table Math/columns version 5.1

Notice that Word Perfect makes heavy use of the Shift, Alt, and Ctrl keys. To help you find those keys, Word Perfect comes with decals to put on those keys. Stick the green decal on the left Shift key, the red decal on the Ctrl key, and the blue decal on the Alt key. Since they’re decals for keys, they’re called keycals.

Word Perfect also comes with a plastic template that you put next to the function keys. The template contains a chart giving each function key’s purpose. The chart is color-coded. Commands written in green require that you hold down the green key (the Shift key). Commands written in blue require that you hold down the blue key (the Alt key). Commands written in red require that you hold down the red key (the Ctrl key). Commands written in black are simple: they don’t require any colored keys.

The template and keycals are extremely helpful. They makes Word Perfect become easy. Without them, Word Perfect is a nightmare. If you lose the template and keycals, buy another set by phoning Corel at 800-77-Corel.

Here’s how to use the function keys.…

Center (Shift F6)

Suppose you’ve finished typing a paragraph (and pressed the ENTER key afterwards). Here’s how to make the next line be a centered title.

Say "Center" (by pressing Shift with F6). Type the title, then press ENTER.

Bold (F6)

Here’s how to make a phrase be bold (like this).

Say "Bold" (by pressing F6). Type the phrase, then press the right-arrow key.

If the phrase you said to make "bold" doesn’t look bolder than the rest of your document, adjust your screen’s contrast and brightness knobs.

Underline (F8)

Here’s how to underline a phrase (like this).

Say "Underline" (by pressing F8). Type the phrase, then press the right-arrow key.

If your screen makes the phrase look shaded instead of underlined, don’t worry: regardless of how the phrase looks on the screen, the printer will underline the phrase on paper.

Reveal codes (F11 or Alt F3)

When you tell the computer that you wish to center, make bold, underline, or do something else special, the computer turns your wish into a code and inserts that code in your document.

For example, suppose you type this document in Word Perfect:


We kissed at every moment we could.

Wow!

To remember that you want "every moment" to be UNDerlined and "Wow!" to be below, Word Perfect stores your document like this:

We kissed at [UND]every moment[und] we could.[HRt]Wow!

The [UND] code means "start UNDerlining". The [und] code means "end underlining". The [HRt] code means "press the Hard ReTurn key" so that the next word (Wow!) appears on the line below.

The screen normally shows just this:


We kissed at every moment we could.

Wow!

The [UND], [und], and [HRt] are hidden codes that don’t appear on the screen.

If you WANT the hidden codes to appear on the screen, say "Reveal codes" by pressing F11. (If your keyboard doesn’t have an F11 key or you’re using a Word Perfect version older than 5.1, press Alt with F3.) You’ll see this at the bottom of the screen:

We kissed at [UND]every moment[und] we could.[HRt]

Wow!

While you’re looking at the [UND], [und], and [HRt] codes, you can edit them.

For example, if you change your mind and want "every moment" not to be underlined, move the cursor to the [UND] and then press the DELETE key. The [UND] will disappear. When the [UND] disappears, the computer automatically makes the [und] disappear also.

When you finish looking at codes and editing them, hide them by pressing F11 (or Alt F3) again.

Whenever Word Perfect confuses you, say "Reveal codes" (by pressing F11 or Alt F3) and then stare at the codes, to find out what’s really going on.

Here are Word Perfect’s popular codes:

Code Meaning

[UND] start underlining

[und] end underlining

[BOLD] start boldfacing

[bold] end boldfacing

[Tab] indent (because the human pressed the TAB key)

[HRt] hard return (the human pressed the RETURN key)

[SRt] soft return (computer pressed RETURN because at margin)

[HPg] hard page break (human pressed CONTROL with RETURN)

[SPg] soft page break (computer pressed because previous page full)

[Center] start centering (end centering when reach RETURN or TAB)

Versions older than 5.1 say [Cntr] instead of [Center]. At the end of the centered text, those older versions say [C/A/Flrt].

Block (F12 or Alt F4)

You can manipulate a large portion of your document with a single keystroke! The portion you’re manipulating is called the block. It can consist of several words, several sentences, several paragraphs, or even several pages.

Here’s how to manipulate a block.…

Move the cursor to the beginning of the block. (For example, to manipulate a whole paragraph, move the cursor to the beginning of the paragraph.)

Then say "Block" by pressing F12. (If your keyboard doesn’t have an F12 key or you’re using a Word Perfect version older than 5.1, press Alt with F4.)

Move the cursor to the end of the block.

Then say what to do to the block. For example, choose one of these activities:

To make the block be bold, say "Bold" (by pressing F6).

To underline all the words in the block, say "Underline" (by pressing F8).

To center all the lines in the block, say "Center" (Shift with F6) then press Y. Give this command only if each of the block’s lines is brief. For example, give this command to center a poem or a multi-line headline.

To delete the block, press the Del key then the Y key.

To move the block (so it vanishes from its current location and reappears elsewhere), press Ctrl with Del. Then move the cursor where you want the block’s new position to be, and press ENTER.

To copy the block (so the block appears twice in your document), press Ctrl with Ins. Then put the cursor where you want the block’s copy to be, and press ENTER.

Inferior versions If you’re using an older version of Word Perfect (before 5.1) or an old-fashioned keyboard (lacking an F12 key), your computer won’t understand "Ctrl with Del" or "Ctrl with Ins". Here’s what to do:

Versions 5.0 and 5.1. Instead of pressing "Ctrl with Del", press Ctrl with F4 and then type BM. Instead of pressing "Ctrl with Ins", press Ctrl with F4 and then type BC.

Versions 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2. Instead of pressing "Ctrl with Del" or "Ctrl with Ins", do the following. Say "Move" (Ctrl with F4). Press either the 1 key (to move the block) or the 2 key (to copy the block). Put the cursor where you want the block to appear. Say "Move" again (Ctrl with F4). Tap the 5 key. You’ve finished the procedure: the block has been moved or copied.

Ending

After you’ve edited your document, you’ll want to undo any mistakes, copy the document onto the hard disk and paper, and move on to a different document or task. Here’s how.…

Save (F10)

While you’re typing and editing a document, the document’s in the computer’s RAM chips. It’s not on a disk. If the computer’s electricity goes off (because of a thunderstorm or because your cat pulled the plug), the RAM chips will be erased — and so will your document!

Another way to accidentally erase your document is to hit a wrong key. For example, if your cat jumps onto your keyboard and then sits on your DELETE key for several minutes, your document will be deleted. Other accidents can be caused by dogs, babies, novices, and you!

To protect against accidents, copy your document onto a disk. Copying a document onto a disk is called saving.

To save, just say "Save" (by pressing F10).

Then the computer will ask you to invent a name for your document. The name must be short: no more than 8 letters. For example, the name can be "jennifer" or "al". Type the name you wish and press ENTER.

The computer will copy the document onto the hard disk (drive C) and put that document into the WP subdirectory.

Afterwards, if you improve the document by editing it further, the improved version will be in the RAM chips, but the disk will still contain the old version. To copy the improved version onto the disk, say "Save" again (by pressing F10) and press ENTER. The computer will ask, "Replace?" Press Y. The computer will replace the disk’s old version by the new version.

Save often If you’re typing a long document, say "Save" every 10 minutes. Then if an accident happens, you’ll lose at most 10 minutes of work!

Exit (F7)

When you finish editing your document, say "Exit" (by pressing F7).

The computer will ask, "Save document?" Press Y.

If the document’s name appears at the bottom of the screen, press ENTER. (If no name appears, invent a name for the document — and when you finish typing the name, press ENTER.)

If the computer asks "Replace?", press Y.

The computer will ask, "Exit WP?" If you want to exit from Word Perfect and make the screen show a C prompt, press Y. (If you do not want to exit from Word Perfect, press N; then the screen will go blank, so you can create another document.)

Retrieve (Shift F10)

Here’s how to copy a document from your hard disk to your screen.

First, make the screen be blank. (To do that, say "Exit" by pressing F7, then press N twice.)

Then say "Retrieve" (by pressing Shift with F10). Type the name of the document you want to retrieve from the hard disk (such as "jennifer"), and press ENTER.

Combine documents Normally, you should make the screen be blank before you say "Retrieve". If the screen is not blank, the computer inserts the retrieved document in the middle of the document that was on the screen.

So here’s how to combine two documents. First, get one of the documents onto the screen. Then put the cursor where you want the second document to be inserted. (For example, if you want the second document to be inserted at the end of the first document, put the cursor at the end of the first document.) Say "Retrieve", type the name of the second document, and press ENTER.

Create a document template Create a document called LETTER. At the top of the document, type your return address and any other information you want as your letterhead. Further down the document, say "Dear", but leave the letter’s details blank: just create blank lines, by pressing the ENTER key a few times. At the end of the document, say "Sincerely" or "Very truly yours" or whatever other oily cliché you want to close the letter with. Leave a few more blank lines (so you can sign the letter), then type your name. Save the document. Such a document — which contains generalities but no details — is called a document template.

Then whenever you want to write a letter, just retrieve that LETTER document, edit it (by inserting lines of text after "Dear"), and save the edited version under a different name. For example, if the edited version is a letter to Susan, name the edited version "SUSAN".

Besides LETTER, you should create several other document templates. For example, create a document template called MEMO, which begins with phrases such as "Memo to", "From", "Regarding", and "Date".

By saving document templates such as LETTER and MEMO, you’ll be saving and automating all the stupid, tedious, repetitive parts of the typing task. Then just fill in the blanks — creatively!

Print (Shift F7)

To copy your writing onto paper, make sure the printer is turned on. Make sure you’ve saved your document (to protect yourself in case the printer doesn’t work). Then say "Print" (by pressing Shift with F7).

You’ll see the print menu. In version 5.1, the print menu’s first two items look like this:

1 - Full

2 - Page

If you want to print the entire, full document, choose the print menu’s first item by pressing 1 or F. (Notice that the 1 and F are in boldface. If you don’t see the boldface on your screen, adjust the screen’s contrast and brightness knobs.) If you want to print just the page that contains the cursor, choose the print menu’s second item by pressing 2 or P.

To become a Word Perfect expert, get in the habit of choosing menu items by pressing letters (such as F and P) instead of numbers (such as 1 and 2). The letters are easier to memorize. For example, to print just a page, it’s easier to get in the habit of pressing P than pressing 2.

Older versions If you’re stuck with an ancient version (4.0, 4.1, or 4.2), you can’t choose by letter: you must type numbers instead.

Selecting a printer driver A printer driver is software that handles your printer’s peculiarities. For example, a Panasonic 1124 printer driver for Word Perfect is software that helps Word Perfect handles the peculiarities of the Panasonic 1124 printer. Word Perfect comes with 437 printer drivers.

When you buy Word Perfect, you must tell it which printer you bought. That process is called selecting a printer driver. If you’re using version 5.1, you selected a printer driver during the process of copying Word Perfect to the hard disk.

If you’re using version 5.0 instead, here’s how to select a printer driver:

After you turn on the computer and start using Word Perfect, say "Print" (by pressing Shift with F7). From the menus, choose Select Additional (by pressing S then A). You’ll see an alphabetical list of printers. Press PgDn several times, until you see your printer. Move the cursor to your printer’s name (by pressing the down-arrow), and press ENTER twice. When the bottom of the screen says "Press Exit to quit", press F7 four times.

Simple choices The print menu offers you many choices. You’ve seen that to print the full document, choose Full (by pressing F); to print just the page containing the cursor, choose Page (by pressing P). Here are some other choices.…

To print several pages, choose Multiple (by pressing M), then say which pages to print. For example, to print pages 2, 5, and 7 through 11, type "2,5,7-11" and press ENTER. To print just the document’s last part — from page 15 to the end — type "15-" and press ENTER.

Suppose JENNIFER is a document you’ve saved on the hard disk. If you want to print the JENNIFER document instead of the screen’s document, choose Document, then type "jennifer" and ENTER.

Preview While you’re experimenting with editing and printing your document, you’ll make many mistakes that can waste lots of paper. To avoid wasting paper, tell the computer to print to your screen instead of to paper. Printing to the screen is called previewing. Here’s how to do it.…

Choose View from the print menu. (That choice works only if your computer contains a graphics card.) The screen shows a picture of a sheet of paper. That picture, called the preview, shows how the current page will look on paper.

If your graphics card is VGA, the preview is pretty.

Underneath the preview, you’ll see this menu:

1 100% 2 200% 3 Full-page 4 Facing-pages

That menu lets you modify the preview. Press 1 for a view that’s the actual size, 2 for a magnified view (in which the characters appear larger than on paper), 3 for a miniaturized view (so that the entire, full page fits on your screen), 4 for a miniaturized view that includes not just the cursor’s page but also the facing page. You can also press the arrow keys (to move around the page), and PgUp & PgDn (to move to different pages).

When you finish looking at the preview, say "Exit" (by pressing F7).

Multiple copies The printer assumes you want to print just one copy of each page. To change that assumption — and make the printer print 10 copies of each page — choose Number, then type 10 (and ENTER).

If you’ll print many copies of each page, you can speed up the printing by choosing mUltiple Printer. (To do that, type U then P.) That will make the printer print the copies faster — especially if you have a laser printer. When doing that high-speed copying, the printer doesn’t bother to collate the pages. If you want to switch back to regular-speed printing (and have automatic collating), choose mUltiple Wordperfect.

Extra fonts If you buy extra fonts and insert them into your printer (by inserting a font cartridge or soft font or font wheel), tell the computer which fonts you’ve bought. To do so, choose Select Edit Cartridges from the print menu (by typing SEC). Then follow the menus on the screen. For example, if you’ve bought a font cartridge for a Hewlett-Packard laser printer, move the cursor to the word "Cartridges" (by pressing the down-arrow key), press S (for Select), move the cursor to the cartridge’s name (by pressing the down-arrow and PgDn keys), press ENTER (so an asterisk appears), and press F7 five times.

Cancel (F1)

If you make a mistake, undo it by saying "Cancel" (F1).

For example, suppose you say "Print" (because you plan to print something) but then change your mind. Just say "Cancel": that makes the print menu disappear, so the screen shows your document again.

Suppose you delete some text (by pressing DELETE or BACKSPACE or using Typeover mode or telling the computer to delete a block) but then change your mind. Just say "Cancel". The text you recently deleted will reappear! If that text doesn’t interest you, choose Previous (by pressing P), and you’ll see other text you deleted previously. If that’s still not the text you want, choose Previous again. When you finally see text that interests you, choose Restore, and that text will be kept in your document.

List files (F5)

To find out what documents are on your hard disk, say "List files" (by pressing F5), then press ENTER.

The computer will create an alphabetical list of all the files in the hard disk’s WP subdirectory. You’ll see the top part of that list; to see the rest of the list, press the PgDn key several times. In that list, some of the files are documents you created; the other files are part of Word Perfect itself.

To manipulate a document, move the cursor to the document’s name (by using the PgDn key and arrow keys). Then choose one of the following activities.…

To peek at the document, choose Look (by pressing L). You’ll see the beginning of the document; to see the rest of it, press the PgDn key several times. When you finish looking at the document, press F7.

To print the document onto paper, choose Print (by pressing P) then press ENTER.

To change the document’s name, choose Move (by pressing M), then type a new name (and press ENTER).

To delete the document from the disk, choose Delete (by pressing D) then press Y.

When you finish using the list-files menu, say "Exit" (by pressing F7).

Two ways to retrieve Suppose JENNIFER is a document in the hard disk’s WP subdirectory. Here’s how to retrieve JENNIFER, so that the screen shows all the words in the JENNIFER document and you can edit them.

Method 1 (which you learned before): make the screen be blank (by pressing F7 then pressing N twice), say "Retrieve" (Shift F10), then type "jennifer" (and press ENTER).

Method 2 (which requires less typing): make the screen be blank (by pressing F7 then pressing N twice), say "List files" (F5), move the cursor to JENNIFER (by using the arrow keys), then choose Retrieve (by pressing R).

Tricky spacing

Here are tricks to control how your document is spaced.

Indent (F4)

Before typing a paragraph, you can press the TAB key. That makes the computer indent the paragraph’s first line.

Instead of pressing the TAB key, try saying "Indent" (by pressing F4). That makes the computer indent all lines in the paragraph.

Indent both (Shift F4)

If you say "Indent both" (by pressing Shift with F4) instead of just "Indent", the computer will indent both of the paragraph’s edges — the left edge and the right edge — so that the paragraph is centered.

Margin release (Shift TAB)

At the beginning of a paragraph, you can press the TAB key while holding down the Shift key. That makes the paragraph’s first line begin abnormally far to the left: in the left margin. The paragraph’s other lines will be normal.

Since the Shift TAB command lets you write in the left margin, it’s called the margin release command.

For an interesting effect, try this: at the beginning of a paragraph, say "Indent" (by pressing F4) and then press Shift TAB. That makes all the lines of the paragraph be indented except the first line. That technique — in which the first line is normal and the other lines hang under it indented — is called a hanging indent.

Flush right (Alt F6)

If a line of text is short, you can make the line be flush left or centered or flush right.

This line is flush left.

This line is centered.

This line is flush right.

To make the line be flush left (so it’s at the left margin), just type the line and then press ENTER. To make the line be centered, say "Center" (Shift F6) before typing the line. To make the line be flush right (so it’s at the right margin), say "Flush right" (Alt F6) before typing the line.

You can make part of a line be flush left and part be flush right, like this:

This part is flush left. This part is flush right.

To do that, begin by typing the part you want flush left. Then say "Flush right" (Alt F6), type the part you want flush right, and press ENTER.

Tab align (Ctrl F6)

When you type a column of numbers, you want their decimal points to line up, like this:

74.9

5,382,931.726

-.82

Those decimal points are aligned with each other. Here’s how to type that column of numbers with aligned decimal points:

Say "Tab align" (Ctrl F6) several times, until the cursor’s where you want the decimal point to be. (Each time you say "Tab align", the cursor moves to the right a half inch.)

Type the first number (74.9). As you type it, the computer automatically shifts it towards the left, so its decimal point winds up where you requested. Press ENTER.

Now you’re ready to type the second line. To do so, say "Tab align" several times, until the cursor’s where you want the decimal point (underneath the first number’s decimal point). Then type the second number (which is 5,382,931.726) and press ENTER.

For the third line, say "Tab align" repeatedly until the cursor’s where you want the decimal point, then type the third number and press ENTER.

Format page (Shift F8 then P)

Here’s how to control the general appearance of each page if you’re using version 5.0 or 5.1. (Earlier versions are quite different and awkward.)

Move the cursor to the document’s beginning. Say "Format" (by pressing Shift F8). Choose Page (by pressing P). You’ll see the format page menu.

Page size The typical sheet of paper — like the paper in this book — is 8½ inches wide and 11 inches tall. Computerists say that the page width is 8½ inches and the page length is 11 inches.

The computer assumes you want that width and length. Here’s how to change that assumption.…

In version 5.1, choose Size Other Select Other (by typing S then PgDn then SO). In version 5.0, choose "Size Other" (by typing SO).

Type the page width in inches (and ENTER) and the page length in inches (and ENTER). Then press F7.

Top & bottom margins The computer assumes you want 1-inch margins at the top and bottom of each page. To change that assumption, choose Margins (by typing M), type the top margin in inches (and ENTER) and the bottom margin in inches (and ENTER).

In this Secret Guide, I made the margins smaller, so I could squeeze more words onto each page. I made the top and bottom margins be .3 inches.

Page numbers Here’s how to make the computer print page numbers on all the pages.

Choose Numbering Position (by typing NP).

On a page, where do you want the page number to be printed? Type 1 for top left corner, 2 for top center, 3 for top right corner, 4 for top outer corner (left corner on even pages, right corner on odd pages), 5 for bottom left corner, 6 for bottom center, 7 for bottom right corner, or 8 for bottom outer corner. Press ENTER.

Before printing a page number, do you want the computer to print some words? On page 7, for example, instead of just printing "7" would you rather print "Great American Novel - Page 7"? To print words before each page number, choose Style (by typing S), type the words you want before each page number ("Great American Novel - Page"), press the SPACE bar (to leave a blank space after the word "Page"), and press ENTER.

When you finish telling the computer about page numbers, press ENTER again.

That makes the computer number all the pages. The computer prints "Great American Novel - Page 1" on the first page, "Great American Novel - Page 2" on the second page, etc. Each of those messages appears near (but not in) the margins. Each message is separated from your document by a blank line.

The messages appear when you print the document on paper (or look at a page preview). They do not appear on the screen while you’re editing the document.

Exit When you finish using the format page menu, say "Exit" (by pressing F7).

Format line (Shift F8 then L)

Here’s how to control the general appearance of each line if you’re using version 5.0 or 5.1. (Earlier versions are quite different and awkward.)

Move the cursor to the document’s beginning. Say "Format" (by pressing Shift F8). Choose Line (by pressing L). You’ll see the format line menu.

Left & right margins The computer assumes you want 1-inch margins at the left and right of each page. To change that assumption, choose Margins (by typing M), type the left margin in inches (and ENTER) and the right margin in inches (and ENTER).

In this Secret Guide, I made the margins smaller to squeeze more words on each page. I made the left and right margins on this page be .5 inches; but the left and right margins on the table-of-contents page are just .3 inches.

Changing the margins can be very handy. If you’re a student who wrote an eight-page paper, and your teacher requires it to be ten pages long instead, just enlarge the margins and — presto! — you suddenly have a ten-page paper.

Justification In a newspaper, each column’s right edge is perfectly straight, like this:

Notice that the right edge of this paragraph is perfectly straight. Notice that the right edge of this paragraph is perfectly straight. Notice that the right edge of this paragraph is perfectly straight.

In documents that are less formal, each column’s right edge wavers slightly, like this:

Notice that the right edge of this paragraph wavers slightly. Notice that the right edge of this paragraph wavers slightly. Notice that the right edge of this paragraph wavers slightly.

If the right edge is perfectly straight, the text is said to be justified. If the right edge wavers slightly, the text is said to be unjustified or ragged-right.

To make the right edge be perfectly straight (justified), the computer slightly increases the space between words. The smartest word processors (such as Word Perfect) combine three techniques to make the right edge straight: they increase the space between some words, decrease the space between other words, and increase the space between letters in a word.

Justified (straight) text looks formal, professional, and distinguished. Unjustified (wavering) text looks informal, friendly, and cheery.

Look at ads in newspapers. Notice which ads are right-justified (to give a "professional" image) and which ads are ragged-right (to give a more "friendly" image).

Most of the Secret Guide’s text is justified. That’s why, at first glance, this book looks professional, formal, and distinguished. (Only when you actually read it do you realize that the Guide’s author is a nut, gone totally bonkers.)

Telling the computer to "justify" does not affect the document’s appearance on the screen. It affects just the document’s appearance on paper.

The computer assumes you want to justify. To change that assumption, choose Justification Left (JL) in version 5.1; choose "Justification No" (JN) in version 5.0.

Double spacing Usually, the computer prints text on every line. If you’re going to print on paper to hand to your teacher, boss, or publisher, you might wish to put a blank line between each line of text, so your reader can scribble comments in those blanks. Having those blank lines is called double spacing.

The Secret Guide is not double spaced, because double spacing would require twice as much paper and double the book’s cost. The Guide is single spaced.

The computer assumes you want single spacing. To double space instead, choose Spacing (by pressing S) and type 2 (then ENTER). If you type 1.75 instead of 2, the text will look double spaced on the screen but will look slightly less than double spaced on the printer.

Tab stops You press the TAB key to indent a paragraph’s top line or hop to the next column in a table.

Whenever you press the TAB key, the cursor moves toward the right, until it reaches the next tab stop. You can change the positions of the tab stops.

Traditional typists put tab stops at half-inch intervals, so that paragraphs are indented a half-inch, and so each column in a table is a half-inch wide. The computer assumes those tab stops please you. If they don’t, choose Tab (by pressing T).

You’ll see a ruler with an L at each tab stop. To erase a tab stop, move the cursor to that L and press DELETE. To create a new tab stop, move the cursor across to where you want the tab stop and type L (for a simple tab stop) or D (for a decimal tab stop); when you finish editing the tab stops, press F7.

To align decimal points in a column of numbers, you can use two methods:

Method 1. Create a decimal tab stop where you want the decimal points to be. Before typing each number, move to that tab stop by pressing the TAB key.

Method 2. Create a simple tab stop where you want the decimal points to be. Before typing each number, move to that tab stop by saying "Tab align" (Ctrl F6).

Exit When you finish using the format line menu, exit by pressing F7.

Format other (Shift F8 then O)

Here’s how to leave a gap in your document, so that you can insert a big handwritten diagram.

Type the line that you want above the gap (and press ENTER). Say "Format" (by pressing Shift F8). Choose Other Advance Down (by typing OAD).

Say how tall you want the gap. For example, if you want the gap to be 3¼ inches tall, type 3.25 (and ENTER).

Say "Exit" (F7). Then type the line you want below the gap.

The gap appears when you print the document on paper (or look at a page preview). It does not appear on the screen while you’re editing the document.

Columns/table (Alt F7)

You can create newspaper columns and tables.

Newspaper columns In a newspaper, text is printed in many narrow columns. In a business letter, text is printed in a single wide column.

The computer assumes you want a single wide column. Here’s how to tell the computer you want many narrow columns.…

In version 5.1, say "Columns/table" (Alt F7), then choose Columns Define (CD); in version 5.0, say "Math/columns" (Alt F7), then choose "Define" (D).

You’ll see the column definition menu.

Now the computer assumes you want 2 columns. If you want more, choose Number (N) then type the number of columns (and ENTER).

The computer assumes you want the gap between columns to be .5 inches. If you want a different size gap, choose Distance (D) then type the distance across the gap (and ENTER).

When you finish using the column definition menu, exit by pressing F7 just once. Then in version 5.1, choose On (by pressing O); in version 5.0, choose "Column-on" (by pressing C).

In the Secret Guide, text is usually printed in 2 columns, but the table-of-contents page is printed in 5 columns. In the Secret Guide, the gap between columns is usually .3 inches, but on the table-of-contents page the gap between columns is less.

Column jump If you divided the page into several columns, here’s how to jump the cursor from column to column. While holding down the CONTROL key, tap the HOME key. Then press to jump right, or press to jump left.

Column break Suppose you divided the page into several columns. If you press the ENTER key while holding down the CONTROL key, the computer will end the paragraph and insert a column break, so that the next paragraph will begin at the top of the next column.

Table In the middle of a document, you can type a table of numbers. Here’s how.

Put the cursor where you want the table to begin. Say "Columns/table" (Alt F7). Choose Tables Create (TC). Say how many columns you want in the table (for example, 4) and press ENTER. Say how many rows you want in the table (for example, 7) and press ENTER. The computer will create a table having 4 columns and 7 rows, so you see this:

╔═══════════════╤═══════════════╤═══════════════╤═══════════════╗

║ │ │ │ ║

╟───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────╢

║ │ │ │ ║

╟───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────╢

║ │ │ │ ║

╟───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────╢

║ │ │ │ ║

╟───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────╢

║ │ │ │ ║

╟───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────╢

║ │ │ │ ║

╟───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────╢

║ │ │ │ ║

╚═══════════════╧═══════════════╧═══════════════╧═══════════════╝

Say "Exit" (F7).

Then fill in those 28 blank cells. Here’s how. Type what you want in the first cell. Press the TAB key; it moves the cursor to the right, to the next cell. Type what you want in that cell. Continue the process (pressing the TAB key after each cell), until you’ve filled all the cells.

In each cell, you can type numbers or words or sentences or paragraphs. If you what you type is too long to fit in the cell, the computer automatically makes the cell taller (and all the other cells in the row also), so that the cell can hold several lines of information.

When you’ve typed the last cell (in the bottom right corner), press the down-arrow key (instead of TAB). Then type the rest of your document.

Conflict If you’ve divided a page into newspaper columns, the computer refuses to create tables on that page.

Fancy characters

To make your document more interesting, create fancy characters. Here’s how.

Font (Ctrl F8)

Here are samples of popular fonts.…

This is a sample of 8-point Times Roman.

This is a sample of 10-point Times Roman.

This is a sample of 12-point Times Roman.

This is a sample of 12-point Times Roman bold.

This is a sample of 8-point Helvetica.

This is a sample of 10-point Helvetica.

This is a sample of 12-point Helvetica.

This is a sample of 12-point Helvetica bold.

This is a sample of Courier.

This is a sample of Courier bold.

This is a sample of Lineprinter.

In Courier, each character is 1/10 of an inch wide; so Courier’s a 10-characters-per-inch font. In Lineprinter, each character is 1/17 of an inch wide. In Times Roman and Helvetica, each letter of the alphabet has its own width: for example, the letter "m" is wider than the letter "i".

Since Courier’s characters all have the same width as each other, they’re called monospaced. Lineprinter’s characters are monospaced also. Times Roman and Helvetica are not monospaced; they’re proportionally spaced instead.

A point is 1/72 of an inch. The first sample is called 8-point Times Roman because it’s 8 points high: the top of the capital T is 8 points higher than the bottom of the small p.

In The Secret Guide to Computers, most of the text is 10-point Times Roman, and most of the headings are 14-point Helvetica black (which is even bolder than bold). In the chapters on DOS and programming, most of the examples are Lineprinter.

The computer assumes you want a 10-characters-per-inch font (such as Courier). To switch fonts, move the cursor to the beginning of the document (or wherever you want the font switch to begin). Say "Font" (Ctrl F8). Then choose Font (by pressing F).

You’ll see a menu of fonts. Move the cursor to the font you want, then say "Select" (by pressing S).

The font you selected will be used on paper but not on your screen, which will remain monospaced (except when you preview).

Spaces after a sentence When you use a monospaced font, put 2 spaces after a sentence or colon. For example.…

2 spaces follow this sentence. Nice!

When you use a proportionally spaced font, put just 1 space after a sentence or colon. For example.…

1 space follows this sentence. Nice!

Quotation marks When you use a monospaced font, type a quotation mark by using this symbol: ". For example:

I saw "Hamlet" last night.

When you use a proportionally spaced font, use the following trick.… To form an opening quotation mark ("), press the accent key (`) twice. To form a closing quotation mark ("), press the apostrophe key (') twice. Although your screen will look ugly —

I saw ``Hamlet'' last night.

your paper will look beautiful:

I saw "Hamlet" last night.

Enhancements After choosing a font, you can enhance it.

For example, to underline the font (like this), say "Underline" (by pressing F8). To make the font be bolder (so the characters are made of thicker strokes, like this), say "Bold" (by pressing F6).

To italicize the font (so the characters are slanted, like this), say "Font" (Ctrl F8) then choose Appearance Italic (AI). To redline the font (so the background is shaded, like this), say "Font" (Ctrl F8) then choose Appearance Redline (AR). To strike out the font (so the characters are crossed out, like this), say "Font" (Ctrl F8) then choose Appearance Strikeout (AS).

To change the font’s size, say "Font" (Ctrl F8), and choose Size (S). Then say which size you want:

To make the font be 20% larger, choose Large.

To make the font be 50% larger, choose Very-large.

To make the font be twice as large, choose Extra-large.

To make the font be 20% smaller, choose Small.

To make the font be 40% smaller, choose Fine.

To make it small & lowered (like this), choose suBscript.

To make it small & raised (like this), choose suPerscript.

For example, if you’ve been using 10-point type and choose "Large", you’ll be switching to 12-point type.

You’ve learned about many enhancements: bold, underline, italic, redline, strikeout, large, very-large, extra-large, small, and fine. After giving one of those enhancement commands, type the text that you want enhanced, then press the right-arrow key.

If your printer is fancy (such as the HP Laserjet 3, 4, or 5), all those enhancements work. If your printer is semi-fancy (such as an HP Laserjet 2 with a Microsoft Z font cartridge), only some of those enhancements work, but Word Perfect tries to approximate.

For example, suppose you’re using 10-point type and choose "Very-large" (which should generate 15-point type), but your printer lacks a 15-point font. If your printer has a 14-point font or 16-point font instead, Word Perfect will give you one of those fonts as an approximation to 15-point.

You’ll see the enhancements on paper but not on your screen (except when you preview).

Here’s how to enhance a block of text that you typed previously. Move the cursor to the block’s beginning. Say "Block" (by pressing F12 or Alt F4). Move the cursor to the block’s end. Say "Font" (Ctrl F8). Then say which enhancement you want (such as "Appearance Italic" or "Size Large").

Alt #

You can type these special characters:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For example, here’s how to type the symbol ñ, whose code number is 164. Hold down the Alt key; and while you keep holding down the Alt key, type 164 by using the numeric keypad (the number keys on the far right side of the keyboard). When you finish typing 164, lift your finger from the Alt key, and you’ll see ñ on your screen! When you print the document onto paper, the ñ will also appear on paper.

Bad code numbers Do not type code 240. It makes the typical computer refuse to work until you turn the power off and on again.

Do not type code 152. What it prints on the screen doesn’t match what it prints on paper.

On many dot-matrix printers, codes 1-6, 8-20, 22-31, and 250 don’t work. On laser printers (such as the Hewlett-Packard Laserjet 2), version 5.0 prints codes 249-252 wrong, but version 5.1 prints them fine.

Compose (Ctrl V)

If you’re using version 5.0 or 5.1, try the following experiment. Say "Compose" (by pressing Ctrl with V). Then type this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll see the following symbols on paper but not on the screen:

 

 

 

 

Look at the chart on the next page. It shows extra characters you can type. In that chart, each column is a character set.

Column 1 contains European accents.

Column 2 contains exotic accents.

Column 3 contains characters for drawing boxes.

Column 4 contains typographic symbols.

Column 5 contains icons (cute pictures).

Column 6 contains popular symbols for math and science.

Column 7 contains characters for making extra-tall math symbols.

Column 8 contains Greek.

Column 9 contains Hebrew.

Column 10 contains Russian.

Column 11 contains Japanese.

To type one of those characters, say "Compose" (Ctrl with V), then type the character’s column number, a comma, and the row number, then press ENTER. For example, to type a frowning face (which is in column 5, row 26), say "Compose" (Ctrl with V), then type "5,26" and press ENTER.

If you type a fancy character (such as a frowning face), it won’t appear on your screen. It will appear on paper if you’re using version 5.1.

Version 5.1 can print every character in that chart, on every modern printer! Version 5.0 prints just the simplest characters.

I’ve shown the first 50 rows of the chart. The entire chart contains 234 rows. To see what’s in rows 51 through 234, experiment — or examine appendix P at the back of the Word Perfect 5.1 reference manual. (You get that manual when you buy Word Perfect 5.1).

 

Search for words

The computer can search for words in the document, in the dictionary, and in the thesaurus.

Search (F2)

Here’s how to make the computer search through your document to find whether you’ve used the word "love".

Put the cursor where you want the search to begin. (For example, if you want to search through the whole document, put the cursor at the document’s beginning. If you want to search through just part of your document, put the cursor at the beginning of that part.)

Say "Search" (by pressing F2). Type —

love

(Type just what you want the computer to search for; do not press ENTER.) Then press F2 again.

The computer searches for "love". If the computer finds a "love" in your document, it moves the cursor immediately after that "love". If you want to find the next "love" in your document, press F2 again twice.

If the computer can’t find any more "love" in your document, it says "not found".

Capitals When you tell the computer what to search for, make sure you type "love", not "Love". If you type "love", the computer searches for all loves, regardless of how they’re capitalized. If you type "Love", the computer thinks you’re insisting on a capital L, so the computer searches just for loves that begin with a capital L.

Embedded words When you tell the computer to search for "love", the computer will find any "love" in your document — even if "love" is hidden in another word. For example, the computer will find the "love" in "loves", "lover", "lovely", "glove", "clove", "clover", "pullover", "slovenly", and "auriculoventricular".

When the computer asks you what to search for, try this experiment: press the SPACE bar, then type "love", then press the SPACE bar again (and then press F2). That tells the computer to search for "love" surrounded by spaces. That prevents the computer from stopping at "loves", "lover", "lovely", "glove", and other weird words that contain "love". Unfortunately, it also prevents the computer from finding these kinds of "love"…

next to a hyphen: "love-hate relationships" and "the fall-in-love syndrome"

ending a sentence: "I’m in love!" and "Are you in love?" and "She’s in love."

in a list: "to love, dream, despair" and "two kinds of love: great and goopy"

starting a paragraph (since that "love" is preceded by ENTER or TAB)

"love" in quotation marks or parentheses

Phrases When the computer asks you what to search for, you can type a whole phrase. For example, instead of telling the computer to search for any "love", tell the computer to search for "love to sing".

Codes Instead of searching for a word or phrase, you can search for a code. For example, to search for underlines, do this: say "Search" (by pressing F2), say "Underline" (by pressing F8), and the press F2 again.

Skip ahead Suppose you’ve written a history of America and want to find the part where you started talking about Lincoln. If you forget which page that was, no problem! Just put the cursor at the beginning of the document and tell the computer to search for "Lincoln".

Search back (Shift F2)

If you say "Search back" (Shift F2) instead of "Search", the computer will search through the part of the document that comes before the cursor (instead of the part that comes after).

Replace (Alt F2)

You can search for a word and replace it by a different word. For example, here’s how to change each "love" in your document to "idolize":

Put the cursor at the beginning of the document, then say "Replace" (by pressing Alt with F2).

The computer asks, "Confirm?" Press Y.

Type "love", press F2, type "idolize", and press F2 again.

The computer stops at the first "love" in your document and asks, "Confirm?" If you want to replace that "love" by "idolize", press Y; otherwise press N.

The computer stops at each "love" in your document and goes through the same routine (by asking "Confirm?").

The computer does all that fairly well. For example, consider this document:

I love you. Love you! LOVE YOU! I want to kiss your glove.

If you put the cursor at the beginning of that document and unthinkingly tell the computer to change each "love" to "idolize", the computer produces this:

I idolize you. Idolize you! Idolize YOU! I want to kiss your gidolize.

Notice that the computer correctly changes "love" to "idolize", and "Love" to "Idolize". Unfortunately, it changes "LOVE" to "Idolize" (which ought to be "IDOLIZE") and "glove" to "gidolize".

Applications If you write a letter that talks about Fred, then want to write a similar letter about Sue, tell the computer to scan through your document and change each "Fred" to "Sue". If you write a book about "How to be a better salesman", and then a feminist tells you to change each "salesman" to "salesperson", make the computer change them all automatically.

If you’re writing a long advertisement that mentions "Calvin Klein’s Hot New Flaming Pink Day-Glo Pajamas" repeatedly, and you’re too lazy to type that long phrase so often, just type the abbreviation "CKP". When you’ve finished typing the document, tell the computer to replace each "CKP" by the long phrase it stands for.

Spell (Ctrl F2)

Word Perfect comes with a disk that includes a list of all popular English words. That list is called a dictionary. Although that "dictionary" does not include definitions of those words, it does include each word’s correct spelling. The dictionary contains 120,000 words.

You can tell the computer to check each word in your document against the dictionary, to make sure all the words in your document are spelled correctly. That’s called checking your spelling or doing a spelling check or doing a spell check or spell checking.

If the computer notices that a word in your document is not in the dictionary, here’s what the computer does. It highlights the word, tries to guess what other words you might have meant instead, and displays those words on the screen. If one of those words is what you meant, you can choose it, and the computer will put it in the document in place of the wrong word.

For example, type a short document that contains just this one sentence:

Be huppy!

To spell-check the document, say "Spell" (by pressing Ctrl with F2). From the menu, choose Document (by pressing D).

The computer looks up each word in the dictionary. The computer finds "Be" in the dictionary but can’t find "huppy". The computer highlights the strange word "huppy" and prints this list of suggestions:

A. happy B. heap C. hep

D. hip E. hippie F. hippo

G. hoop H. hop I. hope

J. hopi K. hype L. hypo

M. whoop

1 Skip-once 2 Skip 3 Add 4 Edit

Press A if you meant "happy", B if you meant "heap", C if you meant "hep", etc.

If you really meant "huppy" and want to add that new slang word to the dictionary, choose Add (by pressing 3). If you really meant "huppy" but don’t want to add that slang word to the dictionary, choose Skip (by pressing 2). If you meant some other word instead, choose Edit (by pressing 4), type the word you meant, and say "Exit" (by pressing F7).

When the computer finishes checking the entire document, it will tell you how many words were in the document. Press ENTER.

Be careful about adding If the computer gripes about a word you typed, do not add your word to the computer’s dictionary unless you’re sure that you’ve spelled it correctly!

Capitals Word Perfect doesn’t check capitalization much. For example, if you accidentally type "america" instead of "America", Word Perfect doesn’t notice the error.

If you type "fAt" instead of "fat", Word Perfect 5.1 notices that your capitalization is totally crazy. It gripes by saying:

Irregular Case

Earlier versions of Word Perfect don’t notice that "fAt" is wrong.

Repeated words Suppose your document contains the sentence "Save our our planet".

Word Perfect’s spell checker notices that you typed the word "our" twice. It suggests that you delete the second "our".

Computers versus humans Even if you’re a spelling-bee champion, you should make the computer spell-check your document because the computer can spot tiny typographical errors that human proofreaders overlook.

But after the computer checks your document, you should make a human check the document also, because only a human can realize that the sentence "I live you" is wrong and should be "I love you" instead.

Thesaurus (Alt F1)

Suppose you’re writing a love story and type the word "caress". Can you think of a different word instead, that means roughly the same thing as "caress" but is better?

If you can’t, the computer can! Just ask the computer to use its thesaurus to find synonyms for "caress".

Here’s how. In your document, type the word "caress". Move the cursor to that word. Say "Thesaurus" (by pressing Alt with F1).

The computer prints this:

caress (v)

A · cuddle

B · fondle

C · nuzzle

D · pet

E · stroke

caress (n)

F · embrace

G · hug

H massage

I · touch

caress (ant)

J · beat

K · blow

1 Replace-word 2 View-doc 3 Look-up-word 4 Clear-column

That list gives five synonyms for the verb "to caress" (to cuddle, fondle, nuzzle, pet, and stroke), four synonyms for the noun "a caress" (an embrace, hug, massage, touch), and two antonyms (opposites) of "caress": beat and blow.

Most of those words have a dot before them. (The only word that does not have a dot is "massage".) The dot means: go explore! For example, if you want to explore "hug", press hug’s code letter (G), and the computer will display these synonyms for "hug": cuddle, embrace, snuggle, squeeze, clasp, cling to, grasp, hold. If you want to erase hug’s synonyms from the screen, choose Clear-column (by pressing 4).

If you want to replace "caress" by a synonym, choose Replace-word (by pressing 1), then type the synonym’s code letter. If you want to keep "caress" in your document, say "Cancel" instead (by pressing F1).

Suffixes Word Perfect’s thesaurus understands suffixes (such as "-ing"). If you ask Word Perfect to find synonyms for "caressing" or "caressed" or "caresses", Word Perfect is smart enough to realize that the root word is "caress": it will give you synonyms for "caress".

Unfortunately, Word Perfect doesn’t understand which suffixes are appropriate. If you ask Word Perfect to find synonyms for "massage", it makes the mistake of giving you synonyms for "mass". (Gee, I never realized that getting a massage was anything like going to Mass!)

Should you use a thesaurus? If you’re having trouble finding the exact word to express an idea, type the closest word that comes to your mind and then tell the computer to find synonyms. If you’re lucky, one of the synonyms will be an improvement.

If you’re writing a novel, the computer’s synonyms can help give you fresh ideas. For example, if you’re writing a bedroom scene and the only word you can think of is "caress", ask the computer to display synonyms, which will give you wild ideas! Then ask for synonyms of those synonyms, to lead your novel into new directions that are truly "novel"! You can write an entire wild-ride-through-the-craziness-of-life novel just by following the themes that the thesaurus suggests!

And why not a movie! I can see it now — at the end of the movie, the credits say, "based on a story by Word Perfect’s thesaurus".

Automatic typing

Tired of typing the same stuff again and again? Here’s how to make the computer do the typing!

Repeat (Esc)

Try this experiment. Press the ESCAPE key (which says "Esc" on it), then type an "x". The computer will type the letter "x" 8 times, like this:

xxxxxxxx

The ESCAPE key means "repeat". So if you press the ESCAPE key and then the x key, the computer will repeatedly press the x key — 8 times.

If you press the ESCAPE key and then the TAB key, the computer will repeatedly press the TAB key — 8 times. If you press the ESCAPE key and then the left-arrow key, the computer will repeatedly press the left-arrow key — 8 times.

After you press the ESCAPE key, you can type a number. For example, if you press the ESCAPE key, then type 50, then press x, the computer will press the x key 50 times (instead of 8 times).

Macro define (Ctrl F10)

The computer can help you write love letters.

For example, suppose you want each love letter to end with this message: "As always, I love you passionately, forever, my darling!!!". Instead of typing that long message at the end of each love letter, you can make the computer automatically type the message for you!

To do that, choose a letter of the alphabet to stand for the message. For example, you can choose A or B or C. Here’s how:…

Say "Macro define" (by pressing Ctrl with F10). The computer says "Define macro". Choose a letter of the alphabet, such as A or B or C. Type that letter while holding down the Alt key. (If the computer says "Already Exists", you should press ENTER, then start the whole procedure over and choose a different letter of the alphabet.)

The computer will say "Description". Press ENTER.

The computer will say "Macro Def". Type the message you want to record. For example, type:

As always, I love you passionately, forever, my darling!!!

At the end of the message, say "Macro define" again (Ctrl with F10).

In the future, whenever you want the computer to automatically type the passionate message, just press the chosen letter while holding down the Alt key.

Jargon The message that you’re recording ("As always, I love you passionately, forever, my darling!!!") is called the macro. The macro’s name is "Alt A" or "Alt B" or whatever other name you choose.

Why use macros? Make a macro of anything you type often. For example, if you’re sending lots of love letters, the macro can be "As always, I love you passionately, forever, my darling!!!". If you’re sending lots of hate letters instead, the macro can be "Please pay your bill promptly, to avoid losing your credit rating and being sent a carton of sour milk".

If you’re sending lots of business letters, the macro can contain your name followed by the name of your company and its address and phone number.

The macro can even contain commands that make the computer underline, boldface, center, and do other fancy tasks. The macro can be any sequence of keystrokes you wish!

Creating a macro is like turning on a tape recorder: yes, the computer will record any keystrokes you wish! For example, the macro can even be a recording of the sequence of keystrokes that make the computer save your document onto the disk and then print your document on paper.

Macro files Whenever you invent a macro, the computer puts the macro’s definition onto the hard disk.

The definition of "Alt A" is put into a file called "ALTA.WPM". The definition of "Alt B" is put into "ALTB.WPM".

Unless you erase those files, the computer remembers your macro definitions forever.

Macro (Alt F10)

Instead of making a macro’s name be "Alt A" or "Alt B", you can make a macro’s name be longer, such as "jennifer". You can pick any name up to 8 letters long. Here’s how.

Say "Macro define" (by pressing Ctrl with F10). The computer says "Define macro". Instead of typing "Alt A" or "Alt B", type "jennifer" and press ENTER. (If the computer says "Already Defined", say "Cancel" and try again.)

Press ENTER again. While the computer says "Macro Def", type the message you want to record. At the end of the message, say "Macro define" again (Ctrl with F10).

The computer puts the message onto the hard disk, in a file called "JENNIFER.WPM".

In the future, whenever you want the computer to automatically type that message, say "Macro" (Alt F10) then type "jennifer" and ENTER.

Style (Alt F8)

The computer understands typestyles such as "Bold" (F6) and "Underline" (F8). You can invent your own typestyles! For example, here’s how to teach the computer that "Bunder" is a new typestyle meaning "bold and underlined".

Say "Style" (Alt F8). Choose Create Name (by typing CN). Type the name for the typestyle you’re inventing ("Bunder"), and press ENTER.

Choose Codes (by typing C). Type the definition of the typestyle: say "Bold" (F6) and say "Underline" (F8). At the end of that definition, say "Exit" (F7) three times. Congratulations — you’ve defined "Bunder"!

Whenever you want to tell the computer to "Bunder", say "Style" (Alt F8). You’ll see an alphabetized list of styles that have been created. Move the cursor to "Bunder" (by pressing the down-arrow key several times) and press ENTER.

Now anything you type will be in the typestyle "Bunder". It will be bolded and underlined automatically.

When you finish typing what you want bolded and underlined, press the right-arrow key to shut off the style.

Chapter headings Suppose your document’s divided into chapters, and each chapter has a heading like this:

Chapter 7: Laughter at Her Funeral

Note the heading begins with the word "Chapter". The heading is centered. It’s bold. It has a blank line above it.

Let’s create a style making all that happen automatically! Here’s how.

Say "Style" (Alt F8). Choose "Create Names" (CN). Type the name for the style you’re inventing ("Chapterhead") and press ENTER.

Choose "Codes" (C). Type the definition of Chapterhead: press the ENTER key (so the computer will leave a blank line above the heading), say "Bold" (F6), say "Center" (Shift F6), type the word "Chapter", and press the SPACE bar (so the computer will leave a blank space after the word "Chapter").

Say "Exit" (F7) three times. Congratulations! You’ve defined "Chapterhead"!

Whenever you want to type a chapter heading, say "Style" (Alt F8), move the cursor to "Chapterhead", and press ENTER.

On the screen, you’ll see:

Chapter

Finish the chapter heading, by typing "7: Laughter at Her Funeral" (or "8: My Life in Prison"). At the end of that heading, press ENTER. Then end the style (by pressing the right-arrow key).

Saving When you save the document, the computer automatically saves all the styles you invented for it.

Date/outline (Shift F5)

The computer can automatically type the date — and create an outline.

Date To make the computer type today’s date, say "Date/outline" (Shift F5), then choose Text (by typing T).

Suppose you’re writing a long memo, but you’re not sure how many days you’ll spend writing it, and you’re not sure on which day you’ll print it. Instead of putting today’s date in the memo, you want to put a future date in the memo. But you’re not sure which future date. Here’s what to do:

Put the cursor where you want the date to appear. Say "Date" (Shift F5) then choose Code (by typing C). That makes the computer put a special date code into your document. When you look at the document today, the screen shows today’s date; but if you save the document onto your disk and then retrieve the same document tomorrow, the screen will automatically show tomorrow’s date instead! If you retrieve the document two centuries from now, the screen will automatically show the date two centuries from now! That’s how to make the computer automatically update your letters, even after you die!

Outline Let’s create this outline:

Symphony of an American workday

I. opening blaring chords: the alarm clock rings

II. overture

A. pissing in bathroom (New Age music)

B. dressing & trying to rush (Bolero dance getting faster)

C. eating breakfast (rhythmic crunch)

III. the first act: morning work (development section)

IV. intermission: fast-food lunch & errands (scherzo)

V. the second act: afternoon work (further development)

VI. finale: eating dinner (yummy chomping chords)

VII. coda: evening goof-off fun (rondo)

VIII. dying strains: reaching out hand to set alarm clock

Here’s how. Begin by typing the title ("Symphony of an American workday"). At the end of that title, say "Date/outline" (Shift F5) and choose Outline On (by typing the letter O twice). That tells the computer to do something special whenever you press ENTER or TAB.

Try it! Press ENTER. The computer says:

I.

Finish that line (by typing " opening blaring chords: the alarm clock rings") and press ENTER. The computer says:

II.

Finish that line (by typing " overture") and press ENTER. Since that line said "II.", the computer assumes you want the next line to be "III.", so the computer says:

III.

Since you don’t want "III." yet, press TAB. That tells the computer you want to indent (instead of having "III."). The computer changes the "III." to:

A.

Finish that line (by typing " pissing" etc.) and press ENTER. The computer says:

B.

Finish that line (by typing " dressing" etc.) and press ENTER. The computer says:

C.

Finish that line (by typing " eating" etc.) and press ENTER.

The computer says:

D.

Correct that line by pressing Shift TAB, which tells the computer to unindent. The computer changes the "D." to:

III.

Finish that line and the rest of the outline. At the end of the outline’s final line ("set alarm clock"), say "Date/outline" (Shift F5) and choose Outline oFf (by typing O then F).

Besides using Roman numerals (such as "I.") and capitals (such as "A."), the computer knows how to use Arabic numerals and small letters. For example, the computer lets you create this outline:

An egotist’s outline of the universe

I. dead things

II. living things

A. plants

B. animals

1. subhumans

2. humans

a. dumb humans

b. smart humans

(1) smart asses

(2) me

(a) my gross anatomy

(b) my brain

i) sane part of brain

ii) horniness

a) printable

b) unprintable

Families In an outline, each line is called a topic. Its subtopics are the lines indented underneath it. A topic, together with all its subtopics, forms a family.

To edit an entire family, put the cursor on the family’s top line. Say "Date/outline" (Shift F5) and choose Outline (O).

Then choose how you want to edit the family:

If you want to delete the family, choose Delete Yes (DY).

If you want to move the family instead, choose Move (M), then move the family (by using the arrow keys) and press ENTER.

If you want to copy the family (so it appears twice), choose Copy (C), then point where you want the copy to appear (by using the arrow keys) and press ENTER.

When you finish that editing, the computer automatically renumbers the entire outline, so that the outline’s new first topic is called "I", the next major topic is called "II", etc.

Footnote (Ctrl F7)

Suppose you’re writing a religious pamphlet in which you want to say "Read it in the Bible tonight!" Suppose you want to add a footnote saying, "written by God", so that the main text looks like this —

Read it in the Bible1 tonight!

and the bottom of the page contains this footnote:

1Written by God.

To do all that, type "Read it in the Bible", say "Footnote" (by pressing Ctrl F7), then choose Footnote Create (by typing FC). Type the footnote ("Written by God."), say "Exit" (by pressing F7), then finish typing the rest of the main text (" tonight!").

The computer will automatically number the footnote: it will automatically type 1 after "Bible" and type 1 before "Written by God." If your document contains more footnotes, the computer will automatically number them 2, 3, 4, etc. On paper, the computer will put the footnotes at the bottom of the page. It will put a 2-inch horizontal line above the footnotes to separate them from the main text. You’ll see the footnotes on paper but not on your screen (except when you preview).

If you insert extra footnotes, the computer will automatically renumber the other footnotes, so that the first footnote appearing in your document is numbered 1, the second footnote is numbered 2, etc.

Unfortunately, the computer refuses to create footnotes on a page that contains newspaper columns.

To print footnotes, the computer normally uses a font that’s simple but boring: Courier. To make footnotes look better, tell the computer to print them in a small font. Here’s how:

Move the cursor to near the beginning of the document, just after where you defined the document’s font. Say "Font" (by pressing Ctrl F8) and choose "Size Small" (by typing SS). Say "Footnote" (Ctrl F7) and choose Footnote Options (FO). Say "Exit" (F7), then press the right-arrow key.

Mark text (Alt F5)

The computer will create an index to put at the back of the book you’re writing. The index lists all of your document’s important words in alphabetical order, and tells you the page where each word appears.

To create an index, move the cursor through your document. Whenever the cursor comes to a word (such as "Boston") that you want in the index, say "Mark text" (by pressing Alt F5), choose Index (by pressing I), and press ENTER twice.

(If you want to index a multi-word phrase, such as "Salt Lake City", do this: move the cursor to the beginning of the phrase, say "Block", move the cursor to the end of the phrase, say "Mark text" choose Index, and press ENTER twice.)

When the cursor finally comes to the end of the document, say "Mark text", choose Define Index (by typing DI), and press ENTER. Tell the computer where to put the page numbers in the index; you have five choices:

Command Page numbers in index? How an index entry looks

N No page numbers in index Boston

P Page numbers in index simply Boston 2

( (in parentheses) Boston (2)

F Flush right Boston 2

L Leaders and flush right Boston. . . . . . . 2

Type N, P, a parenthesis, F, or L.

Finally, say "Mark text" again, choose Generate Generate (by typing GG), and press ENTER. The computer will generate the index and put it at the end of your document on the screen.

Later, if you edit your document further, you must generate a new index, by saying "Mark text" and choosing Generate Generate again.

Merge/sort (Ctrl F9)

The computer can alphabetize. For example, type this document.…

Here are the most joyous sensations in America:

pastrami

salami

jelly

belly

rose

toes

How many of them have you licked today?

Here’s how to alphabetize that list of sensations.

Put the cursor at the beginning of that list: put it at the beginning of "pastrami". Say "Block" (by pressing F12 or Alt F4). Make the entire list change color (by putting the cursor underneath the list, at the beginning of "How"). Say "Merge/sort" (Ctrl F9). Choose Perform (by pressing P).

The computer will alphabetize the list. Your document will become…

Here are the most joyous sensations in America:

belly

jelly

pastrami

rose

salami

toes

How many of them have you licked today?

Alphabetizing is called sorting.

To alphabetize a list of people, type each person on a separate line. Begin with each person’s last name, like this.…

Welcome to the Advertising Hall of Fame!

Presenting America’s favorite temptresses:

NAME FAME

Lee, Sara bakes

Jemimah, Aunt pancakes

Piggy, Miss ingratiates

Madonna, Sheeayntno fakes

Ah, the power of marketing!

To alphabetize that list, put the cursor at the beginning of the list (the L of "Lee"), say "Block" (F12 or Alt F4), put the cursor underneath the list (on the blank line under "Madonna"), say "Merge/sort" (Ctrl F9), and choose Perform (P). The computer will alphabetize the document so you see this.…

Welcome to the Advertising Hall of Fame!

Presenting America’s favorite temptresses:

NAME FAME

Jemimah, Aunt pancakes

Lee, Sara bakes

Madonna, Sheeayntno fakes

Piggy, Miss ingratiates

Ah, the power of marketing!

Merge codes (Shift F9)

Suppose you want to send letters to gay couples, inviting them to a party. For example, let’s send letters to Peter and Paul (the "Almond Joy" couple), Mary and Kaye (the "Cosmetics" couple), and Mickey and Donald (the "Disney" couple).

Let’s send Peter a letter saying:

Dear Peter,

Come to the party!

We’re having a blast!

So get in gear

And move your a--!

Let’s send Paul a similar letter that begins "Dear Paul", send Mary a similar letter that begins "Dear Mary", etc.

First, create this mailing list:

Peter{END RECORD}

========================================

Paul{END RECORD}

========================================

Mary{END RECORD}

========================================

Kaye{END RECORD}

========================================

Mickey{END RECORD}

========================================

Donald{END RECORD}

========================================

Here’s how to type that document:

Begin by typing "Peter". Next, say "Merge codes" (Shift F9) and choose End (E). That makes the computer say {END RECORD}. Then the computer automatically types the "=" row and presses the ENTER key for you.

Type the next name ("Paul"). Say "Merge codes End" again (Shift F9 then E).

Type the next name ("Mary"). Say "Merge codes End" again (Shift F9 then E).

When you finish typing the entire document, say "Exit" (F7) and press Y. Invent a title for your mailing list (such as "friends"): type the title and press ENTER. That makes the computer call your mailing list "FRIENDS" and put it on your hard disk. That document is called the mailing list or secondary merge file.

The computer asks, "Exit WP?" Press N.

The screen becomes blank. Type this form letter:

Dear {FIELD}1~,

Come to the party!

We’re having a blast!

So get in gear

And move your a--!

When you type that form letter, instead of typing a specific name (such as Peter or Paul) you must type this symbol: {FIELD}1~. Here’s how to type the symbol {FIELD}1~: say "Merge codes" (Shift F9), choose Field (F), then type 1 (and press ENTER).

When you finish typing the entire document, say "Exit" (F7) and press Y. Invent a title for your form letter (such as "invitatn"): type the title and press ENTER. That makes the computer call your form letter "INVITATN" and put it on your hard disk. That document is called the form letter or primary merge file.

The computer asks, "Exit WP?" Press N.

The screen becomes blank. Say "Merge/sort" (Ctrl F9) and choose "Merge" (M). Type the name of the primary file ("invitatn") and press ENTER. Type the name of the secondary file ("friends") and press ENTER.

The computer will write all the letters to all the people! You’ll see some of those letters on the screen. (To see the rest of them, press the up-arrow key a while.)

To print all the letters onto paper, say "Print" (Shift F7) and choose "Full" (F).

That entire process of combining a mail list with a form letter is called doing a mail merge.

End field (F9)

Let’s write mass-produced letters, like this:

Memo to Sue Johnson in New York

Dear Sue,

Gee, your life is really a trip! I wish I was as lucky as you! Have a fun, hot time in New York!

 

Memo to Tom Jones in the beautiful island paradise of Hawaii

Dear Tom,

Gee, your life is really a trip! I wish I was as lucky as you! Have a fun, hot time in the beautiful island paradise of Hawaii!

 

Memo to Devil Satan in Hell

Dear Devil,

Gee, your life is really a trip! I wish I was as lucky as you! Have a fun, hot time in Hell!

First, create this mailing list:

Sue{END FIELD}

Johnson{END FIELD}

New York{END RECORD}

======================================

Tom{END FIELD}

Jones{END FIELD}

the beautiful island paradise of Hawaii{END RECORD}

======================================

Devil{END FIELD}

Satan{END FIELD}

Hell{END RECORD}

======================================

To type that document, begin by typing the first field, "Sue". Then say "End field" (by pressing F9); that makes the computer say {END FIELD} and automatically press the ENTER key for you.

Type the next field ("Johnson") then say "End field" (F9). Type the next field ("New York") then say "Merge codes End" (Shift F9 then E).

Do the same for Tom and the Devil.

When you finish typing the entire document, say "Exit" (F7) and save the document. Then type this new document:

Memo to {FIELD}1~ {FIELD}2~ in {FIELD}3~

Dear {FIELD}1~,

Gee, your life is really a trip! I wish I was as lucky as you! Have a fun, hot time in {FIELD}3~!

To type the symbol {FIELD}1~, say "Merge codes Field" (Shift F9 then F) then type 1 and ENTER. To type the symbol {FIELD}2~, say "Merge codes Field" (Shift F9 then F) then type 2 and ENTER.

When you finish typing the entire form letter, say "Exit" (F7) and save the document.

Let the screen become blank. Say "Merge/sort" (Ctrl F9) and choose "Merge" (M). Type the name of the form letter and press ENTER. Type the name of the mailing list and press ENTER. The computer will write all the letters to all the people.

Advanced tricks

These tricks let you use Word Perfect more easily — and even draw pictures!

Help (F3)

If you forget how to use Word Perfect, say "Help" (by pressing F3). Then press any key on the keyboard, and see what happens!

If you press a letter of the alphabet, the computer will explain all Word Perfect concepts that begin with that letter. For example, if you press the letter B several times, the computer will tell you which keys to press for a Backward search, Block, Bold, Bottom margin, and every other Word Perfect task that begins with the letter B.

If you press keys that are not letters, the computer will explain what those keys do. For example, if you press the INSERT key, the computer will explain what the INSERT key does. If you press the F8 key, the computer will explain what the F8 key does, and how it means "Underline". If you press Shift F7 then V, the computer will explain that Shift F7 V means "Print View".

If you press the "Help" key (F3) twice, the computer’s screen will show a copy of the plastic template, which reminds you what all the F keys do.

When you’ve finished getting all the help you need, press ENTER.

Controlled hop

To make the cursor hop, hold down the CONTROL key. While you keep holding down the CONTROL key, tap an arrow key.

The right-arrow key makes the cursor hop right to the next word.

The left-arrow key makes the cursor hop left to the beginning of the current word. If the cursor’s there already, it will hop to the beginning of the previous word.

The down-arrow key makes the cursor hop down to the next paragraph.

The up-arrow key makes the cursor hop up to the beginning of the current paragraph. If the cursor’s there already, it will hop to the beginning of the previous paragraph.

For the down-arrow and up-arrow keys to work, you must have version 5.1 and an enhanced keyboard (a keyboard modern enough to contain an F12 key).

Controlled deletion

To delete a simple block of text quickly, hold down the CONTROL key.

While you keep holding down the CONTROL key, tap the DELETE key or END key or PAGE DOWN key. Tapping the DELETE key makes the computer delete a whole word. Tapping the END key makes the computer delete the line’s "end" (the cursor’s character and all characters afterwards on the line). Tapping the PAGE DOWN key and then Y makes the computer delete the page’s "bottom" (the cursor’s character and all characters afterwards on the page).

Older versions If your version of Word Perfect is very old — 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, or a copy of 5.0 shipped before 1989 — tap BACKSPACE instead of DELETE.

Move (Ctrl F4)

Here’s a fast way to edit a block that’s a single sentence, paragraph, or page.

Put the cursor anywhere in the block and then say "Move" (Ctrl F4).

How big is the block? Choose Sentence (by typing S) or Paragraph (by typing P) or pAge (by typing A).

Then choose one of these activities.… To delete the block, choose Delete (by pressing D). To move the block (so it vanishes from its current location and reappears elsewhere), choose Move (by pressing M); then move the cursor where you want the block’s new position to be, and press ENTER. To copy the block (so the block appears twice in your document), choose Copy (by pressing C); then move the cursor where you want the block’s copy to be, and press ENTER.

Setup (Shift F1)

You can change Word Perfect, so that it runs faster. If you’re sharing your computer with beginners who are intimidated by high speed, do not make these changes unless your colleagues agree! Ask them first!

After getting your colleague’s permission, say "Setup" (Shift F1). You’ll see the setup menu.

No backups In version 5.1, you can choose Environment Backup Timed No (EBTN) then ENTER. That prevents the disk drive from interrupting you every half hour to make backup copies of your work.

Fast columns To make multi-column documents appear on the screen faster, tell the computer to display just one column at a time. Here’s how: if you have version 5.1, choose Display Edit Side No (DESN) then press ENTER twice; if you have version 5.0, choose "Display Side No" (DSN) then press ENTER.

Fast cursor In version 5.0, you can make the cursor move faster by choosing "Cursor 5" (C5) and make the disk save faster by choosing "Fast Yes" (FY).

Exit When you finish playing with the setup menu, say "Exit" (F7).

F11 and F12 For keyboards that have F11 and F12 keys, the F11 key is supposed to mean "Reveal codes" and F12 is supposed to mean "Block". Version 5.1 knows that, but version 5.0 doesn’t. If you’re using version 5.0 and your keyboard has F11 and F12 keys, here’s how to teach the computer to use those keys:

Your Word Perfect Conversion disk contains a file called "ENHANCED.WPK". Copy that file to your hard disk’s WP subdirectory (by using DOS’s copy command). Then go into Word Perfect, say "Setup" (Shift F1), and choose "Keyboard" (K). Make sure the cursor is on the same line as the word ENHANCED. Press ENTER, then "Exit" (F7).

That makes F11 mean "Reveal codes" and F12 mean "Block". It also makes Shift F11 mean "Font Appearance Italic", Ctrl F11 mean "Font Size Large", and Alt F11 mean "Font Size Very-large". It also lets you use this short cut to move a block: put the cursor at the block’s beginning, press F12, put the cursor at the block’s end, press Ctrl F12, put the cursor where you want the block to appear, press ENTER.

Shell (Ctrl F1)

If you say "Shell" (Ctrl F1) and then choose Go (by typing G), the computer will temporarily stop using Word Perfect, so that you can give DOS commands instead (such as "dir").

When you finish playing with DOS commands, type the word "exit" (and press ENTER). That makes the screen return to Word Perfect and the document you were editing.

Text in/out (Ctrl F5)

Word Perfect documents contain hidden codes. Documents produced by different word processors contain different hidden codes.

DOS files (such as AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS) contain no hidden codes at all. Files containing no hidden codes are called ASCII files.

Here’s how to make Word Perfect edit an ASCII file:

Exit from any Word Perfect document you were working on, so the screen becomes blank.

Say "Text in/out" (Ctrl F5). Choose Text Retrieve (by typing TR). That warns the computer that the file you want to edit is an ASCII file instead of a Word Perfect document.

Type the file’s name. (If the file’s in the root directory instead of the WP subdirectory, put a backslash before the file’s name. If the file’s in a different subdirectory, type a backslash, then the subdirectory’s name, then another backslash, then the file’s name.) At the end of the file’s name, press ENTER.

The file will appear on the screen. Edit the file by using the same commands as if you were editing a Word Perfect document.

When you finish editing the file, say "Text in/out" (Ctrl F5) and choose Text Save (by typing TS). Press ENTER, then Y. That saves the document as an ASCII file instead of a file containing Word Perfect hidden codes. Congratulations!

To erase the screen (so you can edit another document), say "Exit" (F7). But when the computer asks "Save document?", say "No" (N). If you make the mistake of saying "Yes", the computer will save the document in Word Perfect form (including Word Perfect’s hidden codes), which will destroy the ASCII form you already saved.

Switch (Shift F3)

The "Switch" command lets you switch capitalization and documents.

Capitalize Suppose you’ve typed some text, then change your mind and want to capitalize it. Here’s how to capitalize the block.

Put the cursor at the block’s beginning. Say "Block" (by pressing F12 or Alt F4). Put the cursor at the block’s end (so the entire block changes color).

Say "Switch" (by pressing Shift F3). Choose Uppercase (by typing U).

Uncapitalize Here’s how to uncapitalize a block.

Put the cursor at the block’s beginning. Say "Block". Put the cursor at the block’s end.

Say "Switch" (by pressing Shift F3). Choose Lowercase (by typing L).

The computer will uncapitalize all the letters in the block — except possibly the first letter in each sentence.

Switch documents Word Perfect makes the computer’s RAM hold two documents at a time. They’re called document 1 and document 2. When you start using Word Perfect, you’re manipulating just document 1. That’s the document you’re typing and editing. While you’re dealing with document 1, the screen’s lower-right corner says "Doc 1".

To switch to document 2, say "Switch" (by pressing Shift F3). Then the screen’s lower-right corner says "Doc 2", and you’re manipulating document 2.

At first, document 2 is blank. You can manipulate document 2 by using all the Word Perfect commands. For example, you can type some sentences into document 2, or you can make document 2 be a copy of a saved document (by saying "Retrieve").

To switch back to document 1, say "Switch" again.

Here’s how to move or copy a block from document 2 to document 1:

Put the cursor at the beginning of document 2’s block. Say "Block" (F12 or Alt F4). Put the cursor at the end of the block. Tell the computer you want to move or copy the block. (For example, if you’re using version 5.1 with enhanced keyboard, say "move" by pressing Ctrl DELETE or say "copy" by pressing Ctrl INSERT.) Put the cursor where you want the block to appear in document 1 (by saying "Switch" and then pressing the arrow keys). Press ENTER.

When you finish playing with document 2, put the cursor back in document 2 and then say "Exit". When the computer asks, "Save document?", answer the question. When the computer asks, "Exit doc 2?", press Y. That makes document 2 become blank and puts the cursor back in document 1.

Screen (Ctrl F3)

The "Screen" command lets you split the screen into windows and draw lines.

Split screen Try this experiment: say "Screen" (by pressing Ctrl F3), choose Window (by pressing W), then type 11 (and ENTER). Now the top 11 lines of your screen show document 1; the bottom part of your screen shows document 2. Computerists say that the screen is split into two windows; each window shows a document.

The cursor’s in document 1. To move the cursor to document 2, say "Switch" (Shift F3). To move the cursor back to document 1, say "Switch" again.

At first, document 2 is blank. When the cursor is in document 2, you can manipulate document 2 by using all the Word Perfect commands.

When you finish playing with document 2, put the cursor back in document 2 and then say "Exit". When the computer asks, "Save document?", answer the question. When the computer asks, "Exit doc 2?", press Y. Document 2 becomes blank. To devote the whole screen to document 1 (and stop the split-screen windowing), do this: say "Screen" (Ctrl F3), choose "Window" (W), then type 24 (and ENTER).

Draw lines To draw a line easily, put the cursor where you want the line to begin.

At that place, make sure you’re using a monospaced font (in which all the characters have the same width as each other). Make sure you’re not in a justified paragraph (move the cursor out of the paragraph, or change the paragraph to ragged-right).

Say "Screen" (Ctrl F3) and choose Line (L).

Then draw a line by pressing the arrow keys. For example, to make the line go to the right a distance of 3 characters, press three times. To make the line go to the right and then down, press and then .

To switch to a double line, press 2. To switch to a line made of asterisks, press 3. To revert back to a simple line, press 1.

To draw a box of size 5, press five times, then  five times, then  five times, then  five times.

When you finish drawing, say "Exit" (by pressing F7).

Graphics (Alt F9)

Here’s a more sophisticated way to draw lines. This sophisticated way works anywhere in your document (even if you’re using a proportionally spaced font or you’re in a justified paragraph). This sophisticated way will produce beautiful lines on paper, though not on your screen (except when you preview).

Horizontal line To draw a horizontal line, put the cursor where you want the line to begin, say "Graphics" (Alt F9), and choose Line Horizontal (LH).

The computer assumes you want the horizontal line to go completely across the column of text (from the column’s left edge to the column’s right edge). If you’d rather make the line go just from the cursor to the column’s right edge, choose Horizontal Right (HR).

Say "Exit" (F7).

Vertical line To draw a vertical line, put the cursor where you want the line to begin, say "Graphics" (Alt F9), and choose Line Vertical (LV).

The computer assumes you want the vertical line to be in the left margin. If you’d rather put the line at the cursor’s position, choose Horizontal Set (HS) then ENTER.

The computer assumes you want the line to go completely up and down the page (from the top margin to the bottom margin). If you’d rather make the line go just from the cursor to the bottom margin, choose Vertical Bottom (VB).

Say "Exit" (F7).

Box Before drawing boxes, tell the computer what kind of boxes you like. Here’s how:

Put the cursor at the beginning of your document. Say "Graphics" (Alt F9), then choose Box Options Border (by typing BOB).

You can make the left edge of each box be a Single line (S), Double line (D), dAshed line (A), dOtted line (O), Thick line (T), Extra-thick (E), or have No line at all (N). Type one of those letters. Do the same thing for the box’s right edge, top edge, and bottom edge.

The computer assumes you want the interior of each box to be light gray (10% black and 90% white). If you prefer a darker shade (20% black), choose Gray (G) then type 20 (and ENTER).

Say "Exit" (F7).

Now that you’ve told the computer what kind of boxes you like, create some!

Here’s how to create a box that’s 3.8 inches wide and has the word "Love" in the middle:

Put the cursor where you want the box to begin. Press the ENTER key (so you’re starting a new paragraph). Say "Graphics" (Alt F9), choose Box Create Size Width (BCSW), type 3.8 (and ENTER), choose "Edit" (E), type "Love", and press F7 twice.

On paper, the box will appear next to the column’s right edge. The box will be at or slightly below where the cursor was.

After creating the box, try typing several sentences, so that you’ve completed a paragraph. That paragraph will appear next to the box. The computer will make the paragraph narrow, to leave room for the box.

Instead of making the box contain just "Love", try a longer phrase! While typing it, try changing fonts, centering, and doing whatever other tricks you wish! The box can even contain a multi-paragraph essay!