Wordperfect

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Author Message Jerome J. Lazar, RA, CCS, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: lazarcitec Post Number: 25 Registered: 05-2003 Posted on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 09:06 am:    Looks like I will have to bite the bullet in 2004 and convert to Word in lieu of my WP - any suggestions from regulars or those onlookers that have done this successfully would be appreciated. Helaine K. Robinson CCS Senior Member Username: hollyrob Post Number: 22 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 09:53 am:    Suggest visiting existing threads titled: Specs in MS Word Going from WordPerfect to Word Richard Howard, AIA CSI CCS Senior Member Username: rick_howard Post Number: 11 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 09:58 am:    You have my knowing sympathy. I was asked to switch to Word several years ago. It felt like I was losing my best friend. However, I kept a copy of WordPerfect 8 for retrieval of archived specs and continue to use it for some of my work. Word 2002, v.10 (Office XP) does nearly everything I need. It can even be set to number articles with leading zeros. Although it is not easy for someone who has been using WordPerfect for about 15 years, the Masterworks macros that come with MasterSpec make it tolerable. If you have been using styles in Wordperfect you may have problems opening your old WP files in Word. Some things, like numbered paragraphs, do not always convert correctly. I would suggest you experiment to see what happens. The biggest problem I have with MS Word is the strange nomenclature they use for features and the odd presets. It takes time to set up the program to work the way you want it to. Get a good reference book, such as Que's "Using Microsoft Office XP" by Ed Bott and Woody Leonhard. They reveal more about the inner workings of Word than the official Microsoft Press publications do. They are not shy about criticizing the program's faults either. I think you will find their recommendations for getting the program under your control very helpful. Curt Norton, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: curtn Post Number: 29 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 10:11 am:    When I converted our masters, the biggest headache I had was graphic characters that would not convert correctly. Graphic fractions (versus those typed out) would show up as different numbers in a different font. (1/4 became 3) Proofing the text was very tedious. This also happened with some quotation marks, percent symbols, etc. D. Marshall Fryer Senior Member Username: dmfryer Post Number: 9 Registered: 09-2003 Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 04:37 pm:    Why do long-time WordPerfect users see a need to convert to Word? In the current business climate, very few of us can afford an even temporary drain on our productivity. It is well documented what Wordperfect can do easily that Word cannot do well. But what is it that Word does that Wordperfect cannot? I do not buy the "lemmings" arguement, just because many of my consultants and contractors use it doesn't mean I have to use it. WP's file converters work better than their MS counterparts, and it is a simple matter for me to convert a file when necessary. Acrobat pdf files also work well for most e-corresppondence, with the added benefit that the recipient cannot easily change what I wrote. So what's the driving force here? Is Billy G. offering some kind of bounty I haven't heard about yet? Helaine K. Robinson CCS Senior Member Username: hollyrob Post Number: 23 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 04:44 pm:    Our bosses use Word and want us to use it! Richard L Matteo Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 7 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 05:16 pm:    I totally agree with Marshall. My former firm (major design firm on East Coast)made a conscious decision to stay with WP for all firm word processing, not just specs. I also agree that "because all of our consultants use it" is a lame excuse. As for Helaine's statement about her bosses - let them try writing specs with it! Give me WordPerfect!! Alan Mays, AIA Senior Member Username: amays Post Number: 24 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 06:47 pm:    I totally agree with Marshall also. I worked for a firm many years ago and they were WP instead of MS. The firm I am at currently was WP in the spec department and switched to MS when I joined the spec department. WP is a whole lot better than MS. It is a writer's tool. The decision of MS vs. WP is really based entirely on IT departments and the "need" to only use one piece of software for everyone. Most PCs come with MS installed so single sourcing is natural. BTW, we usually spec this as a requirement with products, so I would expect this mentality with our IT guys. I write specs with MS now and don't have a major problem other than time and ease of use. Would I like WP instead? Yes, but that is not going to happen within my firm or many other firms due to the PC/MS mentality of the IT departments. Trust me, I say this since I use a Mac at home and a PC at work. I think Mac is better, the same way WP is better, but I know my firm would never allow a mixed environment. The same single source mentality we require in our specs. What really governs what we use is someone elses job and not what is necessarily best for the job or easier for me to do the job. They want an easy job of maintaining the equipment and the software across the board. Marc C Chavez Senior Member Username: mchavez Post Number: 19 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 07:38 pm:    I started using Word because my friends that were history and geology grad students felt they could get better footnotes (per their colleges style sheets) out of Word. I use it now because it IS 99.9999999% of the market and has been in-place in every shop I have worked in. Are there better word processors? Yes. Does it really matter? No. Many of you started doing specs on WP and it has worked great for you and may still. Be happy and use it. I believe that there is a "free" version available for Linux. Now Linux could put a twist in Bill's shorts. Word processors are not culture. We're not born with them. Our parents didn't use them. They are transitory. Should I complain about the loss of the IBM Selectric with the magnetic memory cards? In ten years we'll all be generating PDFs or some other platform free format anyway. Richard Hird (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Friday, December 05, 2003 - 10:54 am:    Why WORD is like a SUV, a poor solution to a problem that did not need to be solved.. designed to go places you never go. designed to crash rather than not to. designed to be all things to all people, rather than something to anyone so big it is scary when it comes at you. so big people behind it have no idea where they are going. looks good in the neighborhood. gives you the appearance of having capabilities you do not have. won’t fit in the old box so you have an excuse to buy a new one. proof perfect that in marketing: 1) big is better, than better 2) you never have to worry about the customers being smart. In all honesty this is also true of the later versions of most software. Microsoft just is better at selling bad ideas than the rest. C. R. Mudgeon Senior Member Username: c_r_mudgeon Post Number: 13 Registered: 08-2002 Posted on Friday, December 05, 2003 - 07:37 pm:    Quitcherbitchin. WordStar is king! John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 143 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 07:11 pm:    Has anyone tried WordPerfect 11's emulation of WP5.1 keyboard? If so, what comments? Richard L. Hird (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Sunday, December 07, 2003 - 05:02 pm:    WordPerfect 11's emulation of WP5.1 keyboard. Since I write Specs in WP5.1 for DOS and then use Window versions of WP to proof, I change the keyboard selection, however I use the Word Perf 6.1 keyboard setup in Word Perf 11 instead of the WP5.1 setup. Most of the 6.1 keys matched 5.1 plus it keeps several Windows related keys. You still need to edit the keyboard setup a little just to match some of your habits. For instance I use a lot of auto numbering and very seldom use date insertions, so I changed the shift-F5 function to "insert para num". You might decide to just change the setups in the WP11 default board, the number of changes would just be higher. Unfortunately it does not solve the Windows based macro problems. If I could solve that probem I would not use WP5.1. Jo Drummond Senior Member Username: jo_drummond Post Number: 78 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Monday, December 22, 2003 - 01:17 pm:    I've been using WordPerfect for years, and fortunately, as a very independent consultant, unlike some of you, I don't have a boss forcing me to change to Word. I think WordPerfect is great, and I know it. I have Word, and can do simple things with it, but it is clumsy by comparison, in my opinion. I'm using WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS, so I may have to be careful with operating system upgrades, but so far, it's fine. When I need to give someone a Word document, Word will convert it easily and accurately. The only problem is that WordPerfect 6 can't recognize drives above d:, so I have to do extra steps to get material from CD's. Small price to pay.