Tag Archives: word processing

Stripping Formatting in WordPerfect and Word

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A reader recently submitted a question about formatting that is worthy of posting:

Any advice on stripping the formatting in a WordPerfect document, Beverly, to start over? (I’m into it to the tune of +500 MB, and suddenly it’s forgetting things it was doing for me, at the start.)

If you have a suggestion, I’m all ears. Thanks!

Plain Text is Your New Best Friend

The easiest solution is to use paste as plain text. Follow these steps:

  1. Make a copy of your original document by navigating to the folder where the document resides, selecting it with your mouse, right-clicking, choosing copy, then pasting to the same folder. Call it “document name” COPY 2022 01 08. This clearly identifies it as a copy of your original made on this date. “Document name” is whatever you called the file in the first place. Yes, I know there are time and date stamps, but they are fluid and will change when a document is edited. Let’s just give it today’s date. Also, I realize it is possible to open the document and do a File > Save As; however, since the document may be corrupting the less we open it the better.
  2. Close the copy and leave it be for now. Your backup routine should capture the original and the copy. If not, ensure that it does before proceeding.
  3. Open the original document.  Choose Edit > Select All, then Edit > Copy.
  4. Open a NEW document, choose Edit > Paste Unformatted Text. 
  5. Save the NEW document. Perhaps “document name” PLAIN TXT 2022 01 08.
  6. Backup the NEW document.
  7. Consider splitting the NEW document into two – see my cautionary words below.
  8. Keep the original for now – just in case. You can discard the copy if you are confident you’ve created a new plain text version that works for you.

Why It Works

The maneuver of pasting as plain text strips all formatting.  It works the same way in Microsoft Word and is handy when you want to copy and paste text from a web page, but don’t want a weird font or other website formatting. 

Tips

  • To be safe, choose Edit > Paste Unformatted Text from the *menu* drop-down or enter CTRL ALT V. The more familiar CTRL V will merge formatting, which is not what we want.
  • Use Edit > Select All, then Edit > Copy *not* Select All > Cut. If anything goes wrong this will give you more than one chance to paste the text into a new document. For Word users, paste plain text by selecting Paste > Keep Text Only.

Cautionary Words about File Size

Best practice is to assume that WordPerfect files have a finite size and may corrupt when the file becomes too large. Therefore, it may be wise to split up a document of this size.

Really? WordPerfect Files Have a Maximum Size?

Some say yes. Some say no, including the WP Universe users forum.  Some acknowledge that file corruption exists, but place the blame on other culprits – the user’s operating system, limited hard drive space, lack of RAM, etc.

Experience tells me that corruption does occur. In the old days, it happened most frequently when users converted documents from WordPerfect 5.1 to Microsoft Word. However, I’ve also observed corruption which appeared to be based solely on document size.

You be the judge. My risk management background tells me to err on the side of caution.

What if I’m a Word User?

Microsoft Word acknowledges a finite file size of 512 MB.

eCourt Reminder

And of course, if a document the size of the one described should ever become part of a court proceeding it would have to be split under eCourt filing rules.

Happy New Year!

All Rights Reserved 2022 Beverly Michaelis

Track changes: Display for review options (Word 2010 and 2013)

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Track changes can be incredibly useful or drive you batty if you don’t understand option settings. Get smart by following CompuSavvy’s helpful hints.

CompuSavvy's Word & WordPerfect Tips

People who use Track Changes sometimes find the Display for Review options confusing.  For one thing, some users don’t realize that changing the Display for Review option to “Final” (or, in Word 2013, “No Markup”) doesn’t actually remove the revision marks – for insertions, deletions, formatting changes, moves, etc. – from the document.  Rather, it merely lets you preview the document as it would look if you accepted all of the changes.[1]

For another thing, the wording of the options isn’t particularly easy to understand.  And the wording has changed between Word 2010 and Word 2013, but remains somewhat obscure.

This post is intended to help clarify the various Display for Review options available in Word 2010 and Word 2013.

Display for Review Options in Word 2010

In Word 2010, the Display for Review options are as follows:

Original

This option shows the document as it appeared before any insertions, deletions, moves…

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Opening or Converting Old Forms – Tips for Mac Users

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As Mac users know, not all legal forms are Mac-friendly (especially older forms).  For untitledexample, what if a colleague sends you a document created in Microsoft Word 97/Windows?

If you have Pages, you should be able to open a Word 97 document without a file converter. Try these steps.

If you have Microsoft Office for Mac, you can search the Download Center for a file converter, but the only one I could spot was the Microsoft Word 97, 98, and 2000 Converter for the Macintosh.  Office for Mac 2011 users report there is no converter for newer versions of office and old files created on the Windows platform do not open.  If you’re an Office user, what should you do?

  • Open the old form in Pages first, then resave it.
  • Try the Insert > File or Insert > Object > Text from File… command.  Launch Word, select Insert > File or Insert > Object > Text from File… browse and find the old form, click Insert.  Inserting a text file into a blank document in Word strips out formatting.  It often works better than using File > Open to access a document created in a non-compatible word processing program.
  • Ask the colleague who provided the form if he or she can resave it for you.  Options include: a newer version of Word for Windows, Word for the Mac, Rich text format (.rtf file), or PDF.  If a PDF is created electronically or scanned then OCRd, you should be able to copy and paste text from the body of the PDF into Word 2011 for the Mac or Pages.  You can also save a PDF as a Word document in Acrobat.
  • Try an online file converter, such as Zamzar, Online-Convert, Cloud Convert, or Convert Files.

Final Words of Wisdom

Old forms may be “old” and not converted to a newer platform or software version for a reason – they are old and shouldn’t be used.  Before going to all this effort, be certain this is a form worth converting, meaning it is valid and still legally viable.

All Rights Reserved [2014] Beverly Michaelis