O.K. this is my problem. At work (small town newspaper) we use Apple computers and a text program when writing our stories called “WriteNow.” It’s not the best program in the world but with budgets being tight and my boss an extreme wimp when it comes to the fat cats, it’s the best we’ve got.
My problem occurs when I try to use my laptop or my home p.c. to write stories. I use Corel Word Perfect (6.0, I think–this stuff is all Greek to me anyway) on my home p.c. and the laptop uses another Word Perfect program, unsure of the numerical designation. In order to transfer my files, i.e., stories, to the work computers, my boss suggests I use ASCII delimited text. The text transfers fine, but I have all these annoying line breaks that take forever to delete from the page when the story is placed or when I proofread.
Are there other ways to save the text (other ASCII or different file paths) that I can use that will translate the text from Word Perfect to WriteNow with a minimum of mess? I truly have no clue when it comes to those work programs and I’m just informed enough on my home pc to work and send mail. Please take pity on this ignorant tech-wannabe.
Try looking around in WordPerfect to see if it has a “hard returns” option. Here’s what’s happening:
When you type your story in WordPerfect, when you get to the end of a line, it automatically wraps around to the next line. These are called “soft returns.” If you change the margins or the font size, the places where the line-breaks occur change. The problem is when you save as ASCII, the soft returns gets translated into hard returns, (the equivelent of actually pressing the “return” key.) Most word processor have an option to NOT do the hard returns when saving as ASCII; I don’t know exactly how to do it with WordPerfect, though.
You might want to try saving your files as RTF (Rich Text Format) Unless WriteNow (which I’m not familiar with) is truely ancient, it should be able to decode it. You might lose grapics and tables, but it should handle basic text fine.
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“You die, she dies, everybody dies!”
“I don’t like this new version of She-Bop”
WriteNow?! The shareware text editor that been out of production for years now… boy they spare no expense.
There are over 40 different file formats I can save to in the current WP 9.0 version and of these there are 9 generic ANSI / ASCII formats. Simply get some small chunk of text and save this text in all the different ANSI/ASCII formats with different file names designating each one onto a floppy. Put them up one by one in your WriteNow program and see if one will transfer without the line breaks.
BTW not all conversion formats are included with the standard WP install. If you only have a few conversion formats get the install CD out and go into setup and add all the other conversion filters.
Thanks to all those who offered to help with this problem. Andrew Coleman successfully converted a test file for me, for which I am very grateful. I can also report that Plan B (asking my client to ask the author - in the Czech Republic - to save the files as RTF also did the trick.
You should be able to save the text without the CR but I find the same problem often when I receive emails or copy text from other places. I have to take out all the CR at the end of each line which is a pain. With every word processor I have used I just have a macro that does it for me. I assume every end of paragraph is marked by two CR.
1- Replace <CR><CR> with something like &()&
2- Replace <Space><CR> with <CR>
3- Replace <CR> with <space>
4- Replace &()& with <CR><CR>
Yeah . . . maybe it would give you superpowers . . . beyond those you already have.
I think you should try on several to find the one that fits just right. Maybe make a poll in IMHO . . . sort of like what you did for your new glasses.
Sheerah, if you use MacLink Plus (a version of which may have been distributed with the MacOS, depending on vintage), you should be able to translate the document to a flavor of WordPerfect that both your laptop and desktop PC can use, and go in the other direction as well.
This is more effective than RTF, which only preserves such things as bold, underline, font choice, etc. – MacLink Plus translation preserves things like footnotes, tab positioning, bulleted lists, and other full-featured word processor functions. (It cannot, of course, preserve features from one format to another if the second type of word processor doesn’t HAVE that feature. If you use fancy WP features on your home box and try to translate them back into primitive WriteNow 4.x format you’ll lose some functionality).
There is also a PC version of the program called Conversions Plus. It does not, however, support WriteNow, which is considered pretty esoteric these days. (There are PC formats which are supported only by the PC version and not the Mac version as well).
Hey guys, thanks for the advice. I’m going to give it a whirl this evening. Wish me luck.
Yes, it’s the same antiquated WriteNow that’s been out of date for years. I wasn’t kidding when I said budgets were tights. Secondly, I can’t e-mail the text to my home p.c. because and get this —we don’t have Internet access at work. (A newspaper without a link to the biggest informational source, not to mention SDMB, in the world:) ). What’s that tell you about my office.
To Techchick68, I humbly, with bowed head in deference to your knowledge, beg your forgiveness. I had fought with these damn disks for two hours last night while trying to get them to copy onto my p.c. and I was desperate. I know it’s not a very plausible excuse, but I wanted help and I wanted it now. Thanks for the input.
If anyone comes up with more solutions, please post. I’ve got a long week ahead of me…
Obviously, I meant the budgets were tight. Not that, um, well, Now I’ve got this strange mental picture of my boss wearing garters. Oh, boy. Long week indeed. :0
Easy, huh?