WordPerfect is a word-processing program that’s a bargain: it’s about as powerful as Microsoft Word but costs less! It’s particularly popular in law offices. It’s available for DOS, Windows, the Mac, and several other operating systems.

This chapter explains versions 8, 9, and 10 of WordPerfect for Windows.

Each is published by Corel, comes on CD-ROM disks, and requires modern Windows with at least 16M of RAM.

Other Windows versions of WordPerfect are similar, and so are Mac versions.

DOS versions are older and quite different. If you’re using a DOS version of WordPerfect, get the 23^rd or 24^th edition of this book by phoning 603-666-6644.

Prepare yourself

Before reading this chapter, read and practice my modern Windows chapter, especially the section about “WordPad” (a stripped-down word-processing program).

Copy to the hard disk

WordPerfect comes on a CD-ROM disk, which you must copy to your computer’s hard disk. Here’s how to copy version 10:

Launch WordPerfect

Here’s how to start using WordPerfect:

The screen’s top says “Corel WordPerfect — Document1”. You also see this menu bar:

Type your document

Start typing your document.

WordPerfect uses the mouse and fundamental keys the same way as WordPad. For details, read these sections under that topic:

QuickCorrect While you type, the computer will automatically make little corrections to your typing. For example:

The computer’s ability to make those corrections is called QuickCorrect.

If you dislike a correction that the computer made to your typing, here’s how to undo the correction:

Those methods work just if done immediately, before you do any other typing or editing.

Red slashes While you type, the computer automatically puts red slashes under any word that looks strange. The computer considers a word to look “strange” if the word’s not in the computer’s dictionary or if the word’s the same as the word before. For example, if you type “I loove you you now”, the computer will put red slashes under “loove” and under the second “you”.

If you see red slashes, you misspelled the word or accidentally repeated the word or forgot to put a space between words or your vocabulary is more advanced than the computer understands. So if you see red slashes, look carefully at the slashed word to make sure it’s really what you want.

If a word has red slashes under it, try right-clicking that word (by using the mouse’s right-hand button). Then the computer will make suggestions about what the slashed word ought to be.

For example, if you typed “loove” and the computer put red slashes under it, right-clicking the “loove” will make the computer display three suggestions (“love”, “loose”, and “poove”) and two other popular choices, so you see this list:

Choose what you want:

Page arrows Versions 9&10 handles page arrows the same way as Microsoft Word. For details, read the “Page arrows” section over there.

Version 8 works as follows:

Movement keys

To move to different parts of your document, you can use your mouse. To move faster, press these keys instead:

Here’s what happens if you press the movement keys while holding down the Ctrl key:

All delete

Here’s how to delete the entire document, so you can start over:

Page break

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 apage break: it makes the next paragraph be at the top of the next page.

If you change your mind, here’s how to remove the page break: click at the beginning of the paragraph you’ve put at the top of a page; then press the BACKSPACE key.

 

Near the screen’s top, you see the property toolbar.

Each symbol on the toolbar is called a tool.

(Version 9 omits the “Symbols” tool. Version 10 adds a “Drop Cap Style” tool.)

If you forget a tool’s name, try this trick: point at the tool (by using the mouse, but without clicking), then wait a second. Underneath the tool, you’ll see the tool’s name and a short explanation of what the tool does.

The toolbar includes 4 white boxes. Each box has a down-arrow to its right.

The toolbar also includes square buttons saying “B”, “I”, “U”, etc. To use a button, press it by clicking it with the mouse. Here are the details.…

Fundamental buttons

WordPerfect uses the same fundamental buttons as Microsoft Word. For details, read these sections over there:

Font Color

Normally, the characters you type are black. Here’s how to change a phrase’s color. Click the Font Color button. You’ll see 42 colors; click the color you want. Then type the phrase you want colorized.

When you finish typing that colorized phrase, click the Font Color button again and click Black.

Font Size

Look at the Font Size box. In that box, you normally see the number 12. That means the characters you’re typing are 12 points high. Here’s how to type characters that are bigger or smaller:

Any new characters you type afterwards will be the size you chose. (Characters you typed above don’t change size.)

The popular sizes look like this:

When you finish typing the enlarged or reduced characters, here’s how to return to typing characters that are normal size (12-point): click the Font Size box, then click the 12.

Font Face

When you type, you’re normally using a font face called “Times New Roman”. If you wish, you can switch to a different font face instead.

The most popular Windows font faces are “Times New Roman”, “Arial”, and “Courier New”. Here’s how they look:

 

 

In the Font Face box, you see the name of a font face, which is usually “Times New Roman”. Click it.

You start seeing the Font Face menu, which is list of font faces, including “Times New Roman”, “Arial”, “Courier New”, and several other fonts.

The Font Face menu appears in a window, which is too small to show the entire menu. The best way to see the rest of the menu is to tap the keyboard’s up-arrow or down-arrow key several times. Each tap highlights a different font face and shows you how the letters “AaBbYyZz” look in that font face.

The best font faces have “TT” written in front of them. The “TT” means the font face is a True Type font face (created by a system that lets you make the characters as big or as small as you wish and accurately reproduces those characters onto your screen and paper). For example, “Times New Roman”, “Arial”, and “Courier New” are True Type font faces and have “TT” written in front of them.

Keep tapping the up-arrow or down-arrow key until the font face you want is highlighted; then press ENTER.

Afterwards, whatever characters you type will be in the font face you chose. (The characters you typed earlier remain unaffected.)

When you finish typing in that font face, here’s how to return to typing characters that are normal (Times New Roman): click the Font Face box, then click TT Times New Roman.

Justification

While typing a line, you can click the Justification button, which shows you this Justification menu:

Choosing Center makes the line be centered,

Choosing Right makes the line be at the right margin,

Choosing Left makes the line be at the left margin,

Choosing All makes the line be at both margins (by putting extra spaces between the words and letters),

Each of those choices affects not just the line you’re typing but also all other lines in the same paragraph. (The paragraphs you typed earlier remain unaffected.) When you start typing a new paragraph, the computer gives that paragraph the same alignment as the paragraph above, unless you say differently (by choosing a different alignment).

Full If you choose Full, the paragraph’s bottom line will be Left and the paragraph’s other lines will be All. For example, the paragraph you’re reading now is Full.

Examples Here’s when to use those choices:

Centered title Here’s how to type a centered title, using the techniques you’ve learned so far.…

Press the ENTER key twice (to leave a big blank space above the title).

Click the Justification button and click Center (so the title will be centered). Click the Bold button (so the title will be bold). Type the words you want to be in the title, and press the ENTER key afterwards.

Congratulations! You’ve created a centered title!

Next, make the paragraph underneath the title be normal: make that paragraph be uncentered (by choosing Left or Full from the Justification menu) and make it be unbolded (by clicking the Bold button, so the Bold button pops back out).

Shortcuts Here are shortcuts:

Select text

Here’s how to dramatically change a phrase you typed.

Put the mouse at the phrase’s beginning. (Do not point at the dotted lines that are your page’s margins. If you accidentally point at the dotted lines, your mouse pointer will have a left-arrow and right-arrow coming out of it. Make those arrows go away by moving your mouse slightly to the right.) Then drag to the phrase’s end (while holding down the mouse’s left button). The whole phrase turns black. Turning the phrase black is called selecting the phrase.

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

Go ahead! Try it now! It’s fun!

Other ways to select

The usual way to select a phrase is to point at the phrase’s beginning, then drag to the phrase’s end. But sometimes other methods are faster!

To select a phrase, choose one of these methods.…

Drag a phrase

To move a phrase to a new location, just “select the phrase, and then drag from the phrase’s middle to the new location.” Here are the details.…

First, select the phrase you want to move, so the phrase turns black.

Then take your finger off the mouse’s button. Move the mouse’s pointer to the phrase’s middle (so you see an arrow).

Finally, hold down the mouse’s button; and while you keep holding down the mouse’s button, drag to wherever you want the phrase to move.

When you finish dragging, lift your finger from the mouse’s button. Presto, the phrase moves where you wished!

Near the screen’s top, above the property toolbar, you see the WordPerfect toolbar.

(Versions 9&10 add these tools: “Corel Web Site”, “Autoscroll”, “Back”, and “Forward”. Version 10 adds these tools also: “PerfectExpert” and “Corel Connector”.)

Here’s how to use the most popular of those tools.…

Save

To save the document (copy it onto the disk), click the Save button (or press Ctrl with S).

If you haven’t saved the document before, the computer will say “File Name”. Invent a name for your document. Type the name and press ENTER.

That makes the computer copy the document onto the hard disk. For example, if you named the document “mary”, the computer will put a document called mary.wpd into the My Documents folder. (Version 8 uses the MyFiles folder instead.)

Afterwards, if you change your mind and want to do more editing, go ahead! When you finish that extra editing, save it by clicking the Save button again.

Save often If you’re typing a long document, click the Save button about every 10 minutes. Click it whenever you get to a good stopping place and think, “What I’ve typed so far looks good!”

Then if an accident happens, you’ll lose at most 10 minutes of work, and you can return to the last version you felt good about.

Print

Here’s how to print the document onto paper. Make sure you’ve bought a printer, attached it to the computer, turned the printer’s power on, and put paper into the printer. Click the Print button (or press Ctrl with P), then press ENTER. The printer will print your document onto paper.

How to finish

When you finish working on a document, choose Exit or Close from the File menu.

If you choose Exit, the computer stops using WordPerfect.

If you choose Close instead of Exit, you see a blank document. Start typing (to construct a new document) or click the Open button.

Didn’t save? If you didn’t save your document before doing those procedures, the computer asks, “Save changes?” If you click “Yes”, the computer copies your document’s most recent version to the hard disk; if you click “No” instead, the computer ignores and forgets your most recent editing.

Congratulations! You’ve learned all the fundamental commands of WordPerfect!

Tricks

WordPerfect performs the same tricks as Microsoft Word. For details, read these sections under Microsoft Word.

Zoom

You can zoom! Here’s how. In versions 8&9, click the Zoom button; in version 10, click the down-arrow that’s to the right of the Zoom button.

You see this Zoom menu:

The computer assumes you want 100%.

Version 10 permits this alternate technique:

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:

Column break When you finish typing a paragraph, you normally press the ENTER key, which tells the computer to end the paragraph. If you’ve created columns, and you press the ENTER key while holding down the CONTROL key, the computer will end the paragraph and insert a column break: it makes the next paragraph be at the top of the next column.

If you change your mind, here’s how to remove the column break: click at the beginning of the paragraph you’ve put at the top of a column; then press the BACKSPACE key.

Return to 1 column If you change your mind and want just 1 column, do this: press Ctrl with HOME (so you go to the very beginning of the document), then click the Columns button again, then click Discontinue.

Bullets

While you’re typing a paragraph, try pushing in the Bullets button (by clicking it). That makes the computer indent the paragraph a half inch and also put a bullet (the symbol ·) to the left of the paragraph’s first line. That’s called a bulleted paragraph.

After you’ve typed a bulleted paragraph, any new paragraphs you type underneath will be bulleted also — until you request an unbulleted paragraph (by popping the Bullets button back out).

Different symbols Although the bullet symbol is usually ·, you can choose a different symbol instead, by clicking the down-arrow that’s to the right of the Bullets button and then clicking the symbol you prefer. You can choose these symbols:

(Version 10 doesn’t show ‘ and T).

Numbering

While you’re typing a paragraph, try pushing in the Numbering button (by clicking it). That makes the computer indent the paragraph a half inch and put “1.” to the left of the paragraph’s first line. That’s called a numbered paragraph.

When you type a new paragraph underneath, that paragraph will be numbered “2.”, the next paragraph will be numbered “3.”, etc. — until you request an unnumbered paragraph (by popping the Numbering button back out) or you press the TAB key (which makes the paragraph be indented a full inch and be lettered “a.” instead of numbered; the paragraphs below will be lettered “b.”, “c.”, etc. — until you request an unlettered paragraph by pressing SHIFT with TAB).

Table QuickCreate

In the middle of your document, here’s how to type a table of numbers:

Click where you want the table to appear.

Put the mouse pointer on the Table QuickCreate button, then hold down the mouse’s button awhile. While you hold down the mouse’s button, you see a tiny picture of a table that has 10 rows and 13 columns. Altogether, it contains 130 tiny cells (since 10 times 13 is 130).

Point at that table’s top left tiny cell, and drag down and to the right, until the number of rows and columns you want turn dark. (They turn dark gray in versions 8&9, black in version 10).

For example, if you want just 3 rows and 4 columns, drag down and to the right until 3 rows and 4 columns turn dark, so you see 12 dark cells altogether.

When you take your finger off the mouse’s button, you’ll see the table you requested.

Then just fill in the cells, with whatever numbers and words you wish. To move from cell to cell, click with the mouse, or press the TAB key (which moves right to the next cell), or press SHIFT with TAB (which moves left to the previous cell), or press the arrow keys repeatedly.

In a cell, you can type a number, word, sentence, or even an entire paragraph! If you start typing a paragraph in a cell, the computer will automatically make the cell and its row taller, so the entire paragraph will fit in the cell. You can even type several paragraphs in a single cell: just press the ENTER key at the end of each paragraph. If you want to indent the first line of one of those paragraphs, press the SPACE bar several times or press Ctrl with TAB.

Extra rows Here’s how to create an extra row at the bottom of the table: click in the table’s bottom right cell, then press the TAB key.

Here’s how to insert an extra row into the middle of the table: right-click in the row that’s underneath where you want the extra row to appear, then click Insert, then press ENTER.

Extra columns Here’s how to insert an extra column into the middle of the table: right-click in the column that’s to the right of where you want the extra column to appear, then click Insert, then click Columns, then press ENTER.

Column widths The computer assumes you want the table’s columns to all be the same width. But you can change that assumption!

For example, here’s how to adjust the width of the table’s left column (column 1):

If you widen a column, the computer makes room for it by shrinking the next column. If you make a column narrower, the computer compensates by expanding the next column.

If you want to fine-tune the widths of all columns, work from left to right: adjust the width of column 1 (by dragging the line that separates it from column 2), then adjust the width of column 2 (by dragging the line that separates it from column 3), then adjust the width of column 3 (by dragging the line that separates it from column 4), etc.

Numbers If a column contains mostly numbers, here’s how to make that column look prettier, so the numbers and their decimal points line up properly:

Below the table When you’ve finished editing the table, here’s how to put paragraphs below it:

Delete Here’s how to delete a row: right-click in the middle of the row, then click Delete, then press ENTER.

Here’s how to delete a column: right-click in the middle of the column, then click Delete, then click Columns, then press ENTER.