About this page | Print pages in reverse order from WPDOS 5.1 | Convert and import GIF, JPEG, and modern TIFF graphics | Convert and import modern scalable graphics | WPDOS 5.1 and the broken F5-F5 feature | WPDOS 6.2 and the record-block macro bug | Corrected macro help keyboard for WPDOS 6.2 | Change field names in WPDOS 6.x merge data files | Convert WPDOS 6.x files with non-standard alphabets to WPWin | Remove passwords from multiple WPDOS 5 files | Solve QuickFinder problems | Print pages larger than 27 inches | Home page
This page will list ways to work around the built-in limitations of WordPerfect for DOS. Suggestions for additional items will always be welcome.
HP DeskJet and other printers output pages with the printed side up, so that the first page of a document is at the bottom of the stack of printed pages, and multiple-page print jobs must be resorted by hand into the correct page order. In WPDOS 6.x, pages can be printed in reverse order by using Print/Multiple Pages/Descending Order (this sequence can be recorded as a macro). In WPDOS 5.1, no built-in feature exists for printing in reverse order. A WPDOS 5.1 macro that prints the full document in reverse order may be downloaded in this self-extracting REVPRINT.EXE archive. Download the file; run the program to extract the files into any convenient directory; then copy the extracted file Revprint.wpm into your WPDOS 5.1 macro directory. If you do not know where to find that directory, use Shift-F1/Location of Files.
This information has been moved to a separate page devoted to the WPG graphics format.
This information has been moved to a separate page devoted to the WPG graphics format.
(The problem described here affects WPDOS 5.1 and 5.1+, and also seems to affect at least some versions of WPDOS 6.0, but not WPDOS 6.1 or 6.2.) In WPDOS, on older DOS and Windows systems, if you pressed F5-F5 (F5 twice), WP displayed the List Files (F5) screen that you viewed most recently, with the highlight on the file that was highlighted when you last exited List Files. Unfortunately, this feature relies on obsolete methods of listing files, and does not work with the combination of WPDOS 5.1 or 5.1+ and any recent version of 32-bit Windows; in these systems, F5-F5 simply brings up the List File screen in the current directory. (However, F5-F5 works correctly with vDosWP),
A brilliantly written WPDOS 5.1 macro by Timothy J. McGowen solves this problem, with minor limitations (marked files are not marked when a directory is revisited, and the revisited directory always displays all files). To use the macro, download this archive file; extract the files to your WPDOS macro directory (listed under Shift-F1/Location of Files/Keyboard-Macro Files); read the documentation carefully and follow the instructions to install the macro as a replacement for the F5 keystroke.
In some systems, for reasons that no one understands, the macro needs to be run manually before it works correctly. If this occurs in your system, launch WP with the command-line switch /m-alt_f5f5 (consult the WP manual for further information on command-line switches).
Very important note: This macro works only with WPDOS 5.1+ or versions of WPDOS 5.1 dated 05/31/91 or later. To determine the date of your WPDOS 5.1 version, press the help key (usually F3, in some systems F1); the version date is displayed in the upper-right-hand corner.
WordPerfect for DOS 6.2 (but not 6.0 or 6.1) has a bug in the macro feature that prevents the program from recording any action that defines a block. In other words, if you try to record a macro that blocks a page by searching for a hard page break code, turns on the block, then searches for the next hard page break code, the block will be turned off after you perform the search, and the page will not be selected as a block. When you are not recording a macro, of course, the block remains selected after the second search.
Chris Scott offers this workaround: turn on the block again after the second search and press Ctrl-Home twice in order to reselect the block that you attempted to create. This workaround can be used for both forward or backward searches. The resulting macro performs in the same way that it would if the bug were not present and you did not perform this workaround when recording.
In the MACRO_ED keyboard shipped with WPDOS 6.2 the macro-help key (Ctrl-H) does not open the correct help page for the macro command under the cursor. Chris Scott created a corrected version of the macro, and it may be found in the MACRO62.KBD file available in this archive. Extract the file and place it in your WPDOS 6.2 Macros/Keyboards/Button Bar directory. This is for WPDOS 6.2 only.
After you create a text-format data file for a WPDOS 6.x merge, it seems almost impossible to change existing field names or add new field names. The Shift-F9/Field Names dialog box does not display existing field names (unlike the corresponding dialog box in WPWin), and if you display merge codes as icons, there seems to be no way to modify the list of field names you created when you created the data file.
The solution to this problem is simple. When you open an existing data file, use Shift-F9/Display of Merge Codes/Show Full Codes. Then edit the list of field names that becomes visible in the top line of the file. Then press Home-Home-Up to refresh the file, and your new field names will become active. If you do not press Home-Home-Up, the new field names will be ignored until you close and re-open the file.
If your WPDOS 6.x files include alphabets not supported by the WP character set (like Tibetan), you will probably not see the correct characters when you open those files in WordPerfect for Windows. A utility written by Soren Munk for the Tibetan Computer Company, and distributed by Tony Duff, can help ease the transition between editing such files in WPDOS and WPWin.
Download this self-extracting CONV2WIN.EXE archive; run the program to extract the files into any convenient directory. The included README.TXT file explains how to set up the utility. You will need to modify a configuration file to identity the corresponding characters in the fonts that you use under DOS and Windows. (All is explained in the file.)
WordPerfect does not provide a method for removing the password from more than one document at a time. If you have a group of WPDOS 5.x files that all use the same password, and you want to transfer the data to Word or other programs that do not understand WPDOS passwords, you can remove the password from multiple files by running a WP Shell macro written by Niek Campagne and included in this self-extracting archive. Download the archive; extract the files, and follow the instructions in the text file. You must already know the password that you want to remove; you must know how to use the WP Office Shell; and you must have a copy of Shell 4.0 (downloadable through links here).
The QuickFinder file indexer in WPDOS 6.x was written by Novell, not WordPerfect Corporation, and is less elegant and less bug-free than other parts of the program. If you encounter error messages such as "Not enough file handles" or "Insufficient memory", regenerate your QuickFinder indexes, by using the Indexer button in the QuickFinder menu, and the problem should be solved. You need not add file handles through any other means.
WordPerfect for DOS and WordPerfect for Windows have a built-in limitation that restricts page size dimensions to a maximum of 27.3 inches. If you wish to print a document (or create a PDF file) with a larger size, you can use WordPerfect for the Macintosh, which has a theoretical maximum of 455 inches. The prebuilt WPMac setup available on another page includes a "Plotter-size" printer that can create PDF files in any practical size.
Technical note on WPDOS and WPWin: As Roy Lewis explains, WP for DOS and Windows uses "WordPerfect Units" (1200 units per inch) for internal measurements, and has an internal limit of (2^16)/2-1 (32767) WP Units. This number is the maximum figure that can be represented by a signed binary 16-bit integer. (Adding 1 to this figure, binary 0111_1111_1111_1111, makes it a negative value: 1000_0000_0000_0000 - the leading 1 is a "sign bit".) This number equates to 27.306 inches.
Technical note on WPMac: As Kevin McCoy explains, WPMac uses the QuickDraw coordinate system (72 dpi), not the WP Windows system (1200 dpi). It is therefore theoretically possible to print to a paper nearly 38 feet across (32767/72 = 455 inches or 37' 11"), although a lower practical limit will be set by the printer and its driver. The WPMac file format indicates that most coordinates are represented by a signed 32-bit fixed point number, which is accurate to four decimal places (±32767.0000 72nds of an inch).