Questions And Answers - Outline, Merge, Macro

DocumentID: 613007
Revision Date: 29-Feb-96 1:35:36 PM

The information in this document applies to:
WordPerfect® 6.0 for DOS

Problem

Solutions: 1. WordPerfect 6.0 always runs in the Outline Creation mode. This allows the user to easily create numbered lists without having to worry about the placement of Outline On and Outline Off codes. Text not numbered using the Automatic Numbering feature is considered body text and can be hidden or redisplayed using Hide Body or Show Body, respectively. Ctrl+T can be used to easily convert body text into an outline item from the regular document screen. However, many of the Outline editing functions are conveniently accessed through the Outline Bar, which is usually used in conjunction with the Outline Edit mode (Ctrl+O is the hotkey). The Outline Bar can be made to display on the screen at all times; however, mnemonic access to the functions on the bar is not available unless Outline Edit mode is active (although the mouse will access the functions in either case. 2. When running in the Outline Edit mode, a highlight bar appears on a family or subfamily. Outline levels under the currently highlighted level can be hidden or shown using the + or - keys (or by clicking the mouse on the corresponding items on the Outline Bar), respectively. Items appearing with a - in front of them are fully expanded, while items preceded by a + indicate hidden (collapsed) sublevels exist, which can be expanded using the - key after highlighting the level. Highlighting an item preceded by a + and pressing the right arrow key will expand to show only one subsequent level down the chain. Several cursor key combinations can be used to manipulate outline families. For example, Ctrl+Up Arrow will move the currently highlighted family in front of the previous family of the same level. Outlines can be collapsed to display only a user-specified number of levels using the Show/Hide functions. 3. Numbers placed into outlines in WordPerfect 5.1 without using Outline Styles will convert correctly into WordPerfect 6.0. However, such outlines will not automatically place Outline Numbering when a customer presses Enter, as WP 5.1 did. The option to do this can be changed by marking the option for Numbers Only (no level styles) when editing the selected outline numbering style (which should appear as a bracketed number one). 4. Chaining multiple form files (primary files in WP 5.1) works differently in WP 6.0 than it did in WP 5.1. In the 5.1 versions, the chained form was accessed with the current data record as soon as the chain code was encountered. In contrast, WP 6.0 runs completely through all records of the specified data file (secondary file in WP 5.1), resets the pointer to the first record of the data file, and then merges the entire data file with the chained form file. 5. It is now possible to have the merge feature automatically merge an envelope for each data record being merged to any form file. This feature is accessed through the Data File Options button in the Merge dialog. Marking this option opens the envelope dialog so the user can set up the address options (return and mailing). It is still necessary to specify the desired field names/numbers in the mailing address box so the merge will know which fields are to be placed where. However, there are a couple of points of confusion for users when doing this. There is a button on the bottom of the dialog labeled Field Names. Currently, it is only active in the POSTNET entry box and NOT the mailing address box. This is scheduled to be addressed in the interim release after the 06/01/93 release. IMPORTANT: Before updating any customer, please check the Software Change notices to verify that the correction has been made. Another potential cause of frustration for users comes from the fact that once this information has been inserted into the merge, it is no longer possible to make editing changes to the information without recreating it from scratch. 6. The ability to selectively mark data records to be merged has been added to WP 6.0. Manual marking of the desired records may not be very feasible when working with large data files, but users can use the Define Conditions feature to select only records which match specified criteria to be merged, similar to Select under WP 5.1 Sort. The Conditions (rows) are independent of each other and are used to specify additional groupings to be included. The field criteria (columns) are used in conjunction with each other for the given condition set (row) and can be thought of as "selected records for this condition must meet this field criterion AND this one." Multiple entries within the same box indicate that records containing the specified field which matches any one of the entries in that box are to be included as well. 7. Merge codes can be set to display as actual merge codes, as a token character, or not at all. The default is to display Full Merge Codes (ENDFIELD, etc.). You can change this setting as a default by pressing Ctrl+F3, Shift+F1, 3, and selecting the display method you want. (Be sure not to confuse this with the option to display merge codes while running a merge - Ctrl+F9, 1, 5, which defaults to Hide Merge Codes.) Displaying codes as tokens or not at all has the advantage of maintaining the text format (word wrap, etc.) without having to account for the extra characters used on the screen to spell out the code names. Additionally, when codes are set to not display, they will also not print (although they will be still functional and will show in Reveal Codes. This makes it easier to print out a listing of the data file without having to strip out the merge codes. However, records will not be delimited by blank lines (in place of the page breaks), so the records will run together. 8. In WP 5.1, it was sometimes necessary to "comment out" document formatting codes placed into the form file for ease of reading/editing, but not wished to affect the merged document (such as [HRt] codes to begin another line of codes). WP 6.0 has a new merge code called Codes(...) which tells the merge to process only the actual merge codes which fall between the parentheses which follow the command (and ignore any formatting codes between these parentheses). Desired formatting codes within the commands designated with the Codes(...) command must be inserted using the Insert(...) command in order to be understood by the merge. If the Codes(...) command is not used, the codes work like they did in WP 5.1. 9. Merge files have access to the same system variables as macros. Additionally, macro commands can be directly placed into and executed by merge files using the new EMBEDMACRO(...) command. 10. WP 6.0 macros are no longer keystroke-oriented as they were in WP 5.1; they are end-result-oriented. This means that an end-result must be achieved within a dialog for that action to be recorded when recording macros. It is not enough to open a dialog and then press Ctrl+F10 to end the macro, since no action was completed within the dialog which could be recorded. However, it is still possible to have the macros interactively allow control within dialog boxes. This must be done at least partially by editing the macro document and inserting some specialized macro commands. The command DLGINPUT(On!) tells the macro to look for incoming commands while the dialog (or dialogs) which follow are still open (otherwise macro execution is paused until dialogs are closed. These incoming commands take the form of keystroke tokens, such as EnterKey or CancelKey, dialog selections (numeric or mnemonic), which are entered using the TYPE() command, or macro commands such as PAUSEKEY(EnterKey), which pauses macro execution until the specified key is pressed (the Enter key, in this case). DLGINPUT(On!) should precede the command to open the desired dialog. The following macro gives an example of how these commands work in conjunction with each other (it allows the user to select a font and a point size, then inserts the appropriate codes at the cursor position): DISPLAY(On!) // Allows display of macro execution DLGINPUT(On!) // Sets Dialog input on FontDlg // Opens the Font dialog TYPE("f") // Font select option PAUSEKEY(EnterKey) // Pause until EnterKey is pressed HardReturn // Selects the highlighted font BEEP // optional beep (for testing) TYPE("s") // Size select option PAUSEKEY(EnterKey) // ** Same as before ** HardReturn // Enters the input size BEEP // optional beep (for testing) HardReturn // Closes the Dialog box 11. Names of keystroke tokens can be found by creating a dummy keyboard in Keyboard Layout, creating a key mapping, and pressing the key whose token is desired to see what token is listed for that keystroke. 12. Commands to open dialogs can be inserted while recording macros by marking the check box which appears in the upper right corner of the dialog box when in Macro Record. 13. Macro documentation is currently available only through the Help dialogs. There is not currently a printed macros manual. The on-line Macro Commands Help is extensive and gives examples of how the commands are used as well as explaining the syntax for the commands. 14. Macro conversion from WP 5.1 to WP 6.0 is much better than going from Wp 5.1 to WPWin. The macro conversion program (MCV.EXE) reports (and marks with comments in the converted macro) any warnings or problems it encounters. Warnings include minor changes made to the macro to avoid other conflicts (such as changing the names of labels so they don't conflict with macro commands) and will generally not cause problems during the compilation or playing of the macro. Problems are areas of code which could not be properly converted (for whatever reason) and require manual editing before the macro will play properly. Conversion of WPWin macros to WP 6.0 (for DOS) is currently not supported. 15. Hypertext allows users to create and/or execute a link to designated bookmarks in the same or other documents (or substructures) or to execute a macro by clicking on the designated hypertext area. When the hypertext feature is active, it is not possible to select and edit graphics boxes in the document by double-clicking on them. Hypertext links set up in the document as button-type boxes will print as buttons. 16. The [Open Style: Initial Codes] code which appears in Reveal Codes in every document (even new, blank ones) cannot be deleted through Reveal Codes. It accesses the system style for the Document Initial Codes unless that style has been overridden within the current document by a document-specific style, where the bullet no longer marks the style in the Document Style list. (Document-specific modified styles can be reset to the original settings by choosing Delete in the Style Edit dialog box when the appropriate style is highlighted. This happens when changes are made to Initial Codes through Layout|Document|Document Initial Codes option.) 17. It is possible to link styles together in WP 6.0 so that turning off one style turns on another style of the same type (paragraph or character). Paragraph styles (including outline-level styles) are turned off by selecting the None style. Character styles are turned off by choosing the Off option. 18. To create an outline numbering system where levels increment independent of the previous level, a counter can be used to control the numbering in the outline level that is to remain independent. In that level style, a counter would be created in the Style On codes section, and incremented in the Style Off codes. That way, the numbering will not be reset back to the beginning in that level every time a new parent level is started. 19. Paragraph styles can be turned on for existing text by placing the cursor anywhere in the paragraph to be affected and turning the style on. Character styles (which were paired styles in WP 5.1) require any existing text to be blocked before turning the style on. Formatting codes placed between style on and off codes will override similar formatting codes from the style (subject to the rules of Auto Code Placement). 20. WP 6.0 now associates form and data files the first time specified so that subsequent merges of the form file will automatically prompt with the associated data file name as the suggested data file to be merged. Files can also be associated when creating the form file by selecting the Field command, pressing F5 to list field names, and providing the name of the data file to be associated. This allows the user to place field codes into the data file from this onscreen list. 21. Merge in WP 6.0 allows the user the option of automatically merging multiple occurrences of each data record. This provides an easy way to make a sheet of multiple copies of a single address, which can be typed as the form file (and doesn't require a data file) or read from a data file and merged into a form file. 22. Merge can now use a form file directly from the document screen (without having it saved to disk). When doing this, it is important that the merge destination be set to Unused document or a filename and NOT current document (otherwise the form file on screen may be lost). 23. When comparing Field designations with their contents (such as in an IF statement in merge form files), field contents are automatically assumed to be numbers until a nonnumeric character is encountered, which indicates a string variable. Because of this, it is not necessary to put quotation marks around the text being compared with the field content. 24. The sort feature in WP 6.0 is now capable of auto-detecting the type of sort to use when the sort feature is activated. This depends on where the cursor is when the sort is called. If the cursor is in a parallel column, column sort is selected; in a table, Table sort is selected; in a merge data file, merge sort is selected, etc. Additionally, there is an option to force a case sensitive sort (uppercase letters first). If the sort does not work as expected, the Undo feature (if it has not been disabled) will generally allow recovery of the unsorted file. This is not a substitute for the practice of saving the file before sorting, it simply provides another level of safety from accidental data loss. 25. It is not possible to sort outlines and have the sort keep the families together unless each level 1 family is separated by one blank line (two Hard Returns) and a paragraph sort used. This ability was listed as one of the 630+ enhancements incorporated into WP 6.0 from WP 5.1. 26. If a macro document is created by typing the commands at a blank screen and saving the file without specifying a pathname, it will be saved in the default (document) directory, even if the .WPM extension is specified. If the macro is created by pressing Ctrl+F10, naming the macro, selecting Edit sequence and saving it without specifying a pathname, it will be saved to the specified personal macros path (as established in Setup|Location of Files). Macros to be played look first to the default directory, then to the personal and shared macro directories (in that order, if specified) and finally to the WP program directory. 27. When a macro is compiled (either upon saving or playing it), the compiler checks the macro code for command syntax errors. If found, the user is prompted to either edit the problem (in which case the cursor is placed in the vicinity of and shortly after the error) or to save it anyway so that it can be edited later. When choosing to Edit the error, the cursor may actually be placed one or more lines below where the error actually needs to be corrected. Even if the macro compiles without any errors, it may not run correctly. The compiler does not check for logic errors (variables called before a value is assigned, incorrectly typed variable names, commands called out of the necessary order, etc.).

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