Table of Contents
| Ch. 1 | WordPerfect basics : out of the box and raring to go | 9 |
| Ch. 2 | Cruising your document | 23 |
| Ch. 3 | Discovering "perfect" text editing | 43 |
| Ch. 4 | Working with the spelling and grammar tools | 65 |
| Ch. 5 | On paper at last - printing stuff | 79 |
| Ch. 6 | Giving your documents character | 97 |
| Ch. 7 | Sensational sentences and pretty paragraphs | 111 |
| Ch. 8 | Perfect pages and dashing documents | 139 |
| Ch. 9 | Documents with style | 161 |
| Ch. 10 | Formatting beyond the text | 183 |
| Ch. 11 | Saying it with pictures | 211 |
| Ch. 12 | Working with templates and OfficeReady | 229 |
| Ch. 13 | Publishing for the Web | 255 |
| Ch. 14 | Using WordPerfect in a Microsoft Office World | 267 |
| Ch. 15 | Mail merge : printing to the masses | 273 |
| Ch. 16 | Managing your documents | 291 |
| Ch. 17 | Reveal codes : getting ultimate control over your document | 301 |
| Ch. 18 | Ten ways to tweak WordPerfect | 321 |
| Ch. 19 | Ten really good editing suggestions | 337 |
Read a Sample Chapter
WordPerfect 12 For Dummies
By Margaret Levine Young David C. Kay Richard Wagner John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-7645-7808-1
Chapter One
WordPerfect Basics: Out of the Box and Raring to Go In This Chapter
* Starting WordPerfect
* Looking at the WordPerfect window
* Typing your text
* Naming, editing, and printing files
* Leaving WordPerfect
* Switching to other Windows programs
* Getting help
When you're discovering something new, whether it's driving a car or using WordPerfect, the best advice has always been: Start with the basics and build from there. We show you how to perform the Big Five word-processing operations: get the program (WordPerfect) running, type some text, save the text in a file on disk, open the file again later, and print the file. By reading this chapter, you find out how to coax WordPerfect into performing these five operations. Then, in later chapters, we get into some refinements, such as editing the text after you type it (Chapters 3 and 4) and making it look spiffier (Chapters 6 through 9).
Starting WordPerfect
To begin using WordPerfect, you have to start the program. You don't need to step on the clutch, but you do need to follow these steps:
1. Choose Start[right arrow]All Programs (or Start[right arrow]Programs if you're using Windows ME).
A list of all the programs installed on your computer appears.
2. Choose WordPerfect Office 12.
Another list appears, showing all the programs that are part of WordPerfect Office 12.
3. Choose WordPerfect.
WordPerfect fires up, and the WordPerfect window appears. Or, if this is the first time you've run WordPerfect 12, a dialog box appears, asking you what mode you want to work in.
4. If you see a dialog box, asking what mode you want to work in, click the OK button to select WordPerfect mode.
WordPerfect 12 allows you to work in different modes. For now, just click OK to select WordPerfect mode. (See Chapter 18 for details on modes.) And if you'd prefer not to see this dialog box when you start WordPerfect, uncheck the Show at startup box.
A Perfectly Good Window
After WordPerfect is running, you see the WordPerfect window, as shown in Figure 1-1. The wide expanse of white screen is a digital version of that plain old piece of white paper you can hold in your hand.
The following list describes in more detail what you see in Figure 1-1:
Title bar: The title bar is at the top of the window, displaying the words WordPerfect 12 - [Document1 (unmodified)]. This line tells you the name of the document you're editing (more about documents later) and reminds you that you are, in fact, running WordPerfect. The (unmodified) part tells you that you haven't typed anything yet.
Minimize button: Click this button to minimize WordPerfect, making it disappear into a little box on your Windows taskbar. WordPerfect is still running when you minimize it. You can return the program to the way it was by clicking the WordPerfect 12 button on the taskbar.
Maximize/Restore button: The middle button lets you switch back and forth between having WordPerfect fill the whole screen (maximized) and filling just a part of it. Click it once to maximize the document. Click it again, and you restore WordPerfect to its original size. The button changes its name and appearance from Maximize to Restore.
Close button: To put things simply, this button makes WordPerfect go away. It exits, disappears, terminates, goes poof! This button is useful, but it's also kind of dangerous if you're in the middle of working on a document. Not to fear, however, because WordPerfect asks you to save changes before going bye-bye. For more information, see the section called "Leaving WordPerfect," later in this chapter.
Document window controls: You can use these three buttons to do the same thing as the WordPerfect window controls, only for your document. Minimize, maximize (or restore), or close a document. We talk all about editing many documents at the same time in Chapter 16.
Menu bar: The row of words just below the title bar is WordPerfect's main menu bar. We talk more about commands in Chapter 2.
WordPerfect 12 toolbar: Below the menu bar is a row of buttons that make up the WordPerfect 12 toolbar, which from here on we call, simply, "the toolbar." The buttons usually have little pictures on them. Later in this chapter, we show you how to use some of these buttons to save and print a document.
Property bar: The property bar has a bunch of controls that let you change how things look in your document. Whatever you're doing in WordPerfect, the property bar changes to let you control all the characteristics, or properties, of what you're working with. It's pretty neat, actually.
Application bar: The bottom line of the WordPerfect window shows you which documents you're working with in WordPerfect (we discuss using multiple documents more in Chapter 16) and status information about what's happening in WordPerfect right now. Several controls are also on the application bar, and we talk about them in Chapter 2.
Scroll bars: Along the right side of the window is a gray strip that helps you move around the document; you find out how to use it in Chapter 2. If your document is too wide to fit across the screen, WordPerfect displays a scroll bar along the bottom of the window, too, right above the application bar. Typing Something
As a word processor, WordPerfect is designed for assembling pieces of text into something meaningful. As a result, the task of typing all those letters, words, phrases, and sentences seems like a rather important part of using WordPerfect.
Whatever you type appears at the cursor's location. You can use the mouse or the keyboard to move that cursor (as Chapter 2 explains). By default, you're in insert mode, which means that whatever you type is inserted into the text. If your cursor is between two letters and you type a new letter, the new one is inserted between the two original letters.
To undo text you've just typed, click the Undo button on the toolbar. (The Undo button looks like a left arrow.) Or you can press Ctrl+Z, or click Edit on the menu bar and then click Undo. (See Chapter 2 for more details.) To fix an earlier mistake, first move the cursor to the text that you want to change. If you want to delete just a letter or two, you can move the cursor just after the letters and then press the Backspace key a couple of times to wipe them out. Or you can move the cursor right before the letters and press the Delete key. Same difference - the letters disappear. See Chapter 3 to find out how to delete larger amounts of text.
Wrapping Your Text for You
After you begin typing, you can go ahead and say what you have to say. But what happens when you get to the end of the line? Unlike a typewriter, WordPerfect doesn't go "Ding!" to tell you that you're about to type off the edge of the paper and get ink on the platen. Instead, WordPerfect (like all word processors) does something called word wrap. It figures out that you are almost at the right margin and moves down to the next line all by itself.
REMEMBER
Not pressing the Enter key at the end of each line is important. WordPerfect, like all word processors, assumes that when you press Enter, you're at the end of a paragraph. If you press Enter at the end of each line, you'll have a hard time making formatting changes to your document later on.
If you change the margins later or use a different font, WordPerfect adjusts the formatting so that your paragraphs fit within the new margins.
If you want to split one paragraph into two, simply position your cursor just before the letter where you want the new paragraph to begin and press Enter. Voilà! WordPerfect moves the rest of the line down to a new line and reformats the rest of the paragraph to fit.
Saving Documents
Every time you type in WordPerfect, whether it's a love letter to your secret admirer, a huffy memo to your boss, a to-do list for your spouse, or the next great American novel, you create a document. WordPerfect calls your unsaved documents Document1 (or Document2, Document3, and so on, depending on how many unsaved documents you have open).
Saving a document for the first time
You can save a document in at least three ways. We're sure that your insatiable curiosity will drive you to find out all three, but the following method is our favorite:
1. Click the Save button on the toolbar.
The toolbar is the row of little buttons just below the title bar. If you don't like clicking tiny buttons, choose File[right arrow]Save. Or, if you love pressing key combinations, press the Ctrl+S. The Save File dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-2. (Check out Chapter 2 to find out more than you ever wanted to know about working with dialog boxes.)
2. In the File Name box, type a name for the document.
When the Save File dialog box first appears, WordPerfect tries its best to supply a name for your document by putting the first line, sentence, or series of words into the File Name box, followed by a .wpd extension tacked on the end.
The text is highlighted so you can type a new name if you don't like the one WordPerfect gave you. Feel free to name your document (almost) anything you want. (You don't have to type the .wpd part, although you may if you really, really want to.)
REMEMBER
You can press the Esc key at any time to cancel saving the file.
3. If you want, choose a different folder or disk drive for your document file:
To save your document in some other folder in My Documents, double-click any folder shown in the dialog box.
To create a new folder, choose File[right arrow]New[right arrow]Folder; type a name for the new folder that appears, and then press the Enter key.
To save somewhere outside My Documents (or on another disk drive), click the down arrow next to My Documents. In the list that appears, click to choose any other folder or drive (such as A: for your floppy disk drive).
TIP
If you've used other Windows programs before, you might be surprised to see a menu bar in the Save File dialog box. Enjoy the added functionality - on the house!
4. Press the Enter key on your keyboard or click the Save button.
WordPerfect saves the document in the file that you chose. You can tell that this procedure worked because the document's title bar changes from Document1 to whatever you named your file.
Saving a file for the second time
If you make changes to a file after you've saved it, you need to save your changes. If you want to keep two versions of the document (the original and the revised version, for example), you can do that, too. What you can't do is have two documents with the same name in the same folder; WordPerfect overwrites the old version of the file with the new version - after warning you.
When you try to save a file for a second time but you don't change the name slightly, a Save As dialog box appears, telling you that the file already exists and asking whether you really want to replace it (irrevocably deleting the existing file in the process). You have two, count 'em, two options here:
Yes, to replace the existing file
No, to enter a different name for your new file From there, saving the file is the same as described in the preceding section, "Saving a document for the first time." Press the Esc key if you have second thoughts about saving the file. The dialog box disappears.
Chapter 16 describes useful things to know about files, including how to delete, move, and copy them.
Saving a document the third, fourth, and fifth times
When you want to save the contents of the document without renaming it, you can simply click the Save button. WordPerfect assumes you want the document saved with the same filename and folder as before.
TIP
WordPerfect automatically saves a backup of your document every ten minutes. See Chapter 19 for details on how you can change the setting to another interval.
Filename rules
Whether you were the teacher's pet or the rebel at the back of the class, you must follow certain rules for naming files in WordPerfect (and in other Windows programs for that matter). There's no way around them. Here they are:
Filenames can be as long as 255 characters. Try to rein it in, now!
Most filenames contain a period (.). What follows the period is called an extension, is usually three letters, and usually describes the type of the file. WordPerfect documents use the extensions .wpd (which stands for word-processing document), .frm (which stands, obscurely, for mail merge forms, covered in Chapter 15), and .dat (mail merge data files, also in Chapter 15).
You can omit the period and the extension if you want. (WordPerfect adds them by default.)
Although you can use any extension you want for your document, we strongly recommend sticking with the standard .wpd extension. Windows looks at the extension to determine what kind of file it is and allows you to perform certain actions based on the file type. If you don't use a standard extension, Windows won't know what to do with the document.
You can use letters, numbers, spaces, and almost all punctuation in the name and extension. However, certain characters are no-no's to use in the filename, including the following: \, /, :, *, ?, and <>|. If you try to use one of these characters, WordPerfect politely tells you about the problem and allows you to change the name.
You can use either capital or small letters; neither Windows nor WordPerfect much cares. In fact, the programs don't even distinguish between caps and lowercase letters (they're not case sensitive). PIQUED MEMO.WPD, piqued memo.wpd, and Piqued Memo.wpd all are the same filename, as far as Windows is concerned. (The .wpd extension may or may not show up, depending on your Windows settings.)
Continues...
Excerpted from WordPerfect 12 For Dummies by Margaret Levine Young David C. Kay Richard Wagner Excerpted by permission.
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