Wordperfect 5

tomb50

Back in the days before Windows, when even a numpty like me could sit down at a computer and do a days work, the program we used for putting documents & letters together was
Wordperfect, (5 & then 6). One of the functions available in WP5 was the ability to split the screen Horizontally, (From memory think it was the ALT-f3 combination), top half of screen was the WORKING SCREEN, bottom half replicated the top half but also included all the formatting codes in their positions, so any stray formatting codes could be seen at a glance and corrected.

Does anyone know of a simple, freeware/shareware text processor which provides the same function.

Tried Googling and apparently MS Office codes can be displayed but it was way to technical for my brain.

Nowadays I find that even putting together a simple letter takes me days, mostly sorting out the formatting. With WP5 it would have been a 10 minute job.

Don't think there is, but hoping for the best.

Thanks in advance for any help.

bod1467

Does this help?

http://libroediting.com/2013/08/07/split-screen-view-word/

tyllwyd

I remember being able to see the formatting codes in WordPerfect, but a long time ago.


Since you have mentioned Microsoft Office, I'm guessing you are using Word - which version? Writing a simple letter shouldn't take days of formatting - I think you need to find out how to use Word and how to set up some simple templates and styles to save yourself some time. If nothing else, you could take a copy of a letter that you've already written and formatted the way you want it, and change the information in it and save it under a new name.

tomb50

bod 1647. thanks for the link, I'll check that out.

tyllwyd, at my age I go back a long way!

It's a physical problem rather than programs. I seem to have a sort of RSI thing when I start typing, I have to keep coming away from keyboard, so the quicker I can type something the better.

I stick to Wordpad for what I need, though I'm having a go at Jarte again, and got Office 2003 on old laptop.

Again, many thanks both.

tyllwyd

I'm sorry to hear that you have difficulties typing, but I'm still not sure why typing something in Word would take longer than using WordPad, and why displaying formatting codes would be helpful? I do think that if you could get a simple template set up in Word, you could do what you want quite efficiently.

Jivesinger

If memory serves, I think the feature in WP5.1 was called 'Reveal Codes' (it wasn't a normal split screen).

I believe the nearest equivalent in Word is the keystroke combination Shift-F1 which shows some of the formatting applied to the text under the cursor. (Although it's still not as good as Reveal Codes!)

50Twuncle

I too, used to use WP (on Win 3.1) - it had other useful features way ahead of MS - such as "MAKE IT FIT" where you could hit ctrl F (I think !!) and squeeze multiple pages, inc graphics, on to a single page of A4 !!

PasturesNew

50Twuncle wrote: »

I too, used to use WP (on Win 3.1) - it had other useful features way ahead of MS - such as "MAKE IT FIT" where you could hit ctrl F (I think !!) and squeeze multiple pages, inc graphics, on to a single page of A4 !!

Word has that. If you get the print preview showing you can choose to fit your document onto as many, or few, pages as you want, including fitting it to 1 page.

50Twuncle

PasturesNew wrote: »

Word has that. If you get the print preview showing you can choose to fit your document onto as many, or few, pages as you want, including fitting it to 1 page.

Wow - only almost 20 years late (WP had this in 1995)

ThemeOne

Word has nothing comparable to the Reveal Codes view unfortunately.

You can, however, still get WordPerfect and it still has Reveal Codes. If you dig around online I suspect you'll be able to purchase a copy at a reasonable price.

Anyone who remembers WordPerfect in its heyday will always maintain it was the better word processor. I think Word only became the product of choice due to better marketing.

bod1467

I remember using WP back in the day - early 90s on Windows 3.1 machines then later on Windows 95 machines.

I agree with TO above ... MS had better marketing (and a suite of other products like Excel etc.) which is why Word (Office) is the de-facto standard now.