Wordperfect for Absolute Beginners – Dear Reader, before you close this page and decide not to learn WordPerfect, relax! The list of new commands is long, but these commands are the most common ones. You’ll use them every day. Soon they’ll all be second nature to you. If it’s any consolation, most of the other blogs don’t introduce so many commands at once! Here’s another reassuring point: The first part of this blogpost presents a quick tour of the basic WordPerfect features. You’ll be “up and running” with WordPerfect in no time.
Experienced computer or WordPerfect users: Take the time to do the examples. They illustrate many of Wordperfect 5.0’s features and provide a good review. What’s more, you’ll be working with them again in later posts. If you don’t have the time, skim through the introduction and find the “new” icons to familiarize yourself with WordPerfect 5.0’s new features.
| F1 | Cancel a command |
| F3 | Help |
| F7 | (1) Exit WordPerfect, (2) clear the screen, with or without saving the current document |
| F10 | Save Save the current document |
Contents
Typewriter Keyboard and Numeric Keypad Commands
| BACKSPACE | Delete the previous character |
| CTRL-BACKSPACE | Delete the word at the cursor |
| CTRL-LEFT ARROW | Cursor to the beginning of the previous word |
| CTRL-RIGHT ARROW | Cursor to the beginning of the next word |
| END | Cursor to the end of the line |
| HOME,DOWN ARROW | Cursor to the bottom of the current screen or down one screenful (“screen down”) |
DO WARM-UP
Did you overlook the commands above? If so, read them now and perform a warm-up before you continue.
What You See on the Screen … Not Much!
Don’t be upset by the almost blank screen, shown in Figure 1-1, that first confronts you. WordPerfect is programmed to stay out of your way as much as possible so that you aren’t distracted from your work. The folks at WordPerfect Corporation call this the clean screen approach. Help is always just a keystroke away, but for the most part the screen displays only the text you type.
The status line tells you several things: (1) which document you’re working on: you can have two documents in use at one time pg 1 and Doc 2 ; (2) the document’s file name; (3) the current page number of the document displayed as pg 1; (4) the current line where the cursor is located relative to the top edge of the paper (Pos 1) . See also cursor column position relative to the left edge of the paper-Pos 1. See also Units of Mea. Because you haven’t type anything see the cursor at the beginning of a blank document and no file file name appear on the left side of the status line.
These Pos line indicate changes depending on certain conditions. For instance, if you press CAPS LOCK Key, pos changes to POS. If you press the NUM LOCK key, pos flashes as long as the NUM LOCK key is on. Make sure both keys are off now. Later you’ll learn that the status line changes depending on other editing factors.
The Default Settings
Word Perfect “assumes” that you want l-inch blank margins on the left and right edges of the paper. This aspect of the page’s white space is one of the program’s formatting defaults. A format governs how the document will print. WordPerfect shows most, but not all, formats on the screen.
In due time you’ll learn how to change the margins and all other format settings within a document. If the default settings aren’t to your liking, you can change them to new defaults, too (Appendix A). That way, whenever you start a new document, WordPerfect will use your default settings.
Caution: So that all the examples in this blogpost work correctly, please do not change the default settings until you’re finished studying the steps. Thanks! There are other preset formatting defaults that you should know about, but you don’t have to worry about them until future posts:
- The length of a horizontal text line is 6½ inches for a standard form of 8/ by 11 inches. That’s because WordPerfect uses a 1-inch white space for the left and right sides of the page, so 8½ – 2 = 6%.
- The number of characters that print per horizontal inch depends on your printer, but the printed line length is still 6½ inches. That’s because WordPerfect formats your documents depending on the printer and typestyle you’re currently using.
- When you print the document, there will be a 1-inch top and bottom margin. You don’t see these margins on the screen.
- Tab stops occur every 0.5 (half) inch, starting at position 0.0 and extending to position 8.5.
- The document is single spaced.
- Word Perfect does not print page numbers by default.
- Documents normally have justified (even) right margins. When it prints the document, WordPerfect adds the necessary spaces between words so that each line is the same length. You won’t see the justified right margin until you print the document or view the printed document on the screen .
- WordPerfect automatically rewrites the screen when you make changes to your text or to the format settings.
Note : Some people feel more comfortable when they can see the left and right margin and tab settings as they work. When you learn how to change these settings, you’ll discover how to display them on the screen.
Units of Measure
Traditional word processing programs, including WordPerfect 4.2, worked with the old typewriter standard of pica-style type. That is, there were ten characters printed per horizontal inch and six printed lines per vertical inch. All that has changed in WordPerfect 5.0.
WordPerfect now uses inches as the standard unit of measure for format settings like margins and tabs. Notice that the status line shows the cursor position in inches from the top and left edges of the page. There are other ways to determine measurement: in WordPerfect 4.2 units, centimeters, or points. The term points comes from the typesetting world . If you would like to revert to the older method of measurement, you can (Appendix A). For the time being, however, don’t fret! Until you become more comfortable with WordPerfect, just think inches.
Insert Mode and Typeover Mode
Normally, WordPerfect operates in insert mode: Everything you type is inserted into the document at the cursor position. If the cursor is under existing text, the new text pushes the cursor and existing text forward on the line. When you move the cursor or reach the right margin, WordPerfect automatically adjusts the lines to fit within the margins. The opposite of insert mode is typeover mode: Anything you type replaces the text at the cursor position. To switch to typeover mode, press the INS key. You’ll see this message on the status line:
The message is visible as long as you use this mode. Although at time, it’s beneficial to be in typeover mode, you can is overwrite text by mistake. What’s more, on the PC keyboard, the INS key is easy to press when you don’t mean to. Always use insert mode when you work wist the examples in this book, except in the rare instances when the instructions tell you to switch to typeover mode. To return to insert mode if you are not using it now, press the INS key again. The Typeover message disappears from the status line.
Canceling a Command or Menu
Suppose your fingers do some walking over the keyboard while you’re not looking and you press a key that starts a command or brings up a menu. You can cancel any command: just press F1 Cancel.
Tips: The ESC key lets you escape out of most commands. Sometimes a menu choice takes you to another menu. You can press Fl Cancel, ESC, or one of the four ARROW keys to cancel a menu or return to the previous menu.
No Document Yet
When you begin working with WordPerfect, you either type new text, or you retrieve, that is, open, an existing document to make editing changes to it. Because you haven’t created any documents yet, that will be one of the first goals of this post. Many users, experienced and inexperienced alike, are befuddled by WordPerfect’s simplicity. Do you have to open a new file before you begin typing? No! Just start typing on the blank screen. Soon you’ll see how to save your typing.
Entering Text and Correcting Mistakes
So much for the preliminaries. It’s finally time to do some real work. You’ll type a standard paragraph.
Press TAB
You would normally start a paragraph with a tab, wouldn’t you? There’s no difference on a word processor.
Туре The biggess
Oops! Your first mistake. No problem!
Press BACKSPACE
The BACKSPACE key lets you correct typing mistakes as you go along. It rubs out the previous character and moves the cursor back, as if it contained a built-in eraser. If you hold it down, it will continue to delete backward. (An aside: In typeover mode, the BACKSPACE key replaces the character to the left with a space. In typeover mode, the TAB key just moves the cursor line.) along the line but doesn’t insert a tab unless the cursor is at the end of the line.
Go slowly through these examples and try to catch your typing mistakes as you proceed. Then what appears on your screen will be the same as the examples. However, if you don’t catch all your typos, don’t worry. You can correct them later. Type as you would normally: one space between words, two spaces at the end of a sentence. After you’ve typed the rest of the first line, the cursor should be two spaces after the period at the end of the sentence:
The biggest news for this month is the company picnic.
You are almost at the end of the line. Will a bell sound, as on your typewriter? No, WordPerfect automatically forms the lines as you type by wrapping the last word that doesn’t fit on the current line down to the next line. This is called wordwrap. Thus, you don’t have to press the RETURN key, sometimes called entering a carriage return, at the end of each line. In fact, it’s very important that you don’t press the RETURN key until the instructions tell you to. Here is one important new word processing habit to learn. As soon as you see how much time and work it will save you, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.
If you are too much a creature of habit and you press the RETURN key at the end of a line, do this. Merely press the BACKSPACE key to rub out the carriage return and move the cursor back to the previous line. Then continue typing.
It’s time to type the rest of the paragraph. Make sure that you have one, and only one, space between words and two spaces at the end of each sentence. Watch the screen. Later, when you are a whiz kid, you won’t have to watch the screen very much. Here is the result of your efforts:
The biggest news for this month is the company picnic. That’s right! Consolidated Toupee is giving us a real, honest-to-goodness picnic. After all, don’t we deserve it? So come one, come all to Founder’s Park on August 21st and join in the fun. Bring the kids, bring your friends, bring food and drink.
Note: I used the standard printer when I was creating most of the snapped examples in this blogpost. The line endings may be different on your screen. That depends on the printer you’re using. The keystroke instructions will work correctly no matter what printer you have, but you may want to select the standard printer while you’re using the instruction given in this well packed blogpost.