This is an excerpt from WORD PROCESSING SECRETS FOR WRITERS, by 
Michael A. Banks & Ansen Dibell, published by Writer's Digest 
Books.  The book is jam-packed with tips like these, and is 
available at your local bookstore, or you can phone 800-543-4644 
(800-551-0884 in Ohio) to order direct from the publisher.

Copyright 1989, 1991, Michael A. Banks & Ansen Dibell

              Word Processing File-Conversion Tips 

                    Quick Conversion to ASCII 
     Most of the more popular word processors do not store files 
in mutually compatible formats.  They use 8-bit characters to 
represent characters, and for formatting codes.  Conversion to 7-
bit ASCII format is a convenient "bridge" between incompatible 
word processors (as well as for modem transmission), so most 
popular programs (WordPerfect, WordStar 5, etc.) offer a "print-
to-disk" option or a file conversion program that produces 7-bit 
ASCII files. 
     But what if you all you need to convert is a small file, or 
a small portion of a file?  It takes almost as long to convert or 
print small files to disk as it does large files. 
     A shortcut is to use Sidekick or a similar TSR notepad that 
saves files in 7-bit ASCII format.  Even though a word 
processor's files may be stored using 8-bit characters, it still 
displays them as 7-bit characters.  Use Sidekick's "import data" 
function, to capture marked text from the word processor's screen 
and store it as a 7-bit Sidekick file.  If the file or portion of 
a file you want to "convert" in this manner is more than one 
screen, simply capture the first screen, move to the end of the 
Sidekick file, display the next word processor screen page, and 
import that.  Repeat until you have everything you need, then 
save it to disk.  (If the option is available, be sure your word 
processor's display of formatting codes is turned off.) 

     Getting Rid of that "Extra Page" in Print-to-Disk Files 
     Some word processors' "print-to-disk" options will print a 
full page at the end of a document, even though that final page 
may have only one line.  This results in a lot of blank lines 
being added to the end of the document--lines that waste disk 
space and have to be deleted by whoever uses the ASCII file 
created via "print-to-disk." 
     To eliminate these extra lines, make sure that the last line 
in the document ends at or within a few lines of the final page.  
To do this, either delete blank lines within the document, or 
widen the margins as necessary to "push" the text to the end of 
that final page. 

           Including Print Formatting in an ASCII File 
     Unless you have a conversion program that converts from one 
program's format to another, _and_ converts print and page 
formatting, the best way to "share" files with someone who uses a 
different word processing program is to convert the files to 7-
bit ASCII before passing them along.  This is because almost all 
word processors can read 7-bit ASCII files. 
     However, when you convert most word processors' files to 7-
bit ASCII text, all print formatting (boldfacing, underlining, 
etc.) is lost.  When this is case, the formatting has to be 
replaced manually. 
     You can eliminate much of the work by replacing all 
instances of formatting command characters with "format tokens."  
For instance, if you're using WordStar 5 and want to prepare a 
file to be used with XyWrite III+, you might replace all the 
commands for boldface with an asterisk (*) or another token, 
perhaps //.  Then, print the file to disk or other wise convert 
it to ASCII.  When the file is opened with XyWrite, replace all 
instances of the boldface token with with XyWrite's boldface 
command. 

                 Preparing a File for Conversion 
     If you're not using a conversion program that converts 
directly between two word processors, you'll have to convert the 
file to be shared to a 7-bit ASCII text file before the 
"destination" word processor can read it.  If you want to retain 
the page layout (tabs, margins, etc.), follow these guidelines: 
     * Since you may be doing things like inserting print format 
       tokens and replacing tabs with spaces (see below), make a 
       copy of the file to be converted, and do the conversion 
       from that. 
     * If your word processor uses a true tab (Ctrl-I) rather 
       than spaces for paragraph indents, convert all tabs to 
       spaces.  (If you don't all tabs will be lost.) 
     * If your word processor uses a "dot" or 8-bit command to 
       center text (rather than inserting spaces), replace the 
       format command with a format token (like @C ) before 
       conversion, then do a search for the token with the 
       destination word processor to find where to center text. 
     * If the source file is double-spaced, convert it to single-
       spacing before converting it.  Depending on the word 
       processors in use, if you do not do this you may have to 
       remove a lot of carriage returns manually. 

                 Hard or Soft Carriage Returns? 
     When converting a file from a word processor's native format 
to ASCII, check the source and destination word processors' files 
to see if they place "soft" carriage returns at the end of each 
line, or only between paragraphs and when you insert a carriage 
return by pressing Enter. 
     Check this by viewing files DOS's TYPE command.  If words 
and lines are and nicely wrapped as they appear when viewed with 
the word processor, then the file doesn't have soft carriage 
returns.  If the lines are displayed so that each one is broken 
whenever the 80-column limit of your display is reached, even in 
the middle of a word, then the soft returns are inserted. 
     The presence of soft carriage returns is important if you 
are converting a file from a word processor (like WordStar) that 
places carriage returns at the end of each line to one that 
places carriage returns only at the ends of paragraphs (like 
XyWrite).
                                #
     If you found this excerpt useful, you may want to pick up a 
copy of WORD PROCESSING SECRETS FOR WRITERS.  If you want the 
lowdown on getting more out of your word processor, read the only 
book on word processing written by writers, for writers: WORD 
PROCESSING SECRETS FOR WRITERS, available at your local B. 
Dalton's, Waldenbooks, or other bookstore, either in stock or by 
order.  Or, phone 800-543-4644 (800-551-0884 in Ohio) to order 
direct.
                                #
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