Computer Tips for “Regular People” — How to Convert Word Documents to Word Perfect (and Vice Versa)

2008 August 18

tags: conversion, pc tips, PDF, Word, word processing, Wordperfect

by Urbain

A big problem with sharing electronic files is that the software programs are not always compatible. This article is written from the perspective of –

You own both Word and WordPerfect (or other incompatible word processing programs) and need to convert a document; or
You are sending a draft to someone who has a software program that is not compatible with yours.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll show you how you can open virtually any document.

The Problem with Opening Documents within a Word Processing Program

With newer software programs, you can simply click “file” and “open” and another type of document will open. For instance, if you are working with Word (where the file extension is .doc or .docx) and someone sends you a Word Perfect document (where the file extension is .wpd), you can open the .wpd document from Word and it should convert.

However, in many instances, simply opening a document within a software program will create errors in the translation. If you’re trying to use Word to open up a document created in an old version of WordPerfect, for instance, it is sometimes impossible to open the file.

There’s a failsafe solution. And it’s free. Simply copy and paste a text version of the document into your word processing program, using Microsoft’s notepad.

If you are trying to open up a WordPerfect document sent by someone who does not know how to convert the document to text, you might want to refer him or her to this site. Text will always convert to any word processing program.

The Free, Effective Solution

You do not have to buy a conversion program. The method below will work for any pc-based word processing programs that you are trying to convert your document for in the cleanest, most error-free way possible.

Step One - Open the Document You Want to Convert

It doesn’t matter whether it’s Word, WordPerfect, Open Office or some other application - simply open the document that you want to convert to another program.
Press the Control Key and A at the same time. This will highlight the entire document contents.
With your entire text highlighted, click your “Edit” button and select “Copy.”
Alternatively, you can right click anywhere on your document, click the “Select All” function, and click “Copy.”
Your text is now in the clip board.

Step Two - Copy the Clipboard Contents Into Notepad

Notepad will convert your text into a “text” format with the .txt extension. To open it:

Click the START button on the lower lefthand corner of your screen.
Select “PROGRAMS.”
From PROGRAMS, select “ACCESSORIES.”
From ACCESSORIES, select “NOTEPAD.”

Now that NOTEPAD is open, click the “EDIT” command that is on the top of your notepad screen and then click PASTE. The contents of your document are now in Notepad.

For SAFE MEASURE, click ‘FILE’ and then ‘SAVE AS’ and store your text document wherever you want to store it on your computer.

Step Three -Critical Cleanup Work in Notepad

Microsoft Word is notorious for creating odd symbols, particularly for the following:

- (dashes)
…
“”
‘

Even if the mistranslation in symbols is not apparent to you, it is critical that you take the following steps so that your conversion will look right. Here, I’ve copied and pasted a Word document into Notepad.

STEP ONE - Highlight the first “offending” symbol. In this case, we’re highlighting the “…”

STEP ONE - Highlight the symbol to be changed

STEP TWO - RIGHT CLICK what you highlighted and then click COPY.

STEP TWO - Copy what you just highlighted.

STEP THREE - Click EDIT and then REPLACE:

STEP 3 - Open the "Edit" function ...

STEP 3, CONT'D - ... and select the REPLACE function. A "Replace" pop-up window will appear, as shown in this image.

STEP FOUR - Paste what you just highlighted into the “Find What” space. In this case, we’re pasting in the “…” that was copied. To do that, just RIGHT CLICK in the “Find What” space and select PASTE.

STEP FOUR - Paste into the "find" box.

STEP FIVE - In the “Replace with” box, type in the three dots.

STEP FIVE - Type in the symbol in the "replace with" space.

STEP SIX - Click the REPLACE ALL button and all of the “…” errors will be fixed.

STEP SEVEN - REPEAT steps one through six all the way through your document. Remember, you need to copy the first instance of each of the following symbols, and then replace as shown above:

…
- (dashes, replace with two dash lines –)
‘
” (both the right and the left quote)

If you don’t copy the symbol and paste it into the FIND AND REPLACE function and think that it will be faster to simply type the symbol in the “Find” box, you won’t correct anything because “Find” will not locate the symbol. You absolutely must copy the FIRST instance of each symbol and find and replace it by typing in the symbol in the “Replace with” space as shown in this article.

STEP EIGHT - Now that the symbols have been replaced, make sure that all your paragraphs are spaced as you want them to be. Then, click FORMAT and make sure that WORD WRAP is NOT ticked.

STEP EIGHT - Click FORMAT and then make sure that the "Word Wrap" function is NOT ticked.

STEP EIGHT, CONTINUED - When the "Word Wrap" function is not ticked, your page should look something like this.

By doing this, you’ll see that each paragraph is just one or two lines now, that scroll all the way across the screen and beyond what you see in the screen. YOU WANT THIS. This is because the document will format with the right paragraphs when pasted into another program. Make sure that there is a blank line between each paragraph, as shown in the above example.

STEP NINE - Copy and paste into your other word processing program. In Notepad, simply click the CONTROL KEY and the A key at the same time, or click EDIT and SELECT ALL. Then right click and select COPY or click EDIT / COPY. Paste the document into your other program and you’re done! You’ll see that the paragraphs show up correctly and there are no weird symbols in the document. Format with the correct fonts and tabs as you wish.

OTHER TIPS FOR CONVERTING DOCUMENTS

If you’re working with someone else who has, for example, Wordperfect 6 or something, have them send you a text version instead of the .wpd version. Simply paste the text version into your more current word processing program. You might need to clean up the text document as shown in this article first, particularly if the other person does not know much about word processing.
You can paste text versions in your web authoring programs or blog posts to avoid having weird symbols show up.
If you need to convert your word document to a PDF document, read my article on free PDF conversions.
The above method will work for any type of word processing program on a PC. Text is universally read by Mac computers, as well.