WD2000: Special Characters Lost When You Change Font in a WordPerfect Document (247899)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Word 2000

This article was previously published under Q247899

SYMPTOMS

When you open a WordPerfect 5.x or 6.x document in Microsoft Word, select text that includes WordPerfect font special characters, and change the font, the special characters may change to different characters.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Do the following to obtain the best possible results when you open WordPerfect documents in Microsoft Word:
  • Install the WordPerfect fonts on your system. For information about how to install the WordPerfect fonts, please contact WordPerfect.

    For information about how to contact Corel WordPerfect, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    65416 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, A-K

    60781 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, L-P

    60782 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, Q-Z

  • If your document was created in Corel WordPerfect 5.1 or 6.0 for Windows, open the document in Microsoft Word 97 for Windows.

    If your document was created in Corel WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 for DOS, open the document in Corel WordPerfect 5.1 or 6.0 for Windows, save it in the WordPerfect for Windows format, and then open it in Microsoft Word 97 for Windows.

Additional Notes

  • If the WordPerfect font typographical symbol does not exist on the system, the converter cannot make the symbol into something meaningful. The symbol will become a dash.
  • You can insert special characters in WordPerfect by pressing ALT+W and then picking a character number such as 4,4. Many of these WordPerfect special characters are only contained in the fonts shipped by WordPerfect. If your system does not contain these fonts, there is no way to create these characters.
  • The new converters convert special characters to hidden {symbol} fields that contain the font and glyph information for each character, for example,

    {symbol 55 \f "WP typographical symbols"}

    In this way, special characters are always retained, regardless of the font of the surrounding text. You will not see these symbol fields if you turn on field codes in Word. If you save the document in RTF format and then open the RTF file as a text file, you see the field codes.
For additional information about the limitations of converting WordPerfect documents, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

240854 WD2000: Limitations of Converting WordPerfect 5.x Documents

For more information about the limitations of converting WordPerfect documents, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type convert WordPerfect in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/12/2005
Keywords:kbbug kbfix KB247899