WordPerfect 8 as a Composer

 If you have formatted or just typed up a document that you would like to put up on the Web--a CV, a syllabus or class exercise, even a paper--you could cut and paste the document into Netscape Composer, but you would lose all your formatting (spacing, font variations, etc.).

Microsoft Word and WordPerfect 8 both allow you to convert your wordprocessed document into a web page, including tables, some of the formatting, fonts variations, etc. You can also do the opposite--turn a webpage into a document which can be edited to be printed in pages. I will discuss WP 8 here, since that's the program provided by CLAS for the Little Hall lab and other users, and the one with which I am familiar.

What formatting will you lose? Anything except a table which is designed to arrange the text in specific HORIZONTAL relationships: tabs, flush-rights, etc. The text will all appear flush-left after the conversion, with no tabs. This is because Webpages are not meant to be formatted horizontally, except via tables or lists. Once you get used to designing documents for both print and Web formats, you may invent a flexible format that requires minimum adjustment in the conversion process.

To convert a wordprocessed document to a webpage, first call it up in WP 8. WP 8 will read a number of types of documents; you may need to have saved the document in ASCII to have it read by WP 8, however. You might want to run a spellcheck (we now have Spanish & French spellchecking on WP 8) to be sure no accents got lost, etc. Save the document as a .wpd file before proceding. This will preserve your original file from the changes that happen when you convert it to HTML.

Now use the "View-Webpage" menu function of your WP 8 window. Your document will be reformatted in HTML, and what you see will be similar to what you would see in a browser. In fact, your document has been turned into a webpage, and the WP 8 window has become a web composer. It should now be saved as an .htm document.

You can still spellcheck, insert symbols ( ¿ ¡ ), type, cut and paste, etc.

You can also change the colors (under Format), insert an image (Insert--Graphics), and so on. You can also create a link (one of the little web icons in the top row).

One thing you can do in WP that you can't in Netscape Composer is set text in columns. Creating a table is also very easy.

When you save your work in WP, you need to specify every time that you want it saved in HTML format. Be sure the filename has an .htm extender on it.

You can open the file in a browser and continue to edit, save, and reload to view it, just as you would in Netscape Composer. Or you can exit WP, and open the file in Netscape Composer to work on it some more.