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 Why
Doesn't Word Have Word Perfect's Reveal Codes Feature? For support from Microsoft with Microsoft Word, go to the Microsoft Word Support Site. Search the Forestry Knowledge Base for Microsoft Word. View the Microsoft Word Tips and the Microsoft Office Tips
(from "WordTips for 27 March 1999")Many people who use Word express frustration because they miss the "reveal codes" feature they were used to in WordPerfect. They do not understand why there is no comparable function in Word. The reason is because there is a core difference between how documents are formatted in Word and WordPerfect, and each takes a totally different approach to text in general. I won't try to convince anyone that one approach is better than the other; both have their pros and cons. Suffice it to say that they are just different than each other. WordPerfect essentially treats text and formatting the same. When you format some of your text, a "start code" is inserted at the beginning of the selection, and an "end code" is inserted at the end. These are actual codes, inserted in the actual text. These are the code markers that are visible when you display the reveal codes window. You can select and delete these codes, just as you would any other character. In fact, you can insert a "start code" in your text, and if you don't insert an "end code," (or if you delete the "end code" without deleting the "start code") the rest of the document is formatted according to the lone "start code." You can't do that in Word. This is because Word treats text and formatting completely independent of each other. The file format used in Word stores formatting information in a different portion of the file than the text to which that formatting is applied. Thus, the formatting is not within the "text stream," as it is in WordPerfect. Instead, Word tracks the paragraph and character formatting applied to every character in the document, without the need to worry about "start codes" or "end codes." In Word, basically "what you see is what you get." If something is formatted as bold text, it appears as bold text. It is essentially impossible to have stray or unused formatting codes in your text, as you can in WordPerfect. The reason is because there are no such codes. There are a couple Word "tricks" that will help you get close to the same results as with reveal codes. One is to display the complete formatting information that Word is applying to a character or paragraph. The other trick is to use the Format Painter. To display formatting information, follow these steps:
The Format Painter is probably even more useful. You don't even have to know exactly what the formatting is; you just copy it. If you want to copy a certain kind of formatting from one paragraph to another, one way to accomplish this task is by using the Format Painter. The Format Painter tool is on the Standard toolbar--it's the button that looks like a yellow paintbrush. To use the Format Painter, first click inside a paragraph whose style you want to copy, then double-click the Format Painter button. From there, click inside another paragraph to copy the formatting to it or click and drag to copy formatting to selected text. You can paint formatting onto several selections if you like. Press the [Esc] key or click the Format Painter button again to exit format painting mode. |
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