ndg503@csc.anu.oz (09/10/90)
Gday, One of the guys here has a problem with trying to change something in his Microsoft Word documents. The system configuration is IIcx, 6.0.4 with Word 4.00A. At present he has an old thesis which has been converted from a PC disk. Unfortunately, there are a number of these special characters (mainly control characters and the like) that appear instead of characters in special fonts, like alphas and betas, etc. He would like to change these special characters whilst using something like Change (under the Utilities menu), but when he copies in from the Clipboard the character alpha it appears as the letter "a". So he can't do the change. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance. #include [someone.elses.disclaimer] Nick Guoth RSC ANU Australia nickg@rsc0.anu.edu.au or ndg503@csc.anu.edu.au
aland@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Alan D Danziger) (09/10/90)
In article <1990Sep10.162820.2790@csc.anu.oz> ndg503@csc.anu.oz writes:
One of the guys here has a problem with trying to change
something in his Microsoft Word documents. The system configuration
is IIcx, 6.0.4 with Word 4.00A.
He would like to change these special characters whilst
using something like Change (under the Utilities menu), but when
he copies in from the Clipboard the character alpha it appears as
the letter "a". So he can't do the change. Can anyone help?
Nick-
The reason that the alpha shows up as the letter a is that
Word uses the Chicago font in the dialog boxes. It SHOULD still work
the way he wants... But I wouldn't take it for granted... Try it
out.
--
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=xdab@ellis.uchicago.edu (David Baird) (09/10/90)
In article <1990Sep10.162820.2790@csc.anu.oz> ndg503@csc.anu.oz writes: > One of the guys here has a problem with trying to change >something in his Microsoft Word documents. The system configuration >is IIcx, 6.0.4 with Word 4.00A. > At present he has an old thesis which has been converted >from a PC disk. Unfortunately, there are a number of these special >characters (mainly control characters and the like) that appear >instead of characters in special fonts, like alphas and betas, etc. > He would like to change these special characters whilst >using something like Change (under the Utilities menu), but when >he copies in from the Clipboard the character alpha it appears as >the letter "a". So he can't do the change. Can anyone help? > >Nick Guoth >RSC ANU Australia >nickg@rsc0.anu.edu.au > or >ndg503@csc.anu.edu.au If your friend is just trying to remove control characters, he should first determine the ASCII number of the character by selecting one, and then pushing option-command-q. This will report the number in the lower left hand corner of the Word Window. Then go to the change command and in the "find" area put ^# where # is the number reported by the previous command. This will tell word to find the next occurrance of that character and then do the action you tell the change window to do. You can read about the change commands and options on pages 16-18, 56, and 57-61. A better way to handle these control characters is to run the DOS file through Apple File Exchange where they can be removed and the file output as a Word file. Good Luck, -- X-----------------------------------------------------------------------------X X David Baird xdab@midway.uchicago.edu X X University Computing Organizations d-baird@uchicago.edu X X University of Chicago (312) 702-7161 X
a544@mindlink.UUCP (Rick McCormack) (09/14/90)
In article, David Palmer palmer@gap.cco.caltech.edu ...rutgers!cit-vax!gap.cco.caltech.edu!palmer writes: Don't you lazy people ever read the 454 page manual before you start running a program? These are COMPUTERS for Pete's sake! You wouldn't do brain surgery without checking a few medical texts out of the library first, you don't start lion taming before reading a book about it, you don't learn to put out oil well fires by trial and error. Why do people think they can use a word processor without years of training? Dave, where can I get those books on brain surgery, and can I make an appointment for you? ;-}
dana@are.berkeley.edu (Dana E. Keil) (09/15/90)
> He would like to change these special characters whilst > using something like Change (under the Utilities menu), but when > he copies in from the Clipboard the character alpha it appears as > the letter "a". So he can't do the change. Can anyone help? > It can be accomplished by first copying the change to the clipboard and then in the change dialog box use the notation "^c" (that's a caret found at shift-6 on the keyboard). This will use the contents of the clipboard to make the change (complete with font and formatting details which would be lost if you were to simply paste into the change box.
palmer@arrester.caltech.edu (David Palmer) (09/15/90)
In article <1990Sep10.162820.2790@csc.anu.oz> ndg503@csc.anu.oz writes: > One of the guys here has a problem with trying to change > something in his Microsoft Word documents. The system configuration > is IIcx, 6.0.4 with Word 4.00A. > He would like to change these special characters whilst > using something like Change (under the Utilities menu), but when > he copies in from the Clipboard the character alpha it appears as > the letter "a". So he can't do the change. Can anyone help? Instead of pasting the clipboard into the change box (which just puts the characters, without styles, into the box) type ^c, (c for clipboard.) That gives you the equivalent of selecting what you're looking for, and then pasting. Don't you lazy people ever read the 454 page manual before you start running a program? These are COMPUTERS for Pete's sake! You wouldn't do brain surgery without checking a few medical texts out of the library first, you don't start lion taming before reading a book about it, you don't learn to put out oil well fires by trial and error. Why do people think they can use a word processor without years of training? -- David Palmer palmer@gap.cco.caltech.edu ...rutgers!cit-vax!gap.cco.caltech.edu!palmer I have the power to cloud men's minds -- or at least my own.
baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) (09/15/90)
In article <palmer.653373310@arrester>, palmer@arrester (David Palmer) writes: >Instead of pasting the clipboard into the change box (which just >puts the characters, without styles, into the box) type ^c, (c >for clipboard.) That gives you the equivalent of selecting what you're >looking for, and then pasting. > >Don't you lazy people ever read the 454 page >manual before you start running a program? These are COMPUTERS >for Pete's sake! You wouldn't do brain surgery without checking >a few medical texts out of the library first, you don't start >lion taming before reading a book about it, you don't learn to put >out oil well fires by trial and error. Why do people think they can >use a word processor without years of training? Boy, I sure hope the above was meant with lots of smileys... This is comp.sys.mac, you know. I thought the whole point of the Mac was to save the world from this kind of nonsense. It's bad enough there are actually 454 pages *in* the manual ... you really want people to read all those pages, too? Once again, we're given a demonstration of why Microsoft is one of the worst things ever to have happened to the Macintosh. Of course people should just be able to paste into the "Find" dialog box. Why on earth should they have to use cryptic codes like "^c", which is absolutely meaningless (and heaven forbid they should actually want to search for the string "^c")? Nisus lets you paste the clipboard into the "Find/Replace" dialog. It's a natural and intuitive action that doesn't require that anyone spend hours searching through thick tomes of documentation. Please remember, folks: Word is Word. Word is not the Mac. -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." baumgart@esquire.dpw.com | cmcl2!esquire!baumgart | - David Letterman
Paul.Allen@f31.n343.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Paul Allen) (09/18/90)
Ihave had some luck removing unwanted characters from translated documents in Word 4.0 by selecting the character (such as a line feed) then copying it, then paste it to the change character Command H and changing it to a space (just hit the space bar.) ^w= white space, ^s=space, ^p=paragraph (cr) and ?=wild card. These work sometimes and are buried some place in Word 4.0 documentation. Good luck. -- Paul Allen via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!343!31!Paul.Allen INET: Paul.Allen@f31.n343.z1.FIDONET.ORG