From: fisher@sc2a.unige.ch
Subject: Re: Word Perfect PRS w/ line draw chars
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 13:41:29 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.132642.9440@decuac.dec.com>, curzon@trooa.enet.dec.com (Richard Curzon) writes:
> 
> Is there a way to print a WP doc to a file and still see the frames around
> tables, and other line draw characters?  I.E. something that could be
> loaded into file viewer -- no printer control characters etc. 

You will have a problem with that...

First, we must distinguish between "frames around tables" and "line draw
characters".  The "frames" - along with non-standard characters, graphics,
lines, and equations - are printed only on graphical devices.  On a daisy-
wheel printer, for instance, WP will leave the whitespace for any graphical
stuff (except equations, which can sometimes be approximated on non-graphical
devices).  The "line draw characters" are printed on any device that has
those characters defined.

Thus:

1) Using "Text In/Out" - "Dos Text"

The conversion to and from an ASCII text can easily be achieved through this
function key (or menu if you prefer).  The conversion is done according to
the current code page (the /CP switch), usually 437 in the US, which is also
the default value.  The conversion is much like the screen display, in that
it will approximate accented characters not present in the code page with
the corresponding non accented character...  On the other hand, all formatting
is lost, including columns, indents, tabs, tables, etc., and of course all
graphical stuff.  If you keep the "line breaks", every [Soft Return] code
will be replaced with a CR/LF pair, if you don't, every [Soft Return] will
revert to a space, relying on the recieving system to do its own line wrap.

2) Printing to file

You can run INSTALL again to add the printer driver called "DOS TEXT" or
something similar, for which you will have to specify that you want to
print to a file.  That way, you will be able "capture" the printed version
of your text, knowing that of course the "DOS text" cannot contain any
graphical stuff.  Normally, this driver will print on a "CP 437 dumb printer"
without any feature at all.  Again, the "line draw characters" should be
translated correctly.  Please note that a columnar display, for example,
will print out with the columns, and that it will be quite difficult to
retrieve the text for further edition.  If anything doesn't translate
correctly, it is not too difficult to edit the "DOS text printer driver"
using PTR to add anything special (including, for example, ANSI escape
sequences for bold, underline, etc...).  Note that the manual for PTR must
be purchased separately, but the on-line help (yes, F3 :) is quite sufficient
for a simple driver...

3) Adding lines for tables in a DOS text.

Once the text is "printed" as a DOS text, it is trivial to load that text
again to add the lines around any part of the text.  Let's say you have
printed a three columns table, that has been, of course, printed without
the lines, but with the proper spacing, etc., using space characters.
Be sure that you retrieve it with a non-proportional font as default font.
You can then use "Screen" - "Line Draw" to add any line-draw *characters*
(or any other character for that matter) around and inside of the table.
The resulting file should be saved to text with one of the two methods
above.


I have been using the methods above with success for even complicated
tasks.  This should be easier with a more ASCII oriented text processor,
but if you need to keep the "original" file in WP for real printing, this
works.

Good luck,

Markus Fischer    Dpt of Anthropology, Geneva CH    fisher@sc2a.unige.ch