WordPerfect - Setting Default Tabs at 1/4 inch

Howto: Set WordPerfect's default tab stops to 1/4 of an inch; much tighter than the default 1/2 inch. 

Set a default tab (ruler-bar) for this and all new documents. By default, tab stops are every 1/2 inch -- which is too wide. Set the tab-settings every 1/4" inch. This also sets a handy Margin Release. This same screen can set a default font, widows and orphans, and other default settings.


This article is a subset of a longer Keyliner article: Using WordPerfect for School Papers.



Setting Tabs:
1.  From any (blank) document, choose top menu Format, Styles: Choose "DocumentStyle"

2.  Click Edit to open the "Style Editor"

Important:  Confirm "[x] Use as default" is checked in the lower-right corner

3.  Click the mouse in the "Contents" text-section

4.  Choose sub-menu, Format, Line, TabSet

5.  Confirm Tab Type = Left

6.  Change Tab Position to -0.5 (negative point 5)

7.  Click box [x] Repeat every .25 (point 25)

8.  Click "Set", then Close.
(Note in the Reveal Codes a new "TabSet".  There should only be one TabSet code; delete any duplicates or older codes you may find before making the new tab-setting.)

Also Recommended:

While in the same Contents Text box, you can also set these recommended settings:

• Default Font
• Default Font Size
• Widow and Orphan Protection (Keep Text Together)

End results look like this:

Click for larger view

Margin Release Example:

Notice how tab stops are set 1/2" to the left of the Left margin (-.5) -- this is called a "Margin Release." Often, in a paper, a Hanging Header is needed. With this setting, you can quickly type a bolded title that "sticks out past the margin" without having to fiddle with the ruler-bar or with margins.

Click illustration for a larger view; click right-x to return

To use the Margin Release:

• At the beginning of a paragraph, press Shift-Tab to hang the heading. Press shift-tab a second time to go one more stop to the left.

I had so much fun writing my programming books, I wrote a book about WordPerfect.
Search Amazon for "Adventures with WordPerfect". 

This book goes into much more detail about tabs, protecting text, and other topics of interest.


Related articles:
Using WordPerfect for School Papers
Protect Text Across Page Breaks
Hanging Indents past Left Margin
WordPerfect Sets Tabs in White Space

WordPerfect Inserts Tab on Mouse Click

Howto: Stop WordPerfect from inserting a tab when mouse-clicking in white areas of a paper.

By default, WordPerfect has the mouse set to "Active" in WhiteSpace.  If you click the mouse in any white-space, WP will insert tabs in order to get the editing cursor to the position clicked.

This is, of course, the dumbest and most irritating setting imaginable.

Here is how to fix it.  This works in all versions of WordPerfect for Windows and makes the word processor behave more naturally.  This article is a subset of a more involved Keyliner article, "Using WordPerfect for School Papers."

Make this one-time change to WordPerfect's preferences.

Set the Cursor "Active in text"

• In menu, Tools, Settings, Display
• Select the first tab, [Documents]
• Mark "Active in Text"
• Click OK and close the preference screens

 

Take a peek at the book I wrote.  All about WordPerfect and technical documents.  Search Amazon for "Adventures with WordPerfect"

Related articles:
Using WordPerfect for School Papers
Protect Text Across Page Breaks
Hanging Indents past Left Margin
Setting Default Tabs at 1/4 inch

WordPerfect Problem - Nothing is selected to be published - PDF

WordPerfect Problem - Printing a large document, "Publish to PDF" -- printing a range of pages, fails with error "Nothing is selected to be published"

Symptoms:

• Large, document with Master and Subdocuments (Chapters)
• Master Document is expanded; all sub-documents visible
• PDF Page Range is a range beyond page 1 -- such as pages 161-248

This appears to be a bug in WordPerfect Version's 8 - through at least version X8

Possible Solution:

Insert a dummy single-page document at the front of the range.  For example, I have been using

Page Range:  1,161-248

Where you will print Page 1, plus pages 161-248.  Note the comma and hyphen.  I noted that my first chapter, pages 1-160 did not exhibit this problem -- noting page 1.  I suspect you could pick another page, such as "2,".


Unclear why:

Suspect the front pages of the document are numbered with  page-numbers, such as i, ii, x, etc., then page-numbers start with Roman numbers 1,2,3...   However, this is just a conjecture.

It does not appear that my master document is corrupted.  I did note this problem started when I edited pages in the master document (but not pages in the sub-documents). 

I also have a vague idea:  If you are re-printing the same PDF document, try giving it a different name (e.g. TEST.PDF).  I had success with this, but found I liked the 1,xxx-xxx method better.  If the added page bothers you, use a PDF editor to remove it in post-processing.

An interesting article on scaling Vector icons for various-sized devices:
http://www.pushing-pixels.org/2011/11/04/about-those-vector-icons.html